The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) is an administrative policy-making body for elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was created in the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention, called by then Governor Edwin W. Edwards, and codified as Article VIII of the resulting document, the 1974 Louisiana Constitution.

Purpose

BESE provides leadership in setting the education agenda for public education with an emphasis on student and school achievement. BESE also pushes for greater funding of public education.

Membership

The BESE consists of eleven total members: eight elected members from the eight BESE districts [based on the former eight congressional districts, since reduced to six] along with three members-at-large appointed by the governor. The elected members serve four-year terms, concurrent with the governor. In 2007, the board appointed Paul Pastorek, a former BESE member, as the Louisiana state education superintendent upon the death of Cecil J. Picard. Pastorek resigned as superintendent in 2011. In 2012, eight of the eleven members were required to confirm Governor Bobby Jindal's appointment of John C. White as superintendent. White is an advocate of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which encompasses educational vouchers, charter schools and in-depth teacher evaluations.

Duties

The powers and duties of the State Board can be broadly grouped into six main categories, which include:

Other activities

The Board has other more specifically defined duties assigned to it by law. These include: On March 8, 2017, BESE adopted new science standards for elementary and secondary schools, the first updating in twenty years. The standards encompass the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008, which protects academic freedom for teachers and students considering scientific subject matter, such as the age of the Earth, human cloning, and global climate change. Louisiana State Representative Beryl Amedee, a Republican from Gray in Terrebonne Parish, had taken the lead in petitioning BESE to include the science education act in the formulation of the new standards.

Current membership

Five of the following members currently represent the 8 BESE Districts in Louisiana: The following members were appointed (or re-appointed) in January 2020 by Governor John Bel Edwards: Most of the members were elected with "heavy investment and support" by the interest group, the Louisiana Federation for Children. A nine-member board majority has supported school vouchers and charter schools.