The Challenge:
In Louisiana, a powerful but unknown committee called the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education controls the direction of public education. The board consists of 11 geographic districts similar to U.S. Congressional Districts. Several of the board members had been fighting Gov. Bobby Jindal and his reform efforts – reforms that had proven effective at improving education in Louisiana and other states.
Innovative was contacted by Lane Grigsby, a businessman whose mission is to reform and fix Louisiana’s education system. Grigsby and other concerned citizens formed Alliance for Better Classrooms PAC to ensure that incumbent reformers remained on the board, while board members who were afraid of change and beholden to the establishment were replaced in the upcoming elections.
The Resolution:
First, exhaustive research and polling was conducted. Everything Innovative found said that public support was extremely strong for all types of education reform. This proved that if we promoted reform candidates that voters would support them.
We then took our targeted anti-reformers and researched their voting records, press mentions, and personal/legal issues. Those issues were then polled, to see what voters most objected to about each non-reformer candidate.
Innovative then used all the information discovered to unfold a mail, television and PR plan to take the little-known board elections into the national spotlight and expose the anti-reformers. It was a non-partisan effort, supporting a racially and politically diverse group with one thing in common – all wanted to reform Louisiana’s failing education system.
The Results:
Innovative- and ABC-supported candidates swept the elections, with all 5 winning. Reformers gained a supermajority on the board, paving the way for sweeping changes to Louisiana’s sagging education system.
The efforts of Innovative, Grigsby and ABCPAC were cited again and again by media as the deciding factor in the election. The Times-Picayune described one non-reformer as being “broadsided” by the mail and television campaign run against her and in favor of her opponent.
Click here to view the ad that helped unseat incumbent BESE member Dale Bayard.
Click here to view the ad that helped Kira Orange Jones earn a seat on BESE.
Click here to view the ad that helped unseat incumbent BESE member Keith Guice.
