Almost $1 million has been spent so far on races for the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, about half of that during the first three weeks of October, with more to come as the Nov. 8 election draws close.
Heavy spending by charter school-friendly education reform groups remains the biggest factor, accounting for three-quarters of all spending so far. What has changed in recent weeks is these groups are incorporating more attacks on opponents in addition to ads promoting endorsed candidates.
Targets of those attacks include incumbents Jill Dyason, Mike Gaudet, David Tatman and Evelyn Ware-Jackson as well as Vereta Lee, who spent 12 years on the board and is trying to win back the District 2 seat she lost four years ago.
This information is found in the latest campaign finance reports filed by candidates as well as new reports from two of the big-spending education reform groups. The reports, which were due Monday to the Louisiana Board of Ethics, cover activity through Oct. 19 and every candidate running filed them. The reports will be the last set required before election day.
Candidates and outside groups, however, are obliged to file special reports through election day for contributions of $1,000 or more and expenditures of $200 or more. A few such special reports have been filed since Oct. 19 and more are likely to be filed.
In all, candidates and outside groups have raised almost $1.8 million for the Nov. 8 elections. They have more than $900,000 left collectively in their war chests for the final days of the race.
Twenty-four candidates are running for nine seats on the parish School Board. Four races have multiple candidates and could go to runoffs on Dec. 10.
Three are open seats where the incumbent is not seeking re-election. In District 8, incumbent Connie Bernard is on the ballot but in early September she announced she was quitting campaigning and said she’s no longer pursuing a fourth term on the board.
The groups reporting big spending in October were Red Stick Leaders for Students and Education Reform Now Advocacy. They are the political arms of the better known Baton Rouge Alliance for Students and Democrats For Education Reform. They are spending money independent of the candidates.
Baton Rouge Alliance for Students is based in Baton Rouge and is focused only on education in the Capital City. Democrats for Education Reform, which goes by the acronym DFER, is a national advocacy group with a chapter in Louisiana that supports only Democrats at election time. The Alliance has endorsed a candidate in every race, while DFER has endorsed four Democrats.
In their latest filings, the political arms of these respective organizations make clear they are not only supporting those they endorse but going after those individuals’ opponents.
The Alliance-affiliated group on Oct. 18 paid $6,200 for an attack ad against District 7 incumbent Gaudet prepared by Axiom Strategies, a large Republican political consulting firm based in Kansas City.
Gaudet has since taken to Facebook to give his side.
“I have election opposition that has chosen to engage in character assassination, misinformation and lies because they can't debate issues. It is a truly sad day when someone who is simply trying to give back to the community as a public servant has to undergo this type of trash,” Gaudet said. “If I prevail in the election, I will continue that public service. If not, I get to go fishing a lot more. Either way I am happy, with my head held high, because I will not play in the gutter.”
The Alliance-affiliated group also says it is opposing Dyason, Lee, Tatman and Ware-Jackson but does not as yet detail any specific spending directed against them.
DFER’s political arm, Education Reform Now Advocacy, recently filed its first reports of the election, showing nearly $178,000 worth of spending in October. On Oct. 26, in a special report, it reported spending $6,400 for a mailer that both supported its endorsed District 5 candidate, Cliff Lewis, and opposed incumbent Ware-Jackson.
Like Gaudet, Ware-Jackson went to Facebook.
“There's a lot of buzz this election season with baseless accusations, false narratives, and fake outcry because I chose to make my own decisions without being swayed by the ‘popular’ vote," Ware-Jackson wrote. “I make no apologies for that.”
The Portland-based Stand For Children, with offices in Louisiana, is also active in the election, filing reports monthly. Its next report is not due until Nov. 10, two days after election day. It has reported spending $247,000 so far in Baton Rouge school board races. Like the other groups, Stand supports charter schools.
Charter schools are public schools run privately via contracts, or charters.
Outside spending is far outpacing what candidate campaigns are spending.
For instance in District 2, incumbent Dadrius Lanus has spent $12,100, a little more than Lee’s $10,200. But Lanus has enjoyed almost $86,000 in additional spending from outside groups.
Lanus, who beat Lee in 2018, is seeking a second term representing District 2. In 2018, Lanus also benefited from heavy independent spending in his successful race against Lee.
In an interview Wednesday, Lanus said he has no idea what outside groups are doing but said he is actively campaigning on his own, estimating he’s walked 60 miles in the past two weeks canvassing District 2. He said he maintains his independence.
“I didn’t make any promises to anyone,” Lanus said. “That is not how that works. I did not say I would go out and vote for charter schools.”
More than $500,000 in fundraising occurred during the first three weeks of October. The biggest contribution during that time period was $200,000 from The City Fund, bringing its total giving this election to $600,000. That giving is going exclusively to Red Stick Leaders, the political arm of the Alliance.
The City Fund was formed in 2018 with large donations from a private foundation of Houston hedge fund manager John Arnold and his wife, Laura, as well as from the Hastings Fund, a philanthropic organization created by Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings.
The fund spends heavily in local school board races, urging boards to adopt a “portfolio” model. In an analogy to the investment world, a school district manages a “portfolio” of schools and, relying largely on test scores, grows good ones while closing bad ones.
Another big donor from the charter school world, giving for the first time this cycle, is from a sister company of Charter Schools USA, a Fort Lauderdale-based, for-profit charter school network, known as EduServe Inc. It has given $2,500 each to incumbents Dyason and Gaudet as well as District 1 incumbent Mark Bellue. Charter Schools USA operates South Baton Rouge Charter Academy, which is chartered through the parish school system.
That charter school and its sister school Iberville Charter Academy have come under scrutiny recently after state-hired auditors concluded that Iberville Charter has been improperly charging what amounts to tuition to students at seven remote learning pods spread across the state in addition to the per pupil funding those students receive. Representatives of the charter school have aggressively disputed the audit, saying the charges were not tuition but legitimate fees and that the audit is “of no value and should be discarded.”
