School Choice Community Wary Of New Governor Edwards

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards' alliances with education unions and traditional public school leaders are drawing concern. "School choice" groups worry that Louisiana's next governor will seek to revisit legislative battles over charter schools and the state's voucher program.

In a sign of the strength of Edwards' ties to the unions, the Democrat's first speech since winning the runoff election was Monday at the Louisiana Federation of Teachers convention.

No matter Edwards' relationship with the unions, the new governor likely will have difficulty unraveling past education policy decisions if he decided to try.

Edwards will be working a majority-GOP Legislature that has favored the voucher program, charter schools and other initiatives opposed by traditional public school groups. Plus, seven of the eight winning BESE contenders supported greater educational choice for children.

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