Most interesting thing on your ballot this fall

It probably won't be the dismal Presidential election.  And it might not even be the currently very sleepy race to pick another Republican Senator. Instead, it might just be the Orleans Parish School Board races.

It’s looking more and more as if the state Recovery School District may soon be getting out of the business of governing all those Orleans Parish charter schools. And that new reality significantly ups the ante on this fall’s election for Orleans Parish School Board.

In addition to the possible turnover from RSD, there is a growing movement to reorganize the busted up teachers union one charter school at a time.  Today  International High became the fourth local charter school whose teachers announced they had decided to form a union.

We're seeing a very real trend here in New Orleans," United Teachers president Larry Carter said. "Charter school educators want a voice in their schools' decisions that affect teaching and learning, and they want fairness in the workplace and job security." He said earlier this month that the union had not been reaching out to New Orleans schools.

Over the weekend, the Lusher Charter governing board... being the Lusher board... became the first charter to push back against the organizing effort and voted against recognizing the union there.

Stephanie Grace, in that first article I linked above, says it still might not be easy to generate much interest in the school board elections. But momentum can gather pretty quickly.  The circumstances are there to create some interesting controversies before the year is done. Stay tuned.