BATON ROUGE — Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards has selected his three appointees to the state’s top public school board, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Named Tuesday by the governor-elect were: Lurie Thomason Jr., a Grambling State University criminal justice professor; Thomas Roque, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Alexandria; and Doris Voitier, superintendent of St. Bernard Parish public schools.
The appointees will join eight elected BESE members at their first meeting of the new term next week.
BESE helps set policies that affect hundreds of thousands of public school students and chooses the state education superintendent. It also writes the multibillion-dollar financing formula for public education.
In recent years, the board has been at the center of disputes over the Common Core education standards, standardized testing and charter schools.