One of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s appointees to Louisiana’s board of education abruptly resigned yesterday in protest over what she says is a troubling federal influence on the state’s K-12 policies.
In her resignation letter to the Republican governor, Tammie McDaniel wrote that by serving on the board she was “complicit in supporting federal policies that I genuinely oppose,” according to the Associated Press.
Her resignation signals a growing chorus of state officials who are publicly expressing their disenchantment with the K-12 initiatives of the Obama administration.
Louisiana’s public schools, led by state Superintendent Paul G. Pastorek, are widely viewed as one of the strongest contenders in the $4 billion federal Race to the Top competition. But McDaniel, a former principal and teacher, fundamentally disagrees with the state’s efforts to shape its K-12 policies according to guidelines laid out by the Obama administration in RTTT and other federal initiatives.
