Laissez Le Bon MAPS Rouler!
Tell the EBR School Board Members to let the good maps roll out for the public's consideration!
Friends! I realize most if not all of you are living it up this Mardi Gras weekend and may not be thinking about the redistricting of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board. But hopefully, between now and Thursday, March 3rd, you will remember this profoundly important issue and be moved to email the entire EBR School Board to ask the following:
Please introduce for consideration the Finney 15-Member Plan and the Finney 11-Member Plan.
On Thursday, March 3rd, the School Board will hold a meeting to recommend plans for consideration. The maps recommended at this meeting will then be published in the newspaper for the public to review. For there to be any chance for the Board to adopt a map which increases the number of single-member districts, at least one of the school board members must recommend such a map for consideration.
Such a recommendation is politically fraught. For a member to take such a courageous step, they need and deserve the support of the community. We must state our position on the public record to provide that support.
Please email the board (emails are listed below) and ask clearly that one of them introduce both the Finney 15-Member Plan and the Finney 11-Member Plan. (Both of these maps increase the number of majority-Black districts in addition to increasing the number of single-member districts so we can be assured they satisfy Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.)
Yes, I realize the 15 single-member map is a longshot, but there’s still a strong argument for demanding it be considered. By recommending the Finney 15-member plan, we have the opportunity to more thoroughly discuss the need to increase the number of single-member districts to offset the harm caused by the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. That Supreme Court decision allows corporations and other outside groups to pour money into our School Board elections. If only 9-member and 11-member maps are introduced, the odds for an increase in the number of single-member districts don’t improve. They falter.
Increasing the number of single-member districts is the best means we have to mitigate the influence of money in politics at the local level. For this reason, there is no acceptable 9-member plan. (To learn more, please read “A Good Law is Hard to Find” Part I and Part II if you have not already.)
So please, arise on Wednesday morning, send an email to our School Board members and then ask your friends and family in Baton Rouge to do the same!
Happy Mardi Gras! Laissez le bon MAPS rouler!
Possible email:
Dear EBR School Board Members,
Increasing the number of single-member districts is the best means we have to mitigate the influence of unlimited campaign spending by corporations and outside interests in our school board elections. I wholeheartedly support an increase in the number of single-member districts in the new EBR School Board map adopted during this redistricting process. I ask that you recommend both the Finney 15-Member Plan and the Finney 11-Member Plan for consideration at the meeting this Thursday, March 3rd. I hope to see both of these maps published in the Advocate for the public’s consideration.
Thank you,
EBR School Board Member Emails:
Recommended reading:
A Good Law is Hard to Find: