Ruth L. Ulrich
Ruth L. Ulrich (born ca. 1962)[1] is the Republican candidate for the open District 5 seat on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in the November 17, 2007, general election. The district includes sixteen parishes in north and central Louisiana. Ulrich faces Democrat Keith K. Guice for the right to succeed 15-year Democratic incumbent James Stafford.
Ulrich is a businesswoman and a producer, writer, and sometimes on-air replacement for conservative radio talk show host Moon Griffon (pronounced GRE FONN), who broadcasts statewide from his studio in Monroe, the seat of Ouachita Parish. She also represents District 16A on the Republican State Central Committee. She was chairman of the Louisiana Bush-Cheney presidential electors in 2004. She serves on the Monroe Historic Preservation Commission. Ulrich is also the past vice president of the Garden District Neighborhood Alliance and as past president of the Monroe Garden Club. In 2005, U.S. Senator David Vitter nominated Ulrich to represent Monroe at the Business and Professional Womenâs Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C.[2]
Both Ulrich and Guice reside in Monroe. Ulrich led Guice in the October 20 jungle primary, 60,085 (39 percent) to 42,258 (27 percent). Two other Democrats, Walter B. Gatlin and James E. Lee, received 31,585 votes (20 percent) and 22,083 ballots (14 percent), respectively. The three Democratic candidates hence collectively polled 61 percent in the preliminary election.[3] Gatlin has since crossed party lines to endorse Ulrich in the November 17 general election.
In addition to Ouachita Parish, District 5 includes the north-central parishes of Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, La Salle, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Rapides, Richland, West Carroll, and Union. Ulrich received pluralities in nine parishes in the district: Grant, Jackson, La Salle, Lincoln, Morehouse, Ouachita, Rapides, Richland, and Union. Lee led in Concordia and Tensas. Guice led in the other five parishes, Caldwell, Catahoula, East Carroll, Franklin, and West Carroll.[4]
Ulrich indicated that she is particularly interested in addressing discrepancies in the Minimum Foundation Plan, which provides state funding to school districts: "Rural parishes are suffering because of the inequity of [the] sales tax."[5]
In her website, Ulrich lists the following goals she would seek to accomplish if elected to the board:
1. Full funding of public schools
2. Making schools accountable to parents and taxpayers
3. Increase quality of teachers
4. Improve the classroom environment
5. Permit parents to choose the school that best serves their child
6. Promote reading instruction[6]
Guice is the director of youth programs for the Workforce Investment Board and a former superintendent in Catahoula Parish. He indicated that he is committed to bringing common sense to the board: "We'll look at accountability and temper those rules and regulations with reason." He contends that accountability standards have placed undue stress on teachers and students without improving the educational product.[7]
Gatlin is a retired superintendent in Catahoula Parish and an educational administrator from Pineville in Rapides Parish and an adjunct professor at Louisiana College. Lee, who resides in Clayton in northern Concordia Parish, is a retired educator and manager of a federal credit union.[8]
Shortly after the primary, Ulrich and her husband, Marcus B. "Mark" Ulrich (born ca. 1959), were traumatized when a large pine tree struck their Monroe home. The Ulrich family escaped injuries.[9]
References
^ http://find.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&
^ http://www400.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibinrqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=102007
http://www400.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibinrqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=102007
^ http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071022/NEWS01/710220315/1002
^ http://www.ruthulrich.com/goals.html
^ http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071022/NEWS01/710220315/1002
^ http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071004/NEWS01/710040332/1002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goCLsx41kOI