Remember how the Left and the teachers’ unions did a bit of squawking about how putting in term limits for school board members across Louisiana would be tantamount to eliminating the best and brightest in educational management in the state?

If you didn’t, that’s OK. Nobody really listened.

That was clear Tuesday night when in 62 separate parish-wide races, term limits for school board members passed in an astonishingly overwhelming fashion.

The numbers weren’t close anywhere in the state…

• ACADIA: 74 percent
• ALLEN: 74 percent
• ASCENSION: 76 percent
• ASSUMPTION: 74 percent
• AVOYELLES: 71 percent
• BEAUREGARD: 82 percent
• BIENVILLE: 74 percent
• BOSSIER: 82 percent
• CADDO: 79 percent
• CALCASIEU: 82 percent
• CALDWELL: 77 percent
• CAMERON: 79 percent
• CATAHOULA: 76 percent
• CLAIBORNE: 80 percent
• CONCORDIA: 75 percent
• DESOTO: 77 percent
• EAST BATON ROUGE: 75 percent (70 percent in Baker, 83 percent in Central, 76 percent in Zachary)
• EAST CARROLL: 76 percent
• EAST FELICIANA: 75 percent
• EVANGELINE: 75 percent
• FRANKLIN: 74 percent
• GRANT: 78 percent
• IBERIA: 77 percent
• IBERVILLE: 76 percent
• JACKSON: 74 percent
• JEFFERSON DAVIS: 75 percent
• LAFOURCHE: 78 percent
• LASALLE: 73 percent
• LINCOLN: 76 percent
• LIVINGSTON: 78 percent
• MADISON: 75 percent
• MOREHOUSE: 77 percent
• NATCHITOCHES: 75 percent
• ORLEANS: 78 percent
• OUACHITA: 81 percent (79 percent for the city of Monroe school district)
• PLAQUEMINES: 80 percent
• POINTE COUPEE: 80 percent
• RAPIDES: 79 percent
• RED RIVER: 72 percent
• RICHLAND: 77 percent
• SABINE: 77 percent
• ST. BERNARD: 75 percent
• ST. CHARLES: 80 percent
• ST. HELENA: 76 percent
• ST. JAMES: 76 percent
• ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST: 79 percent
• ST. LANDRY: 78 percent
• ST. MARTIN: 76 percent
• ST. MARY: 77 percent
• ST. TAMMANY: 85 percent (more on that below)
• TANGIPAHOA: 81 percent
• TENSAS: 72 percent
• TERREBONNE: 81 percent
• UNION: 79 percent
• VERMILION: 76 percent
• VERNON: 78 percent
• WASHINGTON: 78 percent (76 percent in the City of Bogalusa school district)
• WEBSTER: 76 percent
• WEST BATON ROUGE: 76 percent
• WEST CARROLL: 77 percent
• WEST FELICIANA: 75 percent
• WINN: 77 percent

Those numbers are staggering, and they represent a colossal repudiation of the status quo.

Particularly in St. Tammany, which had the highest vote for term limits of any parish. It was in St. Tammany, where the school district is reputed to be one of the best in the state (given its resources, it ought to be at the absolute top…but isn’t) where the local school board leadership fought education reform perhaps most vigorously. In Calcasieu, where union teachers tried to spearhead a recall of Gov. Bobby Jindal after the education reform package was passed, term limits for school board members hit 82 percent.

Those numbers are astounding.

Here in Baton Rouge, we found an amazing repudiation of the Baton Rouge Advocate as well – when three-quarters of the public votes against the editorial page of the only major newspaper in the market, it’s a breathtaking sight.

So amid a disappointing election nationally, it appears at least for school reform the news is good.