Powell served from District 8 on the Caddo Parish School Board from 1995 until 2004. In the board election held on November 8, 1994, he narrowly defeated the Democratic candidate, Carter Rogers, 5,173 votes to 4,794. The incumbent Democrat, David Matlock, did not run again. He served on the school board executive committee. On November 15, 2003, Powell, while still serving on the school board, was handily elected to succeed fellow Shreveport Republican B. L. "Buddy" Shaw, a retired Caddo Parish school administrator who did not seek a third term in the House but rebounded in 2007 to win election to one term in the Louisiana State Senate. Powell faced another Republican, Raymond Stewart Alley, in a runoff contest and easily prevailed, 9,339 votes to 4,238. Eliminated in the first round of balloting in the nonpartisan blanket primary were three candidates, including Barrow Peacock, who finished with 13.5 percent of the vote. A Shreveport real estate broker, Peacock was elected in 2011 to succeed Shaw in the state Senate. Powell pushed to passage a unanimous resolution calling for 65 percent of all educational funding be spent directly in the classrooms, a move intended to streamline educational bureaucracies. "We put more money into the system, but it doesn't always get to the classroom. Once you put this into effect, then it gets people moving in the right direction by setting some clear standards that you have to achieve," Powell said. Powell claimed that if the 65 percent standard were in force, teachers could get raises of $5,000 to $6,000 per year without raising taxes. Powell, however, was rebuffed by Standard & Poor's, the bond rating agency, which declared in a report that "Student performance does not noticeably or consistently increase at 65 percent or any other percentage spent on instruction." In 2007, Powell was unopposed for his second legislative term. However, he soon resigned his seat even before he could be sworn into his second term. He cited a lack of time to devote to legislative business and family responsibilities as the reasons for his resignation: "It has become clear to me the needs of my family come first and the time required in my current elective position has simply become more than I can successfully give." Powell's resignation was considered surprising because he had previously harbored an interest in running for Louisiana's 4th congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives now held by another Republican John C. Fleming of Minden. Ethics questions were raised about Powell's involvement in the 2006 campaign for mayor of Shreveport on behalf of an unsuccessful Republican candidate, but no claims were ever brought forward.
