The good guys won the latest round of the interminable saga of the Adelanto parent-trigger case when a California judge endorsed the validity of signatures gathered in support of converting the school to a charter. The battle is far from over, of course, but we may yet see a parent trigger work before the movie glamorizing it opens.
Even Ohio Governor John Kasich, as vocal an opponent of taxation as Gadfly’s ever met, recently expressed support for a school levy that will (with luck) fund Cleveland’s promising school-reform plan. There’s plenty of reason for skepticism over never-ending calls for more education spending in America, but in Cleveland’s case the governor is right to join the mayor in asking voters to pony up.
A Whiteboard Advisors survey finds that nearly half of education “insiders” doubt that Common Core-aligned assessments will be ready to roll out on time in 2014-2015. Here’s hoping the consortia tasked with producing those tests prove the experts wrong.
Jay Mathews writes that it's a "perilous time" for D.C. schools, due to the scandal surrounding Mayor Vincent Gray. The situation in Washington should remind advocates for mayoral control just how much damage can be done to reforms (and the credibility of that alternative education-governance model) when a lousy leader takes (or steals!) the reins.
The Newark Star-Ledger’s editorial board endorsed dropping the “acting” from New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf’s title this morning, citing his record over the past two years as a “devoted and talented” schools chief. It’s a long-overdue honor—withheld due to truly ridiculous Garden State political squabbles—that Mr. Cerf has more than earned.
