Back to It - A New Education Senator
Justin Bathon on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 9:32AM Sorry I have been on a hiatus. I've had my head buried in Powerpoints trying to finish a product up. Let's do some news and notes:
First Mark Walsh has a nice summary of some of the events of the past couple weeks while no one was paying attention, so give that a read. I think the teacher drug testing case is an especially interesting one.
Second, hope you didn't miss that Michael Bennet has been appointed the junior Senator from Colorado. Why is that important? Well, for one he was Denver's Superintendent of Schools so he will likely be put on the Senate Education Committee, if there is room available, and he is young ... 42-43ish ... so he is going to potentially be around a while. He could be a big voice in education for a long time. Secondly, though, let me just answer the question you are thinking ... who is Michael Bennet? Well, he is a lawyer, trained a Yale Law and who worked at the Justice Department. He has also worked for some companies and worked as a political aide. So, now there is another major example (besides Joel Klein) of a lawyer stepping into the superintendency and being recognized for it. Anyway, it should be interesting to see how he plays out.
Otherwise, the financial crisis is still dominating the education headlines. California is looking at mid-year layoffs right now, which is always very difficult especially in an expensive city like LA. You got colleges enrolling fewer students and losing faculty. Teacher salaries are frozen. Schools are buying fewer books. You name it right now. And, we are probably not at the bottom yet as many legislatures have not finalized their budgets - so it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Happy New Year everyone!
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