Viewpoints: Brown sours on rigid reforms for schools
Peter Schrag
When Gov. Jerry Brown replaced seven members of the State Board of Education earlier this month with seven appointees of his own, the overnight response could have been predicted: This was political payback to the unions, especially to the California Teachers Association, which had spent big bucks to get him elected.
That may have been one-third correct. The unions had never been happy with the Schwarzenegger board, and especially the tilt of some of its members toward charter schools and test-based evaluations of teachers. Brown's appointment of Pat Rucker, CTA's hard-nosed lobbyist, seemed to confirm the payback theory.
But the real significance of the school board changes – both for California and maybe for national education policy – may be more far-reaching.
Both the new members and Brown's own ideas about education – the other day he called himself a
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