GIVEN the importance of California's public schools, you'd think the critical decisions that affect the education of our children would be debated and vetted with all due diligence in Sacramento. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Votes on education policy are often determined by a single question asked in back rooms: Does the CTA support it?

Apparently, the unwritten rule is that if the California Teachers Association supports an education bill, then the Democratic-controlled Legislature can pass it. The reason? Money, lots of it. CTA is one of the biggest spenders on lobbying in Sacramento in the past decade, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission. If the powerful CTA opposes a bill - or a candidate - it has the money to make sure it goes away.

So says termed-out state Sen. Gloria Romero of Monterey Park, who championed education reform such as the Parent Trigger Law while serving as chairwoman of the Senate's Education Committee. She should know; she was pounded by the CTA in the primary race for state superintendent of public instruction, which mobilized to make sure she didn't get elected. It worked. Of the three top candidates, she came in third.

When Romero sought partners to push education reform legislation, she had to rely on Republicans and a