As the dust settles on the California general election we can begin to see what it means for education reform advocates in the near future.
The majority of the reformers put their financing and influence behind Marshall Tuck’s failed run for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
This was the second time that reformers challenged the current Superintendent as they spent heavily to back former Senator Gloria Romero when she ran against Tom Torlakson four years ago.
Torlakson, then a State Senator, easily defeated Romero and Larry Aceves who was supported by the state’s Administrators Union.
As a result Torlakson’s first term as Superintendent of Public Instruction was rocky at best for education reform advocates so you can imagine what it will be like now that they are 0-2 against him.
It remains to be seen how reformers will go about mending fences with Torlakson but they have to come up with something now that he will control the Department of Education for another for years. If they do not then they will not be able to proceed with any reforms or initiatives that involve the Department.
From a legislative perspective things will not change much for supporters of education reform.
The Democrats are still firmly in control of both houses of the legislature but they failed to attain a 2/3 majority in either house. This means that they will have the final say in all legislation and budgetary matters in the state legislature and that the Republican party will be witnesses and not participants in the process.
However, it also means that they cannot override a veto by the Governor. So if like in past years the legislature passes anti-charter school legislation the Governor will still serve as the ultimate back stop because he has vetoed those bills in the past.
Where reformers will be stymied is in their attempts to pass any legislation giving parents and students more school choice options. These measures will most assuredly be dead on arrival.
Month: December 2014
We are so excited to learn that Mosaica Education was selected as the highest performing Education Management Organization (EMO) in Ohio, out of 41 organizations. This honor comes on the heels of Columbus Preparatory Academy, a Mosaica school, receiving a 2014 National Blue Ribbon designation by the U.S. Department of Eduaction. Columbus Preparatory Academy was recognized in the category of Exemplary High Performing Schools.
The ranking was published by Beacon Journal in a report that analyzed the overall performance of all EMOs in Ohio.
Mosaica Education is a valued partner of Charter School Capital, and has previously won awards for Columbus Preparatory Academy and Lorain Preparatory Academy. They operate over 100 schools worldwide, including 17 schools in Ohio, serving a total of 3,774 Ohio students.
“The staff at the Mosaica schools in Ohio are tremendously dedicated to building high performing academies, and that’s evidenced by the remarkable growth of the schools and academic achievements of the students,” said Cris Worrel, Charter School Capital Client Services Representative for Ohio. “We look forward to many more successful years as partners to Mosaica Education.”
In an op-ed published recently in the Wall Street Journal about school choice, charter leader Eva Moskowitz says when it comes to test scores and charter school attendance, the numbers don’t lie.
Responding to charter school critics who say that cherry-picking by charters means that academic gains by charter schools are offset by losses in district schools, Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, uses statewide exam scores to refute this claim.
Moskowitz claims that the unique environment in New York City’s 32 school districts make for an ideal real-world experiment:
“New York City has 32 community school districts. The availability of free facilities in some of them has spurred rapid charter-school growth, while in others, the absence of such facilities has thwarted it. As a result, charter enrollment varies widely, from nearly half of students in the Central Harlem district to none at all in other districts.
We can examine the 16 districts where charter school enrollment is highest (charter-rich districts) and the 16 districts where it is lowest (charter-light districts) and see how their relative rankings, based on their results on statewide English and math proficiency exams, changed between 2006 and 2014.”
The full article with the results of Moskowitz’s analysis is available on the Wall Street Journal’s online edition.