Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Bad for LA Unified, Good For The Rest of California

Rumors are flying around the Los Angeles area: Jackie Goldberg is going to replace former Colorado Governor Roy Romer as superintendent of LA Unified School District.

Jackie is a former teacher, former school board member, former city council member, and current Assemblywoman. She's being termed out of office next January. Want to read about her? You can try this article, but it doesn't tell you much. She has spent time in the Capitol trying to do stupid things like get rid of "offensive" school mascots, place a weight limit on books and/or student backpacks, limit the influence of academic standards, etc. She's made her sexual preferences a public fight. She's a truly foul person, one not used to making the kind of compromises she'd have to make as a school superintendent. And here's an example of the kind of politician she is.

Most interesting: her nephew was recently elected to a leadership position in the LA Teachers Union. As the Church Lady would say, "How conveeeeeeeeeenient."

There's lots more available at Yahoo. Here's an interesting tale.

Well, good luck LA. I'm on a maillist of "traditional" educators of all political stripes, and the Los Angeles dwellers are hyperventilating over the possibility. The way I see it, if Goldberg gets that job the LA area will be saving the rest of California from Goldberg. "It's a far, far better thing you've done, than you have ever done before, Los Angeles." Taking the bullet for the rest of us.

Update, 2/26/06 11:33am: Apparently I'm not the only non-fan of Jackie Goldberg. The first few letters to the editor here give some more information.

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