Regarding “Assault on reform” (Los Angeles Daily News editorial, Nov. 14):
Kudos. Now Californians will have a chance to see clearly who the real “progressives” are in education. Are they the newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and his allies in the California Teachers Association and United Teachers of Los Angeles – partisan Democratic groups that pay lip service to change while blocking any meaningful reform that would put the needs of students over the interests of bureaucrats and union bosses?
Or are the genuine progressives members of the coalition of sensible Democrats, like state school board trustee Ben Austin, and fair-minded Republicans, like state Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, who are pushing for tenure reform and empowering parents with the state’s pathbreaking parent trigger law? If the Senate fails to confirm Austin and his reformer allies, let there be no doubt whose interests are truly being served.
-BEN BOYCHUK
Ben Boychuk ([email protected]) is a policy advisor for school reform at The Heartland Institute and a former managing editor of School Reform News.
