Educational change and reform. (State Trends).

State Government News, May, 2003 by Charlotte Postlewaite

Fiscal crises, state Supreme Court rulings, and education reforms have been the catalysts for major education restructuring across the nation this spring. Legislators and governors have taken up the thorny issues of school consolidation and local property tax reform. They have also addressed the debates about public education governance in their attempts to mollify taxpayers, parents, educators and fiscal "nay-sayers" in this era of lean economic times.

In California, The Sacramento Bee reports that legislators propose shifting management of the state's public schools from newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell to Gov. Gray Davis' appointed Secretary of Education Kerry Mazzoni. Senate Bill 6 would make the governor's cabinet-level secretary...