Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Governator: California will lead the education way (or else)
Billionaire Eli Broad might have been the the richest and most influential education superstar who spoke to education journalists here in Los Angeles Friday, but there was another somewhat famous name in the room with big ambitions in education reform.
That would be the Governator — futuristic killing machine portrayer turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger was feeling pretty good, touting recent successes coaxing environment emissions limits and infrastructure improvements out of the state legislature that have both his and state lawmakers approval ratings on the rise.
Now, he says, he’ll have an ambitious education agenda to announce in his state-of-the-state address next January.
Schwarzenegger said he has 22 study groups, led by Stanford University, spending 18 months reviewing California’s issues, after which a wide spectrum of interest groups will have input on the reform program he will announce next year.
He hinted that he is a big fan of creating an accessible data system that parents can use to gather information about the finances and academic performance of schools. And, like Broad, it sounds like he’ll push for differentiated pay (giving schools the ability to pay more for highly rated teachers, teachers in high demand fields and teachers who accept tough assignments).
OK, that’s enough about the Gov’s education policies. Now to the real burning question many reporters had after the speech — how tall is Schwarzenegger anyway?
It turned out that I did a smart thing by getting to the session late. There were only a few empty seats in a packed house and one was right smack in the middle of the front row, right next to former Colorado governor and Los Angeles school superintendent Roy Romer.
So I got a pretty close-up look at Schwarzenegger, who was on a podium less than 10 feet away. As we had been told in anticipation of his arrival, he doesn’t look as big and menacing in person as he does in films like the Terminator. He does have a huge chest (which he repeatedly bragged about). And like many popular politicians, he has a funny, easy-going style that belies his bad-ass movie persona.
Perhaps all that, and the lack of movie effects, makes the guy seem smaller. I felt like he couldn’t be more than an inch taller than me. (I’m 5-foot-10-ish). and I noticed he was wearing unique cowboy boots that appeared to have the state seal on them. That could have been giving him a boost of an inch or two.
A quick Google search revealed that Schwarzenegger’s height is something of an ongoing controversy that he finds amusing. He says he is 6-foot-2. I have to say I really find that suprising.
On the Net, there are lots of pictures of him next to people of various heights, with accompanying specultation about what that means for Schwarzenegger’s stature. I guess I am not the only one who thinks he looks short in person.
By the way, at the end of the speech he promised that California would be the talk of the nation for its education reform by the time us ed journalists reconvened next spring and he promised he’d return to tell us about with these words (yes, you guessed it):
“I’ll be back.”
UPDATE: Other posts from EWA’s national conference:
—On blogging: A compliment for my readers
(Image credit: http://talent.pratt.edu)
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Comments
By Dave
May 8, 2007 8:38 AM | Link to this
Scott, it sounds like you have your priorities in life straight. You will treasure the time spent with your kid(s) long after you forget this conference. And so will they.By Scott Elliott
May 7, 2007 9:40 PM | Link to this
Unfortunately I missed Deborah Loewenberg Ball’s presentation, along with the rest of Saturday’s sessions. I took the red eye back so I could be in Ohio Saturday for my daughter’s first communion.By JennyD
May 7, 2007 4:17 PM | Link to this
Scott, how was the dean of the UMich ed school?By Oldprof
May 6, 2007 5:04 PM | Link to this
Was Roy Romer the governor when Colorado adopted those restrictive caps on state budget growth that have essentially strangled public services—including education—in the state? If so, another example of failure not preventing the high and mighty from moving on to other opportunities to flummox things up.By Mary
May 6, 2007 12:33 PM | Link to this
I hope the parents and special interest groups point out parents need to know the educational “value added” for their child in the education system, and not just aggregate information. It will be interesting to see if Stanford, which touts itself as a great institution of learning, gets this.By jack l. kennedy
May 6, 2007 10:40 AM | Link to this
Superb idea to blog from EWA. As a former president of EWA, and ed writer at Wichita and Lincoln NB I hope more follow your example…and keep asking questions. jack l. kennedy Pittsburg ks.By sharon
May 5, 2007 9:48 PM | Link to this
California has always led the country in education. Not necessarily because they were doing a good job but because of the massive quantities of textbooks they purchased. The book publishers have always given preference to the direction California wanted to go in putting their books together. Years ago, when I was on a committee to purchase textbooks we were told which books California had chosen and which they had not. That meant the books would be less expensive since the initial cost of publishing them was already covered by California. I don’t see how this changes much.