Perhaps one bright spot in California politics is the election of basketball star Kevin Johnson as the Mayor of Sacramento. As the Center for Education Reform reports:
While Johnson is known for being one of the NBA’s greatest point guards, his true claim to fame is (or ought to be) his successful charter school organization, St. Hope Academy, serving nearly 1,500 disadvantaged students in Sacramento. With this dynamic leader at the helm we’re anxious to see if he’ll follow Mayors Adrian Fenty of D.C. and Michael Bloomberg of NYC and take mayoral control of Sacramento’s troubled school system to institute widespread reform. We’ll just have to wait and see…
Whether taking over all Sacramento schools is a good idea may be an open question, however, Johnson’s election is a positive sign for more high quality school choices for Sacramento children.