Especially with regard to charter schools, Sara notes, a push for expanding accountable pre-K programs in these schools would seem to be a no-brainer.

Sara hit the same note in this DFER briefing paper on the subject.

By BRIENNE BELLAVITA

I am writing in regard to the July 6 News article “Buffalo’s charter schools post some of the city’s highest test scores.” State Board of Regents Chancellor Robert Bennett got it right when he asserted that charter schools are “no longer an experiment.” New York has experienced a steady growth of charter schools in recent years, with at least 20 new schools opening this fall, and with good reason. As the article noted, “as a whole, charters continue to significantly outperform the city’s traditional public schools.” This holds true not only for Buffalo, but for all of New York State.

Citizens are no longer willing to turn a blind eye to the failings of our public school system, and will no longer tolerate the frequent disregard for the education of minority and poor students. Thousands of parents have flocked to public charter schools, eager for their children to receive the quality education that many of these schools are offering.

We’re left to wonder why so many elected officials are reluctant to allow more city students to access these schools. Parents are starting to take notice of who is on their side and who is blocking opportunity for their children. It’s time for our elected officials to stand up against the status quo and start protecting the interests of our children.

After securing this increase in funds, Gov. Warner worked to create innovative and efficient programs to help improve Virginia's public school system. One major project was the Education for a Lifetime (EFL) initiatives, which focus on teacher quality, retention and recruitment. One aspect of the initiatives is providing teachers with incentives to stay at a disadvantaged school or relocate to another, understaffed school. Another EFL initiative is the renowned Virginia School Turnaround Specialist Program, which works to improve leadership in low-performing schools. Under this program, which Warner launched in 2004, top-ranked faculty members from Virginia graduates schools are brought in to train public school principals. The program has been an enormous success, and it has spread to other cities including Chicago and Philadelphia. 

July 8th, 2008

"If teachers learn new skills that serve their students better or they consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well."

-- Barack Obama, speaking via satellite to a National Education Association convention in Washington, D.C.

July 1st, 2008

"Protecting jobs of adults without regard to how well their students perform almost certainly will lead to greater costs, stagnant academic achievement, and greater dysfunction of our public education system."

-- B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation of Education Reform & Accountability, on tenure. Due to the constrictive tenure system, it costs NYC schools about $250,000 to fire one incompetent teacher.

June 24th, 2008

-- Tom Pendleton, lawyer for the Wiley Community Charter School, which is providing teachers with a cash bonus if they agree to stay for an additional twelve months.

June 17th, 2008 

"Make sure the people you hire are the kind of people who are going to fight for kids. Ask, 'Is this somebody who is going to be eating and sleeping and breathing for these kids?' Those kind of people are not easy to find."

--John Bliss, principal of Urban Choice Charter School in Rochester, NY, on how to choose the best teachers

June 12th, 2008

"Our nation's economy and individual family income is tied to improving our skills through education. Americans cannot afford to sit back and watch its schools fail our students."

--Roy Romer speaking on the Education Equality Project on his blog, Ed in '08.

June 10th, 2008

"Charter educators took games and books and organized dozens of small classrooms while the national government scratched its head over what to do."

--Jeanne Allen, President of the Center for Education, speaking on the development of charter schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 

June 3rd, 2008

"The Philadelphia Public Schools are a dysfunctional monopoly run by and for its employees."

--from Buzz Bissinger's A Prayer for the City. 

May 27th, 2008

"I like this school, you learn more stuff here."

--7th grader Evette Patterson on her school, the Confluence Academy, a charter school in St. Louis

April 23, 2008:

"Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it's widespread."

-- NY Times Columnist Bob Herbert.  

March 17, 2008:

"I think people understand that we can't continue to educate our children the same way."

-- Colorado Senate President Peter Groff, on his fast-moving legislation to empower schools to break free of state and district rules and labor agreements to implement reforms.

February 1, 2008:

"Life is not a scrimmage. Grown-ups who stick with dogma even though it condemns children to second-class lives should be put on buses and sent to North Dakota to hoe wheat for a year."

-- Garrison Keillor, writing on Salon.com.

January 22, 2008:

"Americans were losing control of their communities and their kids, and as they watched abandoned factories rot and metal detectors go into their schools, they could be forgiven for wondering whether either political party had a strong notion of what to do about it."

-- New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai, in his book The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, And the Battle to remake Democratic Politics.

Jaunary 4, 2008:

"To date, the 2008 campaign's discussion of education and civil rights has been whittled down to the usual bland platitudes without the passion and drive necessary to give any African-American parent true hope that things will change dramatically for their children."

-- The Rev. Al Sharpton, describing how a Bloomberg presidential candidacy would impact discussions of education as a civil rights issue.

December 6, 2007:

"I believe every parent should be given the right to choose a public school or program for their child that is the best environment for that student."

-- Rep. James Clyburn (D-South Carolina,) majority whip in the House of Representatives, following a DFER event last month.

November 25, 2007:

"The Democratic Party has never been invested with power on the basis of a program which promised to keep things as they were. We have won when we pledged to meet the new challenges of each succeeding year. We have triumphed not in spite of controversy, but because of it; not because we avoided problems, but because we faced them."

-- Robert F. Kennedy.

November 15, 2007:

"This issue simply must be tackled."

-- NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, in a memo to NYC principals explaining the necessity of going through the bureaucratic process of improving teacher quality by getting ineffective teachers out of the classroom.

November 12, 2007:

"The Democrats tend to break your heart and the Republicans are just the boys you'd never go out with anyway."

-- Nora Ephron, writing on the Huffington Post.

November 7, 2007:

"Parents are flipping out."

-- Marci Rosa, a parent at Brooklyn's PS 261, on the city's new report cards for schools. The popular school got a C.

October 31, 2007:

"Of course, providing parents with the opportunity to choose from several different schools is meaningful only if those schools provide a high-quality education."

-- Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, explaining why he holds the charter schools that he authorizes accountable for results. (Peterson was recently a recipient of a DFER Education Warrior Award.)

October 30, 2007:

"[DFER's] founders, a small group of like-minded and politically active Democrats from New York's investment community, were motivated by a desire to spur debate about education reform within a political party that they considered too monolithic and risk-averse in its views on K-12 schooling."

-- Ed Kirby, writing about DFER in a paper presented last week at the Rick Hess confab on education entrepreneurship.

October 23, 2007:

"Paying for performance has long been a dream. This administration, working with the UFT, is making it a reality. I am confident that rewarding excellence will make a difference for teachers, for schools, and, most importantly, for the people who matter the most in public education — our students."

-- NYC Chancellor Joel Klein, writing in the New York Sun.

October 16, 2007:

"They're so busy fighting No Child Left Behind... If they would use some of that energy to implement the law, we would go farther."

-- Mary Johnson, president of Parent U-Turn, in the New York Times.

October 10, 2007:

"I am really thankful for organizations that are going to help push politicians, especially the ones who have been on the side of protecting the status quo."

-- Washington, DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, in a speech to DFER last month.

October 8, 2007:

"I think what we've demonstrated is that with a radical change, you can break that pattern and create a very successful school . . . where kids will achieve . . . and will graduate with the skills they need to do whatever they want to do in life. There are a lot of schools that could use that intervention."

-- Scott Gordon, founder of Mastery Charter Schools, describing the stunning one-year turnaround at Shoemaker Middle School in West Philly.

October 1, 2007:

"Our education system is analog and our kids are digital."

-- Rep. George Miller (D-California) at a meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board.

September 26, 2007:

"Childrens do learn.”

-- President George W. Bush, talking about NCLB, a law his administration has done little to actually support/enforce since 2002, when it was signed.

September 25, 2007:

"In California, we have personally seen students who have not been taught, not been tested, and certainly not been reported because they do not have adequate English language skills even though they were born in this country. Because they are not included in the reports, districts suffer no consequences for their failure.”

-- United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, in a letter to Rep. George Miller, expressing support for keeping NCLB strong.

September 21, 2007:

"Charter schools should be given a chance from sea to shining sea.”

--  Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., at Monday night's DFER launch in DC.

September 20, 2007:

"[Young teachers watch their friends] go off and get paid for their time and ingenuity [in other fields]. In teaching, you go as fast as the slowest person.”

--  Rep. George Miller (D-California) explaining why he supports higher pay for excellent teachers, a measure being strongly opposed by national teachers unions.

September 19, 2007:

"All the issues we dealt with in the ’60s, we’re having to deal with again in 2007. We’re back to separate but equal — but separate isn’t equal.”

--  Ernestine Tucker, school board member in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, referring to a plan to reduce crowding in popular schools by sending black students to lower-performing schools.

September 14, 2007:

"What is troubling is that the Committee draft bill's changes comprise a remedy more deadly than the ills it is trying to cure. It patches holes in NCLB's walls, but at the same time takes a sledgehammer to NCLB's foundations."

--  Charles Barone, former aide to Rep. George Miller (D-California) and former Democratic Deputy Staff Director for the House Education and Labor Committee.

September 12, 2007

"The more complicated problem confronting Congress is political.   Any meaningful accountability requirements are going to show that a lot of schools need to do better.   Minority students trail white students by, on average, four grade-levels in achievement by  high school.   Meanwhile, only one in two minority students finishes high school on time.  Those students do go to school somewhere – and it’s not just in the big cities."

--  DFER Boardmember Andrew J. Rotherham, of Education Sector, on NPR's "All Things Considered."

September 10, 2007

"Does this country want to make schools better -- or just make schools look better? If Congress is true to the noble idea that all children, no matter their races, family incomes or circumstances, can learn to read and do math, it must reject suggestions that make a charade of standards and accountability."

--  Washington Post editorial board, writing this morning on NCLB reauthorization.

September 7, 2007

"If all of the nation’s children are to get the education they deserve, Congress needs to strengthen the No Child Left Behind law. Mr. Miller’s draft contains some important reforms that deserve to become law, but much of that good will be undermined if states, schools and teachers are not held accountable for the quality of education they provide."

--  NY Times editorial board, writing this morning on NCLB reauthorization.

September 5, 2007

"My record is clean."

--  Dondald Winstead, Washington D.C. textbook czar, explaining why he has been able to keep his job with the school system even though he never seems to get the textbooks delivered to actual classrooms. Winstead was fired by former Sperintendent Arlene Ackerman in 1998 but later was reinstated after reaching a settlement with the school system. Part of the settlement involved removing records of poor peformance from his personnel file.

September 4, 2007

"People are not thrilled with an adequate school system. There is still a lot of noise and concerns. I think that’s right, but you can’t get from awful to great by making a speech, or by saying I’ve got a program."

--  New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, starting his sixth year at the helm of the nation's largest school system.

September 3, 2007

"But dumbing down tests, winking at students who fail them, giving a pass to teachers who can't teach and schools that don't deliver -- who benefits from that? Not the youth who will end up credentialed but unemployable. And not those school officials who have enough confidence in themselves and their teachers to welcome fair judgment."

--  Washington Post columnist Fred Hiatt, writing about Prince George's County Superintendent John Deasy and the anti-productive, anti-accountability climate in which he must work.

September 2, 2007

"We have to stand up together if these folks are going to do the right thing... if we speak as one, we speak with power."

--  National Education Association Reg Weaver, explaining the importance of watering down the federal No Child Left Behind law.

August 31, 2007

"The conversation has started. Where have you been?"

--  Sourpuss blogger PREAPrez, who has a lot more faith that charter school leaders are seriously engaging with teachers unions (and thinking about benefiting politically from such arrangements) than we do.

August 30, 2007

"This draft is a work in progress, subject to change over the coming weeks."

--  Congressman George Miller (D-California) on draft changes to the federal No Child Left behind law.

August 22, 2007

"One of the things charters have shown us is that the bureaucracy is the greatest bulwark for the status quo and we have to break the status quo. The status quo doesn't work."

--  United Teachers Los Angeles president A.J. Duffy, describing why the union has decided to stop fighting charters and organize them instead.

August 21, 2007

"The Democratic Presidential candidates have the right instincts on merit pay. Pay for performance – so-called merit pay - undermines the collegial relationship among teachers, and there is no scientific evidence to show that merit pay plans improve student academic achievement."

--  National Education Association president Reg Weaver. explaining why his union is pleased that the presidential candidates are so soft on education issues. (Via "Arkansas Blog"... don't ask!)

August 20, 2007

"We're failing... We needed to examine what we were doing and come up with a better way to deliver services to our students"

--  Themia Gilman, principal at Silver Hill Elementary School in Haverhill. Mass., which has proposed converting to a Horace Mann Charter School to allow the school to ditch the district's curriculum guidelines and free up teachers from their union contract to better meet the needs of the low-performing students.

August 17, 2007

"We have achievement gaps in our system. These gaps are real, they're glaring, they're stark and they're persistent."

--  California State Schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell, at a meeting with education and African-American leaders in Sacramento this week.

August 16, 2007

"We will clean the house you refuse to clean."

--  Unnamed community activist, who supported the attempt of a long-failing middle school in San Diego to break away from the bureaucracy and form a new charter school.

August 15, 2007

"Holy cow."

--  Phil Rizzuto, the Scooter. R.I.P.

August 14, 2007

"The specific problem here is not the teachers. It's an evaluation system so bogus that it provides mediocre and poor teachers with a false sense that they're doing well -- and, just as bad -- fails to reward the highest performing educators for their excellent work."

--  Chicago Tribune editorial board, on a recent report by The New Teacher Project that looked at teacher evaluations.

August 13, 2007

"You should not always say everything you think when you are running for president, because it can have consequences."

--  Sen. Hillary Clinton, to fellow presidential hopeful Barack Obama during last week's AFL-CIO presidential forum.

August 11, 2007

"You're sitting here listening to the research but if you don't do anything about it, then you are part of the problem."

--  Carla Hernandez, 15, part of a team of Los Angeles students who studied why some of that city's high schools are so bad.

August 10, 2007

"All the negativity passes into the chicken."

--  A dude described as the high priest of Santeria, Frank Discussion, in a New York Sun story about a Manhattan principal who used black magic to try to improve her school. (Kudos to the newspaper for not blaming the bizarre episode on NCLB.)

August 8, 2007

"Truth told, getting textbooks on time, bringing cool air in the summer and heat in the winter, painting walls and fixing toilets are relatively easy tasks. Disrupting a culture of ineptitude and low expectations is far more difficult, particularly in a town where too many elected officials and citizen-advocates believe the government the employer of first and last resort... If Rhee and the mayor fail to radically and permanently destroy that culture, their efforts will be comparable to placing new, expensive furniture in a house crumbling from the weight of termite infestation."

--  Jonetta Rose Barras, writing in the Washington Examiner on the enormous task ahead for Mayor Adrien Fenty and his Chancellor Michelle Rhee..

August 7, 2007

"Total bullshit... I think I did better work in high school."

--  "Susan," a New York City Teaching Fellow, describing the graduate level coursework in education required to become certified as a teacher.

August 6, 2007

"Throw into that mix visits from seven Democratic and one Republican presidential candidates and it made for an interesting week...  They all got high scores on the Pandometer (it keeps track of the amount of pandering to the crowd), as is to be expected."

--  San Diego Education Association president Camille Zombro, and union vice president

South Carolina Congressman James E. Clyburn's dedication to education can be traced back to his days teaching history in Charleston, South Carolina. Once elected to the United States Congress in 1992, Clyburn's shepherding of education bills pushed him to the forefront of our country's leaders in education reform. Since then he has risen to become the first South Carolinian and second African-American House Majority Whip.

When Congressman Clyburn joined community partners to open the James E. Clyburn Community Empowerment Center in 2007, he added to his legacy of a lifetime's worth of passionate support for education reform by providing children and adults access to technological and educational resources. At the opening of the center he stated, "From my first career as a high school teacher to my current position in the U.S. House of Representatives, I have always dedicated myself to providing youth the best opportunities to succeed in life."

In mid-November 2007, Congressman Clyburn visited Harlem Success Academy Charter School in New York City and was incredibly impressed by what he saw, later describing his visit as "deeply emotional." This visit triggered Clyburn into becoming a vocal advocate of school choice. On November 26, 2008 Clyburn told the New York Sun, "There are few things that are more vital than ensuring that all of our children have access to a meaningful and productive education."

We wish Congressman Clyburn luck as he continues the fight for education reform. 

Except they edited out Obama's comments about charter schools, incentive pay for teachers, and merit pay.

The mission for Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday was clear: graciously accept the (rather weak, by historical standards) endorsement of the National Education Association, point out where he and the union are in agreement on education issues, and then unapologetically point out the areas where the union (which was not much help to Obama on the campaign trail for the Democratic nomination, and in many cases, worked against him) and he do not agree.

What we saw yesterday was a candidate who is trying to live up to his image as an agent of change, one who won't be forced to play by the old rules, and one who is refreshingly willing to point out the extent of the very big problems he is trying to solve. I think he pretty much nailed it. Of course, that doesn't always go over so well with the NEA crowd. You can read USA Today reporter Greg Toppo's dispatch here.

Under the old rules, the presidential candidate is supposed to stop by to accept the union's endorsement in person. (And while Reg Weaver may have acted like he didn't mind that Obama beamed in his remarks from a hope-to-be-flipped red state, Weaver made it pretty clear in 2004 that John Kerry had committed a cardinal sin by similarly selecting to be anyplace but the NEA convention on speech day.)

Very important that Obama went into the lion's den and re-asserted his support for NEA non-favorites like charter schools, incentive pay, and merit pay. Very important that he sobered up the celebration by pointing out that our nation's drop-out rates are the highest of any industrialized nation, and that six million students are reading below grade level.

Mike Antonucci, whom I first met a decade ago when I was covering the NEA Representative Assembly in New Orleans, has gavel-to-gavel coverage (as usual) of the proceedings, as well as some insight as to why the NEA wasn't all that pleased with one of Senator Obama's NCLB bills. 

The Hill's Jackie Kucinich has it here. The UPI version is here.

But which hat would he wear, Cubs or White Sox, I asked him. (Obama is a Sox fan, but he may need transplanted Cubs fans to carry important swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. I remembered how silly Hillary Clinton looked when she first put on her Yankees cap and tried to pretend she had New York in her blood (we were going to vote for her anyway, no need to pretend!)

Americans (and Chicagoans) like authenticity and decisiveness in their athletic fanaticism and boosterism. 

That's only one reason they should dig "info junkie," Illinois Network of Charter Schools boss (and lifelong Democrat) Elizabeth Evans -- who not only has some of Carlton Fisk's blood running through her veins, she attends 25-30 White Sox games a season, according to this light profile in Chicago Business.

The edu-politics in the Second City are going to get interesting. 

Former Postie (and all-around good guy) Dave Andreatta answers the call with stories like this at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. 

New York Assemblyman Sam Hoyt is a true crusader for education. In his 16 years serving the 144th Assembly district, Assemblyman Hoyt has fought hard for increased funding in education and has been an influential proponent of charter schools.

A self-described "leading proponent for charter schools," Assemblyman Hoyt has a history of standing behind progressive education. He was a strong and early supporter of charter schools in New York - long before it was popular - often defending the concept and legislation in legislative sessions and budget deliberations. In 2004 he was honored by the New York Charter Schools Association (NYCSA) with the annual Charter School Champion Award along with New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. At that time, NYCSA President Bill Phillips stated that Hoyt was "a fighter for children and a hero to the charter school movement, particularly in the City of Buffalo where charters are changing the face of public education."

Upon receiving his award, Assemblyman Hoyt stated, "Children and parents deserve choices when it comes to their education and charters provide an option to the status quo." 

Assemblyman Hoyt's exceptional education track record is not only limited to charter schools, however. In April of 2008 he secured state funding for ninety-two State Police School Resource Officers in New York State schools. These disciplinary officers monitor students, conduct investigations, and respond to criminal calls in school districts, but former Governor Eliot Spitzer had threatened to cut state funding for these officers from his proposed executive budget. Hitting even closer to home, Hoyt obtained a $1.59 million increase in state aid for his district's Grand Island Public Schools system. The district will receive a record amount of state funding in the 2008-2009 state budget.

We are proud to give Assemblyman Hoyt an "Education Warrior Award" for his unwavering support of public school choice, as well as his work to improve each student's educational experience. 

B.) Classroom signage featuring the Chicago Bears logo. (Remember, we're talking about Milwaukee here!)

A Wisconsin State Appellate Court correctly ruled that the Bears sign was much more of a distraction. It then issued a formal "stay" on Brett Favre's retirement and ordered that he report to training camp immediately.

Normally at this point, the presidential nominee owes the world to the NEA for all the work it did to get him to the general election, except, uh, Obama doesn't owe nuthun this time around, yo. In fact, there are some folks in the Obama camp who can point to scars they suffered at the NEA's hands in battlegrounds like Nevada (and others who have tracked every dollar the AFT spent trying to decapitate their man Obama.)

So the decision about how to handle the Representative Assembly/Panderpalooza is a tough one. On the one hand, it makes no sense for a candidate who cares about education to even remotely come off as having snubbed teachers - a factor most of us consider to be the most important ingredient in all of this education stuff.

On the other hand, a guy who is running for president on the whole "Yes We Can" theme doesn't want to spend too much time kissing the rings of the folks who bankroll the "No We Can't" movement in American public eduation.

So it appears Obama has reached the perfect compromise: He won't attend the NEA Panderpalooza event in DC this weekend, but will have his speech beamed in via satellite. Good call, I think.

It is worth noting that John Kerry also made the decision four years ago to skip out on the NEA Panderpalooza event, appearing via satellite with his recently-announced running-mate, John Edwards. NEA boss Reg Weaver didn't take too kindly to the snub (remember when he held up his cell phone so that all 10,000 delegates could scream their disapproval at once?)

I think it is safe to say the the political "golden era" for the NEA is long past...

On Monday night DFER Intern Ben Wrobel attended the Council of Urban Professionals’ (CUP) Distinguished Leadership Series, during which speakers Mayor Byron Brown of Buffalo, NY, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer of Trenton, NJ and former Washington, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt discussed the challenges facing today’s American cities. Below he offers his thoughts on the evening:

Monday night's event provided me with some interesting insights into cities' problems and their potential solutions. A main theme of the discussion was the need to marry private innovation to public government, despite their seemingly disparate agendas. The speakers reached the conclusion that the private sector can and should play a large role in the redevelopment of any city, by contributing their unique expertise and offering support in areas where their elected counterparts tend to fail.

It seems that this philosophy applies particularly well to education reform. Charter schools are an example of the marriage between private interests and local governments – in areas where the existing school systems have proven ineffective due to administrative incompetence or simply bureaucratic clutter, charter schools are a privately run but publicly financed alternative. A well-intentioned businessman can contribute to the community by donating or volunteering time or services to a school.

Hopefully this discourse between the nation’s private and public leaders will continue on with constructive results.

At a forum the other day in L.A., Brewer lamented that no one is really in charge (one of the main reasons why no one is ultimately responsible.)

"There are so many things that protect adults in this system that have to change," Brewer is quoted as saying on the LA Times education blog.

Then, speaking of the school board, Brewer implored: "Give me political cover to kick some ass and make some changes."

Prediction: Since Brewer has now figured out where the bodies are buried, he will be gone by Christmas break... Thanks for trying, Admiral!

After only one year in Albany, New York State Senator Craig Johnson has made a splash in the education reform movement.

Sen. Johnson made history in 2007 as the first Democrat elected to represent New York's 7th District in over 100 years. Backed by the support of a constituency crying out for change, Johnson vigorously fought for education funding for the 16 schools in his district. 

In 2007, despite his relatively short time in the Senate, Sen. Johnson broke ranks with his party and secured $25 million for the 7^th district – a 19.27 percent increase from the previous year. This was a record amount of school budget funding for the district and the largest increase that year of any senate district on Long Island.

However, Sen. Johnson knew that no amount of money could fix a broken system and defied the status quo by joining New York’s charter school movement. Johnson immediately became an outspoken supporter of the legislation to lift the cap on charter schools from 100 to 200. His timely election helped fuel the momentum of the successful legislation.

Sen. Johnson’s passion and skilled political maneuvering are a product of a political background and a lifetime as a New York citizen and politician. He was born and raised in Port Washington, Long Island, where he still lives with his family. His mother, Barbara Johnson, was also a local politician. Sen. Johnson replaced her on the Nassau County Legislature in a special election after she passed away in 2000. He served for four terms on the Legislature, where he was given the reigns of a $2.2 billion budget and helped save the county from bankruptcy as the youngest-ever chairman of the Finance Committee. In the Senate, Johnson serves as the Minority Member of the Senate Local Government Committee.

With a whole career ahead of him, Sen. Johnson will undoubtedly continue to be an unabashed champion of education reform.