California Board Of Education

The California Teachers Assn., one of the state's most politically powerful unions, suffered a rare rebuke Thursday when Republican state senators blocked the confirmation of a union leader to another term on the state Board of Education. The Senate rejected Joe Nunez, the CTA's deputy executive director and a chief architect of public labor unions' successful campaign against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2005 effort to upend Sacramento politics.

Few people have worked harder than Joe Nunez to sabotage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political fortunes. A high-ranking teachers union official, he helped engineer the governor's embarrassing defeat in the special election last year. So to Republicans, it was nothing short of infuriating and confounding that Schwarzenegger would appoint Nunez to the state Board of Education. He handed a Democrat and avowed enemy one of the most prestigious patronage jobs in government.

A divided state Board of Education on Monday adopted far-reaching new guidelines for reading and English language arts textbooks aimed at California's elementary and middle school students, despite objections that the materials do not do enough to help students struggling to learn English.

A state Assembly budget panel moved Tuesday to strip funding from the state Board of Education and to allow school districts broader discretion in buying textbooks for students. The action, led by the Assembly's caucus of Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and African American legislators, comes a day after a divided board voted to adopt new textbook guidelines for elementary and middle schools that detractors contend are ineffective for students who speak little or no English.

Supporters of a state Senate bill that has mired educators in a debate over how best to teach English in schools pledged Wednesday to block funding for the state Board of Education until the question is resolved. The defiance was in response to statements by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week that he would not support SB 1769, which would allow districts broader discretion in buying textbooks for California's 1.6 million English learners.

A senior member of the state Board of Education who has advocated English-language reading instruction for immigrant children could lose his position on Wednesday amid a furor raised by bilingual education advocates. Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Democratic political donor Reed Hastings was appointed to the state education board by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2000. He was reappointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last January, but must be confirmed this week by the state Senate.

Democratic lawmakers made their first public rejection of a nominee of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday, refusing to reappoint to the state Board of Education a Silicon Valley businessman opposed by advocates of bilingual education. The fight over Reed Hastings, however, had more to do with Democratic Party politics than with the Republican governor. Hastings is a major Democratic donor first appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, in 2000.

The California Board of Education on Thursday selected the Educational Testing Service to continue administering the state's mammoth testing program. The New Jersey-based ETS, which for three years has produced and distributed exams taken annually by nearly 5 million California students, would continue its work through the 2008-09 school year under the plan. The company tentatively pegged the cost at nearly $170 million, although the final price still needs to be negotiated.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put his stamp on the state Board of Education Thursday, appointing seven members well known for their advocacy of charter schools, enhanced power for local districts, after-school programs and arts education. Schwarzenegger reached across party lines and chose four Democrats to fill new or unexpired terms on the 11-member volunteer board, which sets policies for California's 8,000 public schools on testing and academic standards, among other things.

The state Board of Education handed a key victory to leaders in a small South Bay elementary school district Thursday by authorizing a local vote on their effort to split from the Centinela Valley Union High School District.