Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
The battle with the CTA has been going on since I got involved with California politics ten years ago. Its all kind of a blurr in my mind. As far as I am concerned, the remedies that most people agree on are there, it is just getting them past the CTA road block that is the issue.
My memory on the Exit exam is 2001 but some school districts didn't implement it until last May. The CTA has fought it in court cases and in any other way they can. The Tenure battle has also being going on for at least ten years. Wilson tried to change it, then the Governator, when he failed he put it up in a proposition and it failed. In addition, the social promotion battle has been going on for a while to.
The exit exam has been so successful I hope that it will lead to a wave that will bring in annual testing. I think that is what O'Connel wants and slowly every year more Democrats have been coming around.
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Again, you keep talking about this test like it was something instituted by Republicans, and Democrats have come along only as they could gradually free themselves from the yoke of their CTA masters.
And, again, this is wrong.
O'Connell, a Democrat, wrote the bill that instituted the exit exam.
Gray Davis, a Democrat, made passing the bill a centerpiece of his work as governor.
Republicans at one point threatened to derail the bill, possibly because they believed it wasn't tough enough, but ultimately they did not have the votes for it.
I have been unable to find a vote count, but obviously the bill would not have passed without at least some Democratic support -- and I'm guessing that it was pretty strong Democratic support. I don't know if Repubs voted for or against, generally.
The CTA was mightily opposed, yet somehow the Democratic Party managed to slip from their ironclad grasp.
All of this happened in 1999. The law was then stuck in the courts as a result of a challenge by Public Advocates, which appears to be based on an alleged failure to consider sufficient alternative tests.
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