Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law sweeping education reforms that will let California compete for up to $700 million in federal money.
Many of the steps were opposed by teachers unions and other education groups. Among other reforms, they will link teacher evaluations to student performance and allow parents with children in the worst-performing schools to send them elsewhere.
Local school governing boards will be allowed to close failing schools, convert them to charter schools or fire the principal and half the staff.
Schwarzenegger signed the bills Thursday at a middle school in Los Angeles. He praised them as landmark reforms that once seemed politically impossible.
Related
