John Fensterwald contributed to this article.
It was a season of upsets, near hits and student successes for education in the just ended Legislative session.
Back in April, two of the state’s most influential school administrators, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy and Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson, testified before the State Senate Education Committee seeking to make it easier to fire teachers. Coming on the heels of the widely publicized sex abuse scandal at LA’s Miramonte Elementary School, lawmakers seemed primed to approve at least one of the trio of bills before them. None made it through both houses.
Legislators took a harder line on student discipline, but from a decidedly different perspective. They approved six of seven bills calling for alternatives to suspensions and expulsions for behavior that’s not violent and doesn’t involve weapons or safety threats. Gov. Jerry Brown signed four and vetoed two.