What We Learned About School Reform in 2012

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Teachers unions remain the Goliathto the school reformers’ David, even in red states. That was thelesson from votes last week in Idaho and Indiana, where unionssuccessfully took on or took out Republican schoolsuperintendents.

In Idaho, three laws associated with Tom Luna, the statesuperintendent of public instruction, were repealed byreferendum, turning back the clock on efforts to phase outteacher tenure, to link pay increases to performance and toexpand online learning. Luna’s counterpart in Indiana, TonyBennett, often called the darling of the national education-reform movement, was fired from his job, despite outspending hislittle-known, though union-backed, opponent by 4-to-1. Bennetthad been an aggressive advocate of vouchers and charter schools,and had called for stronger state control of struggling schools.