Election Round Up

Last month, Achieve noted in Perspective newsletter that the 37 upcoming gubernatorial elections - along with the many important down ballot races across all 50 states - would undoubtedly have a major impact on the future of education reform across the country. Now with the results in, beginning in 2011, 24 states will have a new governor in office. Among the 35 states in the American Diploma Project Network, 18 new governors and five new K-12 superintendents of education were elected, promising significant change.

Advocates of the college- and career-ready agenda should see this new class of state leaders as both a challenge and an opportunity. While turnover is always a challenge to the sustainability of any policy - and education is no exception -the opportunity to engage new leaders who can sustain and build upon college- and career-ready reform efforts is very real. With our country's economic competitiveness at stake - and 83% of voters, no matter their party affiliation, agreeing that "all students should be pushed to take rigorous and broad academic requirements in high school to make sure they have as many options as possible upon graduation" - it is a critical time to ensure newly elected officials are aware of and engaged around the policies that aim to provide all students with the academic foundation necessary to compete in postsecondary education and jobs in the global economy.