Government Appoints Evers and Capo Unified Teacher to Academic Standards Content Commission

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today appointed Williamson Evers -- the husband of Capistrano Unified School District board of education President Anna Bryson -- to the Academic Standards Content Commission.

Joining Evers, 61, on the panel is Lorena Sweeney, 40, an English-language development (ELD)/Spanish instructor and ELD advisor for the Capistrano Unified School District since 1998.

The appointments do not require any confirmation and do not pay any salary.

From the announcement: "The Academic Content Standards Commission was established by SBX5 1 by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to evaluate the national Common Core State Standards for statewide adoption and to make a recommendations to the California State Board of Education on any adjustments necessary to ensure that California’s rigorous standards are maintained."

Schwarzenegger earlier this monthissued this statement on common core standards:

Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on Release of Common Core Standards

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers released the final Common Core State Standards for English-language arts and mathematics:

 

“California leads the nation with our rigorous academic standards, and I am committed to ensuring these standards are upheld. The Common Core Standards released today set a high, though minimum, bar for all states to reach in K-12 educational content to help ensure that every student is college and career ready. I created the Academic Content Standards Commission to consider the Common Core Standards and make recommendations for policy changes to ensure all of California’s standards are as rigorous as or more rigorous than those laid out in Common Core. My appointments to the Standards Commission will be made this week, and my Administration looks forward to receiving their recommendations.”

The announcement with the panel appointments is long, with more bio information:

Download Evers Appointment

 

Comments

[A Real Teacher]

Unbelievable for Evers. What a loser. But Lorena Sweeny is top notch! Go Lorena!

[CUSD Grad, Parent, Teacher, Donor and Voter in Support of Public Education]

Jeanne Jelnick has some amazing kids who've gone through our schools, too. I would imagine she's knowledgeable, vocal, and will be a strong committee member. Still, I hope she knows what Evers stands for.

[goodcapo]

Non-paid position, huh? How much does Evers stand to profit from the adoption of new textbooks adopted from a new set of standards???

[Patiently Waiting for November]

I have no idea how much Evers stands to profit, but I do know that the state is not in a financial position to impose sweeping standards changes that will require districts to buy all new textbooks series'. No district will be able to afford it for years, and we all know the state won't pick up the tab. The financial mess could actually save us all from Evers' influences.

[The silver lining]

This might be just too cynical, but a logical extension of this is that now he appoints his wife to a paying position with the state. Scary considering the ineptitude and nepotism involved and likely-hood of further destruction to public education in CA, but it all makes sense when you look at the crowd from which they come. On the positive side for us, perhaps she'll resign from the Capo Board and we'll be rid of her at the local level.

[MVMom]

So California leads the nation in rigorous academic standards? Who cares? It really doesn't mean much when a large percentage of kids can't meet them. This state is headed straight to the toilet in more ways than I care to list here.

[A Real Teacher]

From my discussions with other educators, Language arts texts probably won't vary much. The common core standards are very similar to ours. The math CCS are more different. They will probably need different texts. Evers is probably rubbing his hands over this opportunity. However, the CCSs must be adopted for CA to qualify for RTTT funding.