SACRAMENTO—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s education secretary has resigned after 18 months in office.The governor promoted David Long to the job while promising that 2008 would be a year of education reform. But the effort fizzled as the state budget deficit grew.
Long was Riverside County superintendent of schools before becoming Schwarzenegger’s fourth education chief in five years. His resignation letter, made public Thursday, says he wants to start a new chapter in his life.
The administration is searching for his replacement.
California splits oversight of its public schools: The governor appoints the education secretary and state Board of Education, but voters elect the superintendent of public instruction. Democrat Jack O’Connell holds that post.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept 11, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Education.com, the leading destination of choice for parents of children in preschool through high school, today announced that it will provide free access to its popular SchoolFinder data to websites and blogs through its newly developed SchoolFinder tools.
Education.com’s SchoolFinder launched in February of this year and is a resource that gives parents free access to comprehensive, up-to-date information on more than 125,000 public, private, and charter K-12 schools. SchoolFinder provides both qualitative and quantitative information — including school profiles, performance metrics, student and teacher statistics, interactive maps, and reviews written by parents. Education.com invested in developing SchoolFinder in order to ensure that parents can easily access accurate information about their current schools or schools they’re considering for the future.
Education.com CEO Dr. Ronald Fortune explained of his company’s decision to offer its SchoolFinder data to other websites, “It’s critical that parents have the opportunity to learn more about the schools they’re considering for their children. We weren’t satisfied with the fact that it was easier to research your family’s new car than it was to research the institution you’re entrusting with your child’s education. Pulling this data together for every public, charter and private school in the nation was a herculean effort and we’re incredibly proud that it’s available to the nearly one million parents who visit Education.com each month. We are committed to getting the information to the parents of all 57 million school aged children in our country so it made sense to develop the SchoolFinder tools and offer them to other sites. We’re delighted that Zillow.com has deployed the Web Service and look forward to working with other high quality websites and bloggers to further increase the visibility of this critical data. We believe anyone writing about education, real estate, or parenting on the web should be giving their readers this information.”
Zillow.com, one of the most-visited real estate Web sites, has become one of the first to incorporate Education.com’s SchoolFinder data into its site using the new Web Service.
“At Zillow, our goal has always been to help people become smarter about real estate and neighborhoods in every stage of the home ownership process. Having accurate, up to date and thorough information about the schools where you currently live, or are thinking about moving, is incredibly valuable,” noted Zillow’s Jorrit Van der Meulen, vice president of partner relations. “We’re excited to provide Zillow.com visitors across the country access to Education.com’s SchoolFinder data through our extensive Neighborhood Pages.”
Education.com’s newly introduced SchoolFinder tools enable approved websites and blogs to easily display SchoolFinder data on their sites at no charge. The SchoolFinder Web Service enables developers to create their own applications by providing free access to the comprehensive SchoolFinder database. Developers can easily request an Application Programming Interface (API) key to access the Web Service on Education.com and integrate the SchoolFinder data with other information on their sites. The SchoolFinder Widget allows websites to post customized snapshots of local school data with no development investment. Simple instructions for customizing and publishing a SchoolFinder widget can be found at .
About Education.com
Education.com provides parents of school aged children free access to information and resources to give them answers they need about raising and educating their children — plus activities designed to make learning together more fun for everyone. Often called “The WebMD of education”, the company has teamed up with the leading teachers, psychologists, universities, non-profits, and research organizations to offer highly credible parenting, developmental, and educational information. The site also offers printable activities, discussion boards, access to best of breed educational services, and SchoolFinder — a tool that gives parents comprehensive data on the nation’s 125,000 schools. Education.com was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Redwood City, CA. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms
The national education program has overlooked children in remote areas, with the government keen on letting NGOs take over the job, experts say.
While some NGOs have successfully addressed the issue of poor access to formal education for children in outlying areas, the government still has a role to play, the Institute for Education Reform’s Utomo Dananjaya told a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“It’s okay if NGOs are successful, but government officials shouldn’t lose sight of their responsibility. What is the huge education fund for?” Utomo said.
He was speaking to participants of the “Second Public-Private Partnership Discussion Series”, organized by the Sampoerna Foundation. Wednesday’s theme was “Basic Education Services in Remote Areas”.
Like health and infrastructure, education is a priority the government must address in remote regions, Utomo added.
