Good news for school reformers and educators: Mike Johnston has won the State Senate seat vacated by Peter Groff. He garnered 64 of 126 first-ballot votes cast in tonight’s Democratic confab to fill the seat.
Johnston, a 34-year-old wunderkind, currently serves as principal of Mapleton Expedtionary School of the Arts. During last year’s presidential campaign, he was an advisor on education issues to Barack Obama.
He has an all-star educaional pedigree: Yale undergrad, Yale law and Harvard graduate school of education. Read a brief bio here.
The good news is that Mike has worked extensively with low-income kids, here and in the Mississippi delta. he understands the challenges and is a deep and creative thinker on education issues.
Losing Peter Groff to D.C. was a real blow to school reform in Colorado. Groff had grown into a passionate and forceful advocate for systemic education reform. Although Mike will lack the seniority of the departed Senate president, he will bring the same level of passion, commitment and smarts to the table.
Popularity: 3% [?]
A highly credentialled reformer that is an expert on policy and practice, legislative ed debates are going to get much more interesting.
[...] to the Interim Committee to Study Financing of Public Schools. The Democrat is education reformer Michael Johnston, who was selected by a committee to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Senator Peter [...]