Blagojevich, Day Two

Alyson Klein of Education Week's Campaign K-12 blog offers up a post reporting that the Illinois Education Association -- the state's NEA affiliate -- is calling for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's resignation, following his arrest on corruption charges yesterday ('Illinois Governor Arrested on Corruption Charges'). Join the club.

Alyson's blog post underscores the education-related point I made in my post yesterday: that Blagojevich was decent with respect to providing funding for education, but not tackling vexing reform issues.

If Blagojevich is ousted from his post because of the allegations, it doesn't sound like education organizations in the state will miss him much.

"According to our members it would not be a huge blow," said Ben Schwarm, an associate executive director for the Illinois Association of School Boards. He said some districts had been angry with Blagojevich for his refusal to support a dedicated funding mechanism for education, although he did acknowledge that schools had gotten spending increases during the governor's tenure.

Ken Swanson, the president of the IEA, agreed that Blagojevich had been "a roadblock" to educators' push to get a designated revenue source for schools. The union endorsed neither the governor nor his opponent during Blagojevich's 2006 re-election bid.

Here's the IEA statement.

Oh, by the way, happy birthday, Rod!

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Illinois Governor Arrested on Corruption Charges

Let the jokes about politics in Illinois begin...

Here is a lesson about how NOT to go about filling a political vacancy if you are a Governor. (Chicago Tribune: 'Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Arrested on Corruption Charges')

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a "staggering" level of corruption involving pay to play politics in Illinois' top office.

Blagojevich is accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy, including alleged attempts by the governor to try to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. Blagojevich also is accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

Innocent until proven guilty, of course. Either way, it would be pretty difficult to recover from his 13% approval rating. But, at least, he gets to keep his name on those Illinois Tollway signs, at least for a little while longer.

While in office, Blagojevich has been a decent education governor, providing needed resources to schools, but not tackling any of the truly vexing issues, such as school finance reform. That's all irrelevant in comparison to today's breaking news.

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