Schwarzenegger signs education reforms that will let Calif. to compete for federal money

Schwarzenegger signs major school-reform package

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law sweeping education reforms that will let California compete for up to $700 million in federal money.

Schwarzenegger signed the bills Thursday at a middle school in Los Angeles. He praised them as landmark reforms that once seemed politically impossible.

Many of the steps were opposed by teachers unions and other education groups.

Among other changes, the reforms will link teacher evaluations to student performance and allow parents with children in the worst-performing schools to send them elsewhere.

State officials will be allowed to close failing schools, convert them to charter schools or fire the principal and half the staff.