A great choice

It was announced today that Jack Scott will become the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges in January when he is termed out of the the state senate. Jack is an increasingly rare commodity in the legislature. He is principled. He is also smart. Over his time in the Assembly and the Senate he has held a variety of leadership positions including chairing both budget subcommittees on education. Before he ran for the legislature, Jack was a professor at Pepperdine and then President of Pasadena City College. In each case he performed with distinction. He has a great ability to bring people together.

Two out of three of the leaders of the public sectors of higher education will be new beginning in the new year. California could benefit from leaders like Jack who want to improve performance. We graduate people from high school at about 20% lower than the best states in the country. And as you look at the statistics above high school (number of AA degrees produced, time to a BA degree) our numbers are well below where they should be. In the next couple of years, all of education needs to get better at working together. Jack has helped some efforts to progress in that direction.

Before today's announcement we would have lost his contributions (That is not a comment on term limits) - now he will continue to offer California some additional service. We can use the help.