A few folks pointed out that in Monday's Dispatch [1] we had given anti-public school activists too much credit for success when we said that Texas, Lousiana, and Kansas had passed the 65% Distraction into law.
In fact, public school advocates in Texas were able to block legislative enactment of the 65% mandate in 2005; instead, Governor Perry did an end-run around the legislature and issued an executive order [2] attempting to impose the 65% mandates on state schools-- an act of dubious legality that may not have much teeth without implementing legislation.
And Kansas only made the 65% figure a public policy goal" [3] that even its advocates admit is nothing more than a "recommendation" not a requirement for districts, just as the vote in the Lousiana legislature was a non-binding request [4] to the state Board of Education to implement the proposal.
So that makes Georgia's new law [5] the only one with legislative sanctions against school districts that don't meet the arbitrary 65% rule.
We regret indicating more momentum behind the silliness of the 65% Distraction that there actually is -- and if progressives keep educating the public, hopefully we can leave Georgia as the only state with it actually embedded in binding state law.