He signaled that a very controversial legislative session is in the offing. Education tops the public's priority list.
Polls show it.
Presidential and senatorial candidates echo it. Governors in California and Colorado and other states made education the centerpiece of their annual addresses. Education was the very first issue he addressed, and he immediately went to the essence of what efforts to improve schools are all about. Welcome words, especially when some want to jettison the new learning standards even before they have been given a chance to work. Pataki backed his rhetoric with substantive proposals to address teacher quality.