Public education secretary predicts significant student improvement

New Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero made a bold prediction before the Legislative Education Study Committee on Tuesday: Significant improvements in student outcomes are imminent across the state.

“What I do want you to hold me to, personally, is that you’re going to see outcomes — not just little outcomes, not moving the needle,” Romero said to legislators. “We’re going to have dramatic outcomes for the state in a very short amount of time.”

Now in his 10th week on the job, Romero told lawmakers he’s starting to check items off the list of priorities he enumerated earlier in his tenure, namely tightening up the department’s data and implementing the latest legislative changes and budget allocations.