Governors in the two most populous states are both raising the ante on school accountability.

Armed with a boatload of research from 22 different reports, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is tackling some of the same issues that so famously brought him down early on in his administration. In addition to once again urging a change in the state's teacher tenure laws, the report calls for making it easier to enter the profession (don't try that in Montana!--see below), and more rewarding to stay in it. Other policy proposals include merit and high-needs incentive pay and that ever popular but elusive revamping of professional development.

On the other coast, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recently launched his Contract For Excellence. The plan focuses on "performance accountability," a euphemism for Spitzer's pledge to dismiss not just ineffective teachers, but principals, superintendents, and even school boards.

Under this threatening declaration, the state School Boards Association fired off its own plan, saying a lot about how to streamline the process for firing a poorly performing teacher but staying clear of school board members.

In a surprising display of goodwill, the state teachers union praised Spitzer's plan.