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By John Fensterwald

In the education bills that he vetoed last month, Gov. Jerry Brown made his “don’t” priorities clear to legislators: Don’t tamper with the Local Control Funding Formula; don’t mess with charter schools; don’t create new state mandates; don’t push new spending; and don’t create new state commissions and agencies to examine the limited state data that he does allow.

Brown has been sending those messages consistently, and longtime gubernatorial observers credit him for this, while acknowledging he’s open to exceptions when it comes to doing what he considers best for kids.

That can explain signing Assembly Bill 329, requiring all districts to provide sex education, and Senate Bill 359, requiring all districts to create a uniform policy for placing students into 9th-grade math.

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