Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
Total Victory For The Children
In a scathing opinion, Los Angeles trial judge Rolf Treu ruled that California’s laws governing teacher tenure, teacher layoffs and teacher dismissals were unconstitutional. Judge Treu said that the evidence presented in the case of Vergara vs. California was not only compelling, but “shocked the conscience.” Most shocking of all, and what likely most moved the judge, was the testimony of the children who were the plaintiffs in the case.
Beatriz Vergara, the high school sophomore from Pacoima who was the named plaintiff in the case, testified that her seventh-grade history teacher made “rude comments.” How rude? According to Beatriz, her teacher “would call us stupid and tell us that we’re going [to] clean houses for a living, and that Latinos are going to end up being ‘cholos.’”
Elizabeth Vergara, sister of Beatriz, testified that her eighth-grade English class covered one chapter of an assigned book over the course of an entire year.
Teacher Tenure Decision Major Civil Rights Victory
The court stood with students and against the powerful unions issuing a ruling that held California public school tenure law is unconstitutional. Moved by testimony and evidence that it takes years and costs schools millions of dollars to dismiss highly ineffective teachers who received tenure after only two years, the court’s ruling striking down California’s tenure laws is a major civil rights victory for our students, especially those in low income areas. The Schwarzenegger Institute is pleased to see the court standing with our students today, and recognizing the negative impact our current tenure and seniority only laws have on their education.
As Secretary of Education for Governor Schwarzenegger, I was proud of his work with civil rights groups on behalf of our students in fighting to make sure that every student received a quality education and every classroom had a great teacher. Too often, it is nearly impossible to pass needed education reforms through the legislature, which is why our administration worked with the court and on constitutional grounds reached the Williams settlement to help our poorest schools.
NFIB/CA Releases Study Showing Minimum Wage Increase Would Cost California More Than 300,000 Jobs
Back in February, I wrote a column for Fox and Hounds declaring Senate Bill 935 a ‘Main Street Menace’. We were hoping that the ‘heads up’ to those in the California State Legislature would help to prevent the bill’s passage. Unfortunately, in late May, the bill passed on a party line vote of 21-12. It is beyond disappointing that our elected officials opted to pass this legislation and further strive to decimate private sector small businesses and working families.
Today, NFIB released a study on the impact of Senate Bill 935, which would increase California’s minimum wage to $13.00 per hour in the next three years and pave the way for future increases in the minimum wage depending on future inflation. This increase comes less than a year since Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 10 in September 2013, which raised the minimum wage to $10 an hour – a 25 percent increase on employers. (more…)
Vergara Ruling Exposes CTA’s Hypocrisy
The California Teachers Association is the most powerful special interest in California. They often run ads touting how much they care about education and our students, while at the same time steadfastly defending laws that make it virtually impossible to fire grossly ineffective teachers who can have a devastating impact on the education of students. Yesterday a judge in Los Angeles exposed this hypocrisy by ruling that CTA-backed laws protecting ineffective teachers are illegal because they deprive our children of a quality education.
“Evidence has been elicited in this trial of the specific effect of grossly ineffective teachers on students. The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience…There is also no dispute that there are a significant number of ineffective teachers currently active in California classrooms…The number of grossly ineffective teachers has a direct, real, appreciable, and negative impact on a significant number of California students, now and well into the future for as long as said teachers hold their positions.” (more…)
Inland California Needs to Get in the Zone
California’s dream is shrinking inexorably, and only radical steps can prevent the condition from becoming permanent. Compared with previous economic expansions, fewer state residents and communities are benefiting from this recovery, which has largely been restricted to the small coastal zone surrounding the Bay Area, as well as certain parts of western Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.
As the economy has strengthened, what is called a “boom” in the mainstream media is really a story of one region. Some 300,000 jobs have been created as the recovery has strengthened over the past 15 months,but three-quarters of them have been concentrated along the coast, mostly in the San Francisco-San Jose corridor. (more…)
Why is the Controller’s Race So Often Close?
This is not the first time in recent memory that the state Controller’s race went into overtime to determine a winner.
In both the state Controller’s race of 1994 and 2002 Republican Tom McClintock had to wait until after Election Day to see if he won the job. He lost both times, first to Kathleen Connell by 2.3%, then to Steve Westly by less thee-tenths of one percent, a mere 16,811 votes out of over six-and-a-half million cast.
The nip-and-tuck race for second place in this year’s Controller’s race has as much tension as California Chrome’s run for the Triple Crown. Like the California horse, two of the three contestants vying for the second spot in the general election to battle Fresno mayor Ashley Swearengin will run out of the money. (more…)