“Parent Trigger” Hearing at State Ed Board a Test for Brown
The State Board of Education holds a hearing on the Parent Trigger law today and how the board reacts will be a first test of the Brown Administration’s view on school reform. Last month, Brown, in one of his first acts as governor, dumped a majority of the 11-member education board, removing advocates of the Parent Trigger and replacing them with new members, a number with ties to the teachers’ unions.
Teachers’ union officials have opposed the new Parent Trigger law. The Parent Trigger allows for major changes to be made to an under-performing school, including converting the troubled school to a charter school, if more than 50-percent of the parents sign a petition. One teacher union official complained that the law amounted to "mob rule."
However, some parents see the Parent Trigger as a way to shake up a failed school and seek a better education for their children. In Compton, 63-percent of the parents signed a Parent Trigger petition seeking change at the McKinley Elementary School. A heated battle over the petitions broke out with charges of signature tampering shouted by both sides.
I told you so
On several occasions I’ve made the case that the Legislature
might propose a ballot measure to increase taxes without needing a two-thirds
vote to place the matter on the ballot. The tool is a little-known and rarely-used constitutional provision
allowing the Legislature to amend an existing initiative statute by a
subsequent statute placed on the ballot for voter approval. These statutes can
reach the ballot after approval by a simple majority vote of the Legislature
and the Governor’s signature.
While some experts have dismissed this notion, it is
apparently gaining some initial credibility where it counts, in the
Legislature. A freshman Democrat from Alameda County, Assemblyman Bob
Wieckowski, has introduced legislation to resurrect the California
inheritance or estate tax, which was abolished by voter initiative in 1982. His proposal would use
the majority vote maneuver to place the new estate tax on the next statewide
ballot for voter approval. Legislative Counsel has validated this approach.
“Now for the Hard Part” in California Job Creation
Former New York Times columnist William Safire from
time to time told this chestnut from the early 1950s about Princess Margaret
and the matchmaker: A Jewish matchmaker
had the idea of matching up poor Sammy-a nebbish and a schlemiel–with Princess
Margaret then the world’s most eligible woman. Sammy’s mother would not hear of
it: the Princess could not cook and was not Jewish. After weeks of persuading,
with the matchmaker showing how the alliance with British royalty would help
Israel, the mother gave her grudging approval. The matchmaker heaved a sigh of
relief and said, "Now for the hard part".
What Egypt Protests Say About California
Gov. Jerry Brown’s state-of-the-state effort to link the
Egyptian protests to his budget plan fell flat. But the Egypt protests do hold
one important lesson for California: politics is a family thing.
Just look
closely at the crowds on TV. Or read the news stories in which participants are
described or interviewed. I was struck again and again by one thing: that so
many of the people who took the streets came not by themselves but with friends
and especially family.
Those streets are full of mothers
and daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers and sons. Families clearly had made
decisions together to participate in overthrowing a dictatorship.
Remodeling CA Tax Laws
Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.
During the gubernatorial campaign, job creation and retention was a prominent theme in candidate Jerry Brown’s speeches. And now as governor, his recent State of the State address also included the job theme. Since being elected in November, Brown has been pushing for creating green-energy and manufacturing jobs, investing in education and infrastructure, and improving job-training programs. But Brown is also calling for the extension of $14 billion in taxes, leading many to wonder how extending tax increases can help the state’s job creators.
California legislators spent much of the past year talking about the need to improve job-creating conditions, but with very different approaches, most preferring short-term “fixes” on budget problems, through tax and fee increases.
A recent analysis by the Tax Foundation of changes to state tax law in 2010 shows that of the states in the U. S. that raised taxes, the fixes were usually focused at specific groups, rather than enacting broad-based reforms. And the Tax Foundation analysis questioned Brown’s promise to pursue a ballot initiative in June that would increase the “temporary” taxes.