Author: Scott Harris

There are two things that almost all Californians agree on. First,
our public education system is failing its most important
constituents – the students. Second, the California State
Legislature, California Teachers Association, along with entrenched
bureaucrats and administrators scattered throughout the public school
system, have effectively blocked incremental, meaningful reform.

Efforts to stop significant and lasting change could not be any more
staunch or selfish than those that have thwarted mere incremental
reform, meaning we’ve seen the worst the irradicable can do.
Therefore, it’s time to be bold and enact four dramatic measures that
would transform public education in California and make it a source
of pride, not embarrassment.

Public education in California is remarkably expensive and a
spectacular failure.

For years, public education was a source of pride in California and
the envy of the other 49 states. However, decades of mismanagement
and poor decisions have dropped us to the bottom of the national
list, barely able to beat out such educational juggernauts as
Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

A quarter of all California high school students drop out. That
number increases to one in three in the massive Los Angeles Unified
School District, with some high schools showing a more than 50%
dropout rate. For those students who do make it to their senior year,
more than 10% are unable to pass the California High School Exit
Exam. This ridiculously easy graduation standard requires students to
get 55% of 8th grade-level math questions correct and 60% of the 10th
grade-level English questions right.

The most important initiative on November’s ballot is Proposition
11. In simple terms, Prop 11 will take redistricting out of the
hands of the legislature and create a 14 person (5 Democrats, 5
Republicans and 4 others) independent committee. Every 10 years the
California State Legislature goes into a dark room, redraws the
legislative districts to virtually guarantee the status quo (just
about the only time the two parties can agree on anything), and
effectively prevents real reform in Sacramento for another 10 years.

Let me give you 11 excellent reasons to support Prop 11 this November
and end the current incumbent protection program.

1. Last month’s Field poll shows that only 27% of Californians think
our legislature is doing a good job. Yet, 99% of our state
legislators are reelected. Either we are stupid, or the system is
rigged. Personally, I would rather think we’re not stupid.

Any time a family member was pregnant, my mother-in-law would pick
two large family events and make two separate and competing
announcements: one, the baby will be a girl and two, the baby will be
a boy. On the day of the birth she would proudly remind us all of
how she had accurately predicted the baby’s gender and even remind us
of the event where she made the proclamation. My mother-in-law
missed her calling and while she could not have cared less about
politics, she should have been a political expert.

Last summer there were two certainties in presidential politics.
One, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for president.
She could not be beat. She had the name, the husband, the money, the
connections, the organization, the staff and the support of the
party. The other summer of ’07 certainty was that John McCain’s
candidacy was dead in the water. He was too old, too moderate, too
independent (or not independent enough), his staff was in disarray,
and he didn’t have enough money to run an effective campaign. As a
matter of fact, if you missed those McCain news stories last year,
not a problem. The exact same stories are being run today.

Once again with the California State Legislature and Governor
Schwarzenegger failing to uphold their promises, their duty and the
law, the nation’s largest, most important and most poorly run state
is operating without a budget. The law requires the Governor’s
signature on an approved budget no later than July 1. For the
sixteenth time in the past twenty years, Sacramento has missed the
deadline. With no agreement in site, maybe we’ll beat the 2002-2003
record of no new budget until September 5.

In the meantime, while ineffective and petty politicians play around
with our money, California’s credit rating drops, vendors go unpaid,
and state government is unable to effectively plan because they don’t
know what their budgets will be. Private businesses and residents
hold their breath to see which programs are cut, which loopholes are
closed, which taxes are raised, how much money is borrowed, and how
many creative ways can we mortgage our kids future against our failures.

I just finished another guilt-inducing article on the environment
that had two main points. First and foremost, it appears I am
personally responsible for the global warming crisis and the
resulting, unavoidable death and destruction. Second, no matter what
I do, or how I change my lifestyle, it will never be enough.

Much of the “frantic” messaging we are receiving reminds me of the
conflicting dietary messages from one decade to the next. Eggs are
good for you, eggs will kill you. Drink a glass of milk a day – if
you want to cut short your life. Alcohol is bad, except for the
glass of wine a day you should drink to live to be over 100 years
old. Early on I paid attention, but eventually, I simply tuned out
the back-and-forth between competing dietary “experts” and the
resulting media hysteria. Not surprisingly, the answer (simply
enough) appears to have been moderation, a lesson that would serve us
well now.

Sadly, Mildred Loving passed away on May 5 and didn’t live to see the
California State Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage. I
did not know Mrs. Loving, but I believe she would have applauded the
decision.

In 1958, Mildred, a black woman, married Richard, a white man in
Washington, DC. They then moved back home to Virginia and were
promptly arrested for “cohabitating as man and wife, against the
peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.” They avoided a jail sentence
by returning to Washington but challenged the Virginia law,
eventually leading to the 1967 Supreme Court decision (Loving v.
Virginia) which ruled the Racial Integrity Act of 1924
unconstitutional and opened the door for interracial marriage
throughout the United States. There was immediate, loud and
predictable public outcry: a sin, abhorrent, will rip apart the
fabric of society, certain to destroy the institution of marriage,
dangerous to the children, etc. Excluding a few knuckle-dragging
racists, interracial marriage is now pretty much a “duh,” as is
“interreligion” marriage.