Just eighteen months ago, the Parent Revolution launched with a video making a simple promise to parents – organize the parents in your community, and we will find a way to guarantee you a great school. It was a crazy promise, but we knew it was possible, because when parents stand together and speak with one voice, nobody can stop us. That video launched a massive grassroots movement that proved us right – a grassroots movement which has marched all the way from LAUSD headquarters to Sacramento, demanding the power to fix our broken schools.

Cross-posted at NewGeography.com

Is it any wonder why California’s economy has been so sluggish during the recession? According to the 2010 Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Surveyhttps:>, one-third of the nation’s forty most expensive cities are located in California, deterring businesses from setting up shop in the state. The increases in sales, income, and vehicle taxes in 2009 further depressed the business climate and exacerbated the problem of unemployment. Though local governments are trying to cut costs and boost local businesses, they have not been able to reverse the effects of outrageous taxes and fees.

As one would predict, the ten most expensive cities in California in 2010 are located almost exclusively in the Bay Area or Los Angeles Area. Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco round out the Bay Area localities with San Francisco actually making the top ten national rankings as well. Beverly Hills, Culver City, Inglewood, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Santa Monica all represent Los Angeles County while Rancho Santa Margarita fills the final spot. However, none of these cities joined San Francisco on the national list.

One of the most hotly-contested items on this year’s ballot, one that we all need to pay attention to is Proposition 23. Masquerading as a "jobs initiative," this measure would effectively repeal California’s clean energy and clean air standards.

Four years ago, California put into place the nation’s first policies to spur the development of clean energy and reduce greenhouse gases. These policies have been the catalyst for the creation of more than 500,000 jobs, 12,000 businesses, and for attracting more than $10 billion in venture capital — five times more than any other state.

The last scheduled gubernatorial debate goes off tonight with Tom Brokaw as moderator and one wonders if there will be a surprise launched during the debate to topsy-turvy the race.

Meg Whitman needs to make voters believe she can solve the problems of California. That is all they care about. In the end, the vast majority of voters are not so interested in the battle over Whitman’s maid and Brown’s team’s language. Voters want to believe their vote will make a difference in their lives.

In the three weeks since my last tally, I’ve learned about another 14 companies that have left California completely or re-directed capital to build facilities out of state. The names of the 14 and justifications for listing them appear below. Today’s entry builds upon the Sept. 21 entry 144 Companies Shrink from Calif. This Year – Three Times the Total for All of 2009.

In short:
Total for 9-1/2 months of 2010: 158
Total for all of 2009: 51

Five enterprises represent the type of operations coveted by many California politicians — "green" companies — namely DayStar Technologies, Vetrazzo, SMA America LLC, Enfinity Corp., and Power-One. Those companies have opted for Georgia, Arizona, Colorado and an apparently as-yet-undetermined "overseas location."

This
past week, the California Workforce Investment Board along with the state
Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development formed the state Health Workforce Development Council
(HWDC) to map the future of health care employment in the state.

Over
the past decade, health care has been the one sector in California that job
training professionals could always count on to continue to generate jobs. Even
in the past 36 months of this Recession, while other job sectors in California
were shedding jobs at a rapid rate,  health care continued to hold its own each month, and
sometimes gain jobs. This job growth is shown in the chart below, compiled from
payroll job data provided by Mr. Spencer Wong of the Employment Development
Department.

Rosy Projections is a powerful player in state government, but when I asked around the Capitol for directions to her office, no one could help me. And I couldn’t find a listing for Ms. Projections in any of the political directories in Sacramento, either.

Still we know Rosy exists, because her fingerprints are all over the state budget.

Let’s see, the budget agreement includes the expectation that the federal government — out of the goodness of its heart — will chip in $5.3 billion dollars to shore up Californians’ profligate spending. Certainly that is proof of Rosy’s influence. And then there are the estimates of future revenue that would only be believed by someone who had just put their life savings into Florida swampland. Surely Rosy had a hand in this, too.

Californians following the governor’s race through the media think the choice is between one candidate who doesn’t read her mail and another who doesn’t know how to hang up the telephone.

If the candidates have generated no more light than that on who they are and what they will do once in office, whose fault is that?

Is it the media who revel in covering controversy? Is it the candidates who prefer to argue about these matters rather than the complexities of modern-day California government? Or is it the voters who would want to make their choices on character issues rather than trying to decide which candidate is right or wrong on policy?

Are you sold on Meg Whitman as a governor? Me neither. The state needs big change, and her campaign has offered stale plans and over-the-top political attacks.

There’s not much hope in Meg.

But one must have high hopes for Meg’s money.

Yes, the billionaire candidate has spent north of $100 million. But there’s much, much more where that came from. And so, while Meg doesn’t inspire me, her money does.