EdBrief Home | eNews & Resources | Editorials
|
EdBrief Home | eNews & Resources | Editorials |
|
CSBA Leader's Fall from Grace Should Not Diminish Critical Role of Stakeholder Groups The collateral damage from the spectacularly ill-timed affair involving the compensation package and credit card use of the retiring Executive Director of California School Board Association (CSBA) has been magnified by other events that already had public anger running high, like the “retirement” of unpopular BP executive Tony Hayward, and headlines stemming from absurdly high salaries of public officials in the small Los Angeles County municipality known as Bell (population 36,664)... Just Pledging "No New Taxes" Won't Solve the Budget Dilemma The current political climate in our country including Sacramento seems to demand something akin to blind allegiance. With the unflinching (and at times even illogical) opposition to any tax increase being the prevalent and overriding political philosophy of the right, it has become almost impossible for a typical Republican politician to break ranks and take a position contrary to the party line. But we remember that Governor Schwarzenegger once sold himself to California voters as someone who is not a typical politician... Enough is Enough!!! Politicians – of both parties – will periodically say one thing, and then turn around and do another. We get that. We recall a presidential candidate back in the 1980s who denounced “voodoo economics” – and later embraced the very policy he’d criticized. (That same politician pandered to his party’s right wing with the famous slogan “Read my lips, no new taxes” – and then agreed to raise taxes a few years later). We likewise recall a California governor about thirty-odd years ago (who’s still around, and would like another try at the job) who initially opposed 1978’s Proposition 13... The Governor Can't Fool Everyone All the Time Sometimes, a public official makes a statement that’s so obviously disconnected from reality that you almost want to laugh – except that laughing might be too painful. Herb K. Schultz – Senior Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger and Director of the California Recovery Task Force – hit the bull’s eye in this regard on March 15, in a letter to the federal Department of Education regarding California’s “maintenance-of effort” under State Fiscal Stabilization Fund requirements... Jack O’Connell Bows Out – Quietly When Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, bowed out of the race for California’s Governor on October 30, the story made the front page in many parts of the state. At the time, some in the education community wondered if State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell – who had been mulling a run for Governor himself – would get into the race. This just brings to light how little attention O’Connell received when he quietly ruled himself out as a candidate for Governor in mid-October... |
|
