Budget & Finance
Orange County Register to publish school salaries, names
November 03, 2010
William Diepenbrock, The Orange County
Register In less
than two weeks, the Orange County Register will publish the first
in a series of stories about compensation paid to the nearly 72,000
employees of our 27 local school districts and the county
Department of Education. The package, which has already generated
much discussion among school employees, uses data obtained via a
Public Records Act request from the county department and
supplementary data requests fulfilled by the local
districts...
Fullerton teacher librarian is last one standing
October 18, 2010
Yvette Cabrerra, The Orange County Register
In California, as we plod
through this not-so-great recession, there are two kinds of
education-related cost cuts in play – the sexy kind and the
not-so-sexy kind. Any reduction in spending that might crank up the
number of kids in a third-grade classroom, for example, is easy for
parents and other taxpayers to understand. Same for cuts that wipe
out arts classes or PE or, the latest craze, several school days a
year. All those cuts, popular or not, attract attention and debate.
In short, they're sexy. But farther down on the radar is another
kind of cost cutting – the one that wipes out the often stereotyped
resource known as the school librarian...
New state budget dodges pension fixes
October 18, 2010
Column: Robert Enlow, The Orange County
Register More
than three months and thousands of IOUs later, California lawmakers
finally came to an $87.5 billion budget deal that included what
they are calling bold steps toward public-employee pension reform.
Instead, lawmakers just kicked the can – a $326.6 billion retiree
obligation – down the road and onto future taxpayers...
Teachers, other unions, drive in reverse
October 14, 2010
Column: Teryl Zarnow, The Orange County
Register In
America, we focus on staying in drive. Moving forward feels like it
brings us closer to progress and greater prosperity. But the
current economy is difficult precisely because it feels like we're
doing the opposite of what we want. These days, few are getting
ahead, many are falling behind, and the best case, often, is to be
stuck in neutral. Union contracts graphically illustrate the point.
Gone are new deals that call for increases in workers' salaries and
benefits. The object today is to hold ground or mitigate the loss.
Teachers contracts offer an example...
Lawsuits push radical school-funding reform
October 13, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
Educators, parents and
activists are pressing two lawsuits against the state, hoping to
radically reform how California funds schools – much as did a
landmark case in the 1960s that helped create the system now in
place. Both lawsuits argue that the complex system inadequately
funds education for all students – an argument also central to the
1968 Serrano v. Priest case that started California down the road
to equalizing funding among poor and wealthy districts. The Serrano
case led to increased state control over schools, a status
solidified by Prop. 13's changes to the property tax
system...
School funding more efficient in other states
October 11, 2010
Scott
Martindale, The Orange County Register Compared with California's school
finance system, other states tend to take a simpler, less
restrictive approach to earmarking education dollars for specific
uses, delivering the funds more efficiently and keeping political
posturing at bay, experts say. While the California Department of
Education administers some 68 categorical programs for such
specific needs as student nutrition, school safety and technology
upgrades, most other states have far fewer categorical programs –
as few as two or three, or none at all, according to a recent
national survey of categorical programs by the Bethesda, Md.-based
Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. Just as
significantly, other states tend to have fewer restrictions than
California on how earmarked funds can be spent and how that
spending must be documented...
State's fiscal peril drives $4.5 billion schools re
September 29, 2010
Fermin
Leal and Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
A revolution is brewing
that could shift control of billions in public education dollars
from the state to local districts – the most fundamental change in
how schools are funded since the state took charge of the system 32
years ago. Both Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman are calling for it.
Parents and local educators demand it. Even Sacramento legislators
tacitly acknowledge it must happen and have begun laying the seeds
for it. It's all about $12 billion scattered across dozens of pots
of money – up to a third of all state school funding – that carry
myriad strings limiting their use to such efforts as special
education, nutrition or school safety...
Capo district workers to take 9.5% pay cut
September 28, 2010
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
All non-teaching,
classified employees in the Capistrano Unified School District will
take an average 9.5 percent pay cut this year under a mutual
agreement expected to be approved Tuesday night by district
trustees. The concessions, totaling $5.3 million, will allow
Capistrano Unified to replenish its rainy-day reserve fund, which
was nearly wiped out last June as trustees struggled to approve a
balanced spending plan for 2010-11. Nearly 2,000 employees who are
members of the California School Employees Association will be
affected...
Study: Dropouts cost state billions
September 15, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
A new study says that
California's high school dropouts cost state taxpayers more than $1
billion in Medicaid payments and another $1 billion in lost tax
revenue. The study, "California's High School Dropouts: Examining
the Fiscal Consequence," comes from Foundation for Educational
Choice, a national group that promotes open school choice and
school vouchers…
ACLU suit: 6 O.C. school districts charge illegal fees
September 10, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
The American Civil
Liberties Union on Friday sued the state and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger for allowing public school districts – including six
in Orange County – to charge fees for books and other essential
educational supplies. The class-action suit says the districts are
charging students for text books, Advanced Placement exams, science
lab supplies, P.E. uniforms, cheerleading outfits and dozens of
other school-related costs. The suit claims these fees violate the
state Constitution’s provision for a free public education. The
suit lists 32 districts, including Capistrano Unified, Orange
Unified, Los Alamitos Unified, Anaheim Union, Irvine Unified and
Tustin Unified...
State targets $96 million for O.C. school jobs
September 02, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
Orange County will receive
$96.8 million to save the jobs of hundreds of teachers and other
school employees, the state announced Thursday. State
Superintendent Jack O'Connell released the preliminary amounts
targeted for public school districts from the federal jobs bill,
signed by Pres. Barrack Obama last month. California will receive
$1.2 billion from the federal legislation. State lawmakers approved
a bill earlier this week outlining how the funding would be
dispersed among districts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected
to sign the bill in the next few days. State officials said it will
still take several weeks before districts will begin receiving the
funds. The money will be distributed based on enrollment size and
attendance rates...
Saddleback school district imposes 13.5% pay cut
August 31, 2010
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
The Saddleback Valley
Unified School District unilaterally imposed an average 13.5
percent pay cut on all of its non-teaching, classified employees
Tuesday, after nearly a year of failed contract negotiations with
union leaders. All 1,286 district employees who are members of the
California School Employees Association union will take a 2.8
percent salary cut, 10 to 15 mandatory days of unpaid leave,
freezes to their longevity raises and increased costs for health
insurance. The two-year plan, retroactive to July 1, was approved
in a unanimous school board vote...
Teachers say today's challenges argue for smaller class sizes
July 21, 2010
Column: Carol Veravanich, The Orange County
Register Q. I
don't think teachers are "spoiled" by the smaller class size at
all. The number of children who need more intensive assistance or
attention is much higher than it used to be, yet there are far more
standards and benchmark testing that our teachers need to prepare
students for than in decades past. This also necessitates more time
spent on individual testing, which means less time for general
classroom teaching. Most people aren't aware of this. Top this off
with the on-going layoffs of many of the support staff, custodians
(who just by their presence add to the security and safety of a
campus by moving around and monitoring the campus), library
personnel, etc. – teachers will have to do more to compensate for
the loss of this assistance…
Teachers can teacher larger classes – and do so well
July 13, 2010
Column: Carol Veravanich, The Orange County
Register Q.
Recently, I was going through a box of old pictures and came across
a picture taken in 1970 of my first-grade class. It brought back
fond memories of a sweet, loving teacher I still remember! Today, I
read your column about the first grade teacher who is nervous about
teaching next year because her class size will increase to 33
students. So, I went back to the photo and counted the students in
my class. There were 32 of us. I must confess, I think teachers
today are spoiled by the small class sizes and, honestly, I don't
think our children are doing better than we did 40 years ago. I
hope this teacher looks within herself and considers where her
passion is and, if it is teaching, then I hope she has the same
impact on her 33 students that my first grade teacher had on
me…
Teacher strike nets Capistrano $1.7 million
July 06, 2010
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
It crippled the Capistrano
Unified School District for three days, causing lost instruction
time, wild swings in student attendance and unexpected bills for
substitute teachers, security guards and consulting fees. In the
end, though, the teacher strike in Orange County's second-largest
school district in April netted Capistrano $1.7 million in extra
cash, even after all of the bills were paid, according to a
Register financial analysis…
Free summer meals for scores of O.C. kids
June 27, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
School districts throughout
Orange County will start serving free summer lunches and breakfasts
this week to scores of students as part of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Summer Meals Program. Dozens of schools, parks,
community centers and other sites in communities in Santa Ana,
Tustin, Garden Grove, La Habra and other locations will serve
sandwiches, pizza, pasta, burritos and other meals through the end
of August. No forms are needed. Everyone under 18 is
welcome…
Free lunch for students over summer break
June 25, 2010
Elysse James, The Orange County Register
A free breakfast and lunch
is provided to students in the Seamless Summer Program through the
Tustin Unified School District Nutrition Services
Department...
Class sizes, custodians hit by Saddleback's $33 million in cuts
June 22, 2010
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Saddleback Valley Unified
School District trustees on Tuesday passed a $229 million budget
for 2010-11 that calls for increasing class sizes at all grade
levels, cutting custodial services nearly in half and requiring
deep employee pay concessions. The spending plan calls for $33
million in cuts in response to reduced state funding, and restores
none of the deep cutbacks to programs and services made last year,
including eliminating most of the district's bus routes and
dramatically scaling back counselors and school library
staffing…
Parcel tax defeat a call for reform
June 18, 2010
Column: Mike Stryer, Daily News WHY would so many LAUSD teachers - who
theoretically stood to gain so much from the proposed Measure E
parcel tax - celebrate its decisive defeat last week? For the
simple reason that many teachers, together with large numbers of
voters, no longer will tolerate the continued financial
mismanagement by Los Angeles Unified School District. Voters have
clearly communicated that LAUSD should not ask for more money until
it implements meaningful financial reform...
State releases survey detailing school budget cuts
June 16, 2010
Corey G. Johnson, California Watch
Over the last two years,
$17 billion in educational budget reductions have prompted nearly
400 school districts to cut back on maintenance, class materials
and critical faculty, according to a state survey released last
week. In May, 387 school districts, county offices of education and
charter schools answered questions from the state Department of
Education about how they have balanced their budgets in light of
state budget cuts. State officials wanted to know which programs,
if any, were cut or eliminated in the last two school years and if
staff reductions, school closures, or reduced school years were
occurring as the result of funding cuts. The results of the survey
are as follows…
Jerry Brown: Founding Father of the Annual Budget Crisis
June 16, 2010
Mark Standriff, Flash Report In 1978, then Governor Jerry Brown
signed into law the legislation granting collective bargaining
rights to state employees. Since then the state legislature has
fulfilled its constitutional obligation to pass a balanced budget
by June 15th a total of four times over the past 31 years.
The Bad News Bears had a better batting average. By unionizing the
state workforce, Brown and the Democrat majority in the Legislature
set in motion the single most destructive process in California’s
political history; union lobbying and campaign contributions paid
for with taxpayer dollars…
Voters, not leaders, confront Vallejo's mess
June 15, 2010
Column: Chip Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
Two years after Vallejo
made history as the first city in the Golden State to file for
bankruptcy, voters have grasped the city's dire financial situation
even if some members of local government haven't. Residents
appeared to have approved Measure A by a slim margin last week. The
vote count is close and provisional ballots are still being
counted, so results haven't been made official. The ballot measure
would remove binding arbitration from the City Charter, effectively
ending the public employee unions' grip on labor contract
negotiation….
Heat Is On for the Public Employee Unions Heat is On for the Public Employee Unions
June 14, 2010
Larry Sand, Red County Lawyer and journalist Peter Scheer has
written an
excellent article which asserts that our public employee
unions are now in defense mode. (HT – Warner Todd Huston.) Cities
on the verge of bankruptcy, six figure pensions for retired 50 year
olds, tales of employees who have successfully gamed the system and
blatant influence buying have earned the unions in question a trip
to purgatory. And of course all the lavish perks of being a public
employee are at the expense of a populace beleaguered by our anemic
economy. And, we are now starting to see the political
ramifications of an angry citizenry…
Taxpayers Going Postal Over Public Employee Pensions, Perks. Unions’ miscalculation: Opting for secrecy.
June 10, 2010
Column: Peter Scheer, First Amendment
Coalition Public
unions’ traditional strength–the ability to finance their members’
rising pay and benefits through tax increases–has become a
liability. Although private sector unions always have had to worry
that consumers will resist rising prices for their goods, public
sector unions have benefited from the fact that taxpayers can’t
choose–they are, in effect, “captive consumers.” At some point,
however, voters turn resentful as they sense that: (1) they are
underwriting, through their taxes, a level of salary and benefits
for government employment that is better than what they and their
families have; and (2) government services, from schools to the
DMV, are not good enough—not for the citizen individually nor the
public generally—to justify the high and escalating cost. We are at
that point…
Buena Park parcel tax defeated
June 09, 2010
Michael Mello and Amanda Portillo, The Orange County
Register A
parcel tax that would have provided $1 million to the struggling
Buena Park School District suffered a sound defeat in Tuesday's
election. Of about 3,000 voters who cast ballots on the measure,
50.66 percent voted "yes" and 49.34 percent voted "no." The measure
needed more than 66 percent to pass…
Garden Grove's $250 million school facility bond passes
June 09, 2010
Deepa Bharath, The Orange County Register
Voters came out in support
of Garden Grove Unified School District's $250-million bond measure
to help improve aging school facilities. Measure A passed with 59.2
percent voting in favor and 40.8 percent against…
Layoff database: Nearly 350 teachers get their jobs back
June 07, 2010
Fermin Leal and Scott Martindale, The Orange County
Register Nearly
350 teachers and other certificated school staff members have
regained their jobs, either thanks to a layoff warning that wasn't
finalilzed or via rehiring by their districts after they received
their final notice. That brings the amount of certificated staff to
elude layoffs up to 40 percent, with some districts still to report
their actions since layoff warnings were issued March 15. Still,
that leaves about 1,100 temporary teachers and scores of classified
employees facing job losses. In all, our partial list has more than
2,259 employees who faced termination or hour reductions at some
point in school budgeting efforts…
Budget impasse could force IOUs
June 07, 2010
Column: Dan Walters, The Orange County
Register It's a
week before the June 15 constitutional deadline for enacting a
California state budget, an appropriate moment to consider the
status of this year's version of the annual fiscal drama. And that
is? Up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. In the
weeks since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his revised 2010-11
budget, there's been absolutely no progress on closing the deficit
that approaches $20 billion. In fact, the situation may have grown
worse because the extra federal funds that the governor and the
Legislature have counted on are evaporating…
Democrats still default to tax hikes
June 07, 2010
Column: Jon Coupal, The Orange County
Register Like
the proverbial wolf that continues to lick the knife blade because
it enjoys the taste of its own blood, the Democrats running the
Legislature are back with another huge tax increase.. At a time
when the state's economy and taxpayers are still staggering under
the burden of last year's $12.6 billion tax increase, Democrats are
pushing a plan to raise taxes by yet another $5 billion and to
borrow an additional $8.7 billion. Among the proposals are
extensions of last year's increases in sales, income and car taxes
that were due to expire after two years. This goes to prove the
adage that there is nothing so permanent as the temporary…
CUSD And The Strike
June 01, 2010
Column: Larry Christensen, The Orange County
Register The
cuts were neither temporary nor permanent but to be tied to the
State’s ability to reinstate funding back to schools at historic
levels. CUEA conceded the fact that at least a l0% cut was
required, however they touted that since no specific date was given
as to when teacher’s pay would be reinstated then the cuts were
permanent. Strike posturing began almost immediately and the mantra
associated with strike chants built upon the word “permanent”, even
though the word was never part of the imposed language. Though
pre-strike rhetoric against the board was disseminated on a daily
basis the board honored the precondition to remain quiet about
their reasons or viewpoints in order not to violate fair practice
laws by negotiating in public. CUSD offered a date to meet with
CUEA to resolve the remaining issues and to set language for a new
contract in order to avoid a strike. CUEA set that very same day to
strike…
Teacher columnist's layoff rescinded
June 01, 2010
Column: Carol Veravanich, The Orange County
Register I do
not think I complain about my salary. I am not asking for more nor
am I calling for raises. I do grow tired of people saying we are
overpaid, which is not the case, and I think the cuts coming to our
salaries are significant. The last part of your letter really made
me think. I received news today that I have a job next year, where
I thought I was laid off after receiving my final notice. It is a
strange year when this all happens. I am feeling relieved to have
my job back and yet your last sentence about all of those people
who would love to replace me really hit home. I know how true that
is, as I was just one of those people a few hours ago worried about
what I would do for a job next year.
Municipal bankruptcy bill slogs forward
June 01, 2010
Column: Dan Walters, The Orange County
Register To
appease unions looking to make it tougher for cities to go
bankrupt, the bill was laden with amendments that could still leave
cities exposed to creditors ... So far, just one California city,
Vallejo, has declared bankruptcy, but nearby Antioch is considering
it. If the recession persists and revenues continue to stagnate,
others may follow. That's why municipal employee unions are making
a big-time push for legislation that would make bankruptcy more
difficult. The unions' underlying motives are crystal clear. They
fear a bankruptcy judge might rule that a city's labor contracts,
or even pension obligations, could be abrogated. They want to make
municipal bankruptcy more difficult to discourage troubled local
governments from resorting to it…
Reason TV: Strikeburger in Paradise
May 27, 2010
Ed Morrissey, Reason TV, HotAir.com
With much of the national
focus on education and compensation falling on
New Jersey and Governor Chris Christie, Reason
TV takes a look
at a standoff on the opposite end of the country. South
Orange County, California is a wealthy area with plenty of good
schools, but even those districts have to meet a budget, and the
school board has already had one recall over mismanagement in the
past decade. With the economic collapse, state funding has
been seriously reduced, and the Capistrano Unified School District
has to find ways to get its budget balanced. Eighty-five
percent of that budget goes to employee compensation, and that made
it the most logical target for savings — but the teachers disagreed
and went on strike rather than agree to an across-the-board pay
cut…
Dems want to tax, borrow, avoid cuts
May 26, 2010
Column: Dan Walters, The Orange County
Register The California
Legislature's Democratic
leaders, after months of hoping against hope that the state budget
deficit would magically disappear, have finally returned to their
ideological roots, proposing new taxes and new borrowing to avoid
deep spending cuts. Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's no-new-taxes budget would eliminate
welfare grants, hit K-12 education and slash deeply into the
remainder of the social services and health safety net for millions
of poor Californians – anathema to the Legislature's liberals.
However, the nearly $5 billion in temporary new taxes proposed by
Democratic senators and the more than $9 billion in one-time
borrowing favored by Democratic Assembly members, absent some
economic miracle, would, as Schwarzenegger often says, merely "kick
the can down the road."
What it really costs to run an LAUSD school
May 26, 2010
Column:
Louis Pugliese, Daily News IN June, once again taxpayers will be
asked to ante-up in a parcel tax for the financially and
academically bankrupt LAUSD - the money-sucking bureaucratic
nightmare that should have disintegrated long ago and gotten out of
the business of running schools. It's high time that Los Angeles
Unified School District comes clean on the real costs to run a
school - without the added cost of the district administration as
the toll collector. Taxpayers, parents and teachers have the right
to know what operating a school would take without the district's
bumbling bureaucracy, fees, consultants, waste and "encroachments."
Of course, they'll never do that. So maybe it's best we just do it
ourselves...
Cuts will hit teachers hard in June
May 25, 2010
Carol Veravanich, The Orange County Register
Q. Can you do me a favor
and put the cuts coming to our salary in dollars and cents for your
readers so quick to criticize us? Do they know how much is being
taken out of our pay this coming month? These furlough days are a
huge hit to us and yet I keep hearing people say we need to do our
share. How many of them would like to take this huge chunk out of
their pay?
Vermont's pension experiment
May 25, 2010
Stephen C. Fehr, Stateline.org Vermont officials have reached
agreement on a teacher pension plan that could become a model for
financially-strapped states seeking ways to reduce the rising cost
of employee retirement benefits. The
accord between
the Legislature, the state treasurer and Vermont’s largest public
employee union will result in most teachers working additional
years and making higher contributions to the pension fund but
receiving a larger pension check on retirement. The state will
initially save $15 million a year, or about 10 percent of Vermont’s
current budget shortfall…
Lawsuit moves school duel to new level
May 25, 2010
Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee California's perpetual
public debate over the sad condition of its K-12 schools entered a
new and potentially climactic phase last week when a coalition of
education groups filed a lawsuit alleging that the entire 6
million-student system is unconstitutional. The suit, filed in
Alameda County, declares that the state "has failed its
constitutional obligation to support its public schools in a way
that ensures that all students are provided an opportunity to meet
the state's academic goals."
The California quagmire
May 24, 2010
Column: Karl Manheim, John S. Caragozian and Don Warner,
The Los Angeles Times - We share the emerging consensus that
California is broken. State government is failing its citizens in
education, infrastructure, parks and elsewhere. These failures, in
turn, cause counties, cities and school districts to slash their
own services. Given the Legislature's chronic inability to deal
realistically with the state budget, these failures may worsen. The
governor's recent May revise, pilloried in the May 18 Times'
editorial, "Schwarzenegger's 'ugly' budget," is another indicator
that the state's problems are escalating...
State Faces Multiple Suits of Failure to Adequately Fund Schools
May 21, 2010
David Greenwald, The People's Vanguard of
Davis Given the
state of California's economy and cutbacks to education, perhaps it
is not surprising that several different groups are threatening to
sue. On Thursday a lawsuit was filed in Alameda County by the
California School Boards Association, the Association of California
School Administrators, and the California State PTA. The suit calls
for the courts to get rid of the current financing system and to
direct the governor and Legislature to create one that is sound,
stable and sufficient. They argued it prevents six million
students from receiving the education that they are entitled to
under the state's constitution. The suit contends that the state
has failed to prioritize school funding as the constitution and
Prop 98 requires. California has set some of the highest
standards in the county, but ranks nearly last among all states in
per-pupil funding and in the ratio of students to teachers,
counselors, and nurses. The result is that California
students perform poorly compared with those in other states…
Historic Lawsuit Challenges California’s Unconstitutional Education Finance System
May 21, 2010
California School Finance, YubaNet.com
May 20, 2010 - A historic
lawsuit was filed today against the State of California requesting
that the current education finance system be declared
unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a
school finance system that provides all students an equal
opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the State. The case,
Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the
Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the
suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance
system-its funding policies and mechanisms-with the educational
program that the State has put in place. To do this, plaintiffs
allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the
work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public
education to meet the state's own program requirements and the
needs of California's school children; and develop and implement a
new finance system consistent with Constitutional
requirements…
Lawsuit seeks to overhaul school finance system
May 20, 2010
Associated Press, The Orange County Register
A coalition of students,
school districts and education groups sued the state of
California
on Thursday, seeking to
force the governor and Legislature to develop a new system to fund
its cash-strapped public schools. The lawsuit asks the court to
declare the current school finance system unconstitutional because
the state doesn't provide enough money to cover its educational
mandates and programs…
In some states, pension pain yields budget gains
May 20, 2010
Stephen C. Fehr, Stateline.org This is turning out to be a pivotal
year in public pension policy, as states move to bring down
escalating retirement costs that threaten their governments’
stability. Since the Wall Street meltdown in 2008, nearly every
state has taken some steps to curb rising pension costs. But many
of those steps have been minor ones. This year, however, a dozen
states have enacted reforms more substantial than those in the past
… All this has happened against the backdrop of the pension crisis
in Europe, and of global fears that unsustainably generous pension
commitments in American states could cause the same disastrous
consequences as they have already caused in Greece. The events in
Europe brought into focus growing worries about public pension
costs as large numbers of baby boom workers near retirement. It
also magnified a change in the tone and visibility of the public
pension issue that had already been gathering momentum…
School districts lack $1 billion to pay retiree health benefits, grand jury says
May 20, 2010
Diana Lambert, The Sacramento Bee
School officials are
effectively ignoring the mounting debt, the report concludes, and
barring a drastic change of course, could end up bankrupting their
districts or stiffing retirees on health benefits. The grand jury
report recommends that every district immediately start reducing
unfunded liabilities for retiree health benefits. It calls on every
district to include a funding plan in its 2011-12 budget. "All of
those involved – administrators, school boards teachers and unions
– have a responsibility to resolve this problem…"
150 rally against school cuts
May 19, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
About 150 students,
teachers, parents, and others marched along Chapman Avenue on
Wednesday to rally against ongoing cuts to education. The rally,
one of 36 planned statewide, was organized by the newly formed
grassroots group of parents and educators called
California
Advocates United to Save
Education, or CAUSE…
Education rally planned for Orange
May 19, 2010
Diana Lambert, The Sacramento Bee
Students, teachers,
parents, and others plan to hold a rally Wednesday afternoon at El
Modena High to protest ongoing cuts to education. The rally, the
only one scheduled for Orange County, is one of 36 planned
statewide. The newly-formed grassroots group of parents and
educators called California
Advocates United to Save
Education, or CAUSE, organized the rallies to call on lawmakers to
reject further education cuts… More News...
O.C. schools finalize more than 1,500 teacher cuts
May 18, 2010
Fermin Leal and Scott Martindale This year, many districts are relying
heavily on negotiations with unions for furlough days, salary
reductions and other concessions that could pare away at their
layoff numbers, officials said. Capistrano Unified, Magnolia
and Anaheim
Union High school
districts, for example, have already rescinded dozens of notices
after receiving some concessions from unions in new contracts.
Capistrano Unified rescinded 38 of 84 layoff notices to tenured
teachers and other certificated staff after union leaders and
trustees settled a long-running contract dispute. “We are doing
everything we can to retain personnel and not increase class
sizes,” Capistrano Trustee Ken Lopez-Maddox said. “But the state
budget is in a tailspin and we don’t yet know what it holds for
public education. We are doing all we can to brace ourselves for
what Sacramento
might do.”
O.C. superintendents lobby for reforms
May 14, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
Orange County’s public
schools could avert further massive budget cuts if state and
federal lawmakers allow more local control over restricted money
for schools, end unnecessary and unfunded mandates and pay their
fair share of special education costs, county school leaders said
Friday. Twenty superintendents from the county’s 28 districts
gathered at the county Department of Education headquarters to
announce their campaign for reforms they say would relieve much of
the budgetary constraints facing public schools…
Bill looks to fix Prop. 13 'loophole'
May 11, 2010
Dan Walters, The Orange County Register
Altering Proposition 13,
which many public employee unions and other liberal groups support,
would require a ballot measure that it's generally believed would
be impossible to pass. But for decades, those groups have dreamed
of altering the rules governing "change in ownership" so that taxes
on commercial property would increase. In theory, it could be done
with a vote of the Legislature and a governor's signature, but
numerous attempts have failed...
Sacramento grand jury issues dire financial warning to school districts
May 10, 2010
Diana Lambert, The Sacramento Bee
Sacramento County school
officials may be ignoring mounting debt that could bankrupt
districts or leave retirees without health
benefits, according to a grand jury report
released today. Twelve of the 13 districts in the county don't have
enough money to pay the health benefits promised future retirees
and are not setting aside any money to pay them, said the
report...
Bad State to Be In
May 10, 2010
Larry
Sand, Red County We the people must tell all who are
running for public office in next month’s primary and in the
November election that if they will not promise to work to stop our
road to ruin, they will not get our vote. Period. If we don’t do
that, then we will be complicit in the crime that is now being
perpetrated on us by the public employee unions and their lapdogs
in Sacramento…
Calif. ranks last on states tax list
May 10, 2010
California is tied for last place on
yet another study of how and what states tax. The new report,
entitled “Taxifornia,”
is part of the California Prosperity Project by the
Pacific Research
Institute, a
nonprofit, free-market advocate based in San Francisco. It assesses
California’s tax burden, the structure of its tax system, and how
they affect the state’s competitiveness. Taxifornia takes a
different approach in analyzing states’ tax structure and
illustrates that no matter how you slice and dice the data,
California is a high-tax state...
School layoffs: More than 1,915 teachers listed
May 10, 2010
Fermin Leal and Scott Martindale, The Orange County
Register Orange
County school layoff warning list: Search here for teachers and
other staff who have been issued layoff warning notices or who have
been informed their temporary teaching contracts won't be renewed
for 2010-11. School districts are beginning to make final layoff
decisions, rescinding warnings sent by March 15 for some and
finalizing others as the state's May 15 deadline
approaches...
Democrats dreamin' -- a public demanding tax hikes
May 09, 2010
Column: Steven Greenhut, North County Times
California's Assembly
Democrats want you to be part of the state's budget solution, which
is how they are touting a series of live budget forums across the
state. In other words, the state's Democrats want you to show up to
their town hall and tell them how important it is to pass an
initiative stripping away the two-thirds budget vote requirement,
so that they will have an easier time passing budgets with their
tax-and-spend philosophy firmly in place. This ultimately will lead
to the removal of the two-thirds vote requirement for tax
increases. Democrats in California believe that the state's
problems stem entirely from a lack of revenue and tax rates that
they always find to be too low. I can't imagine anything that would
be more destructive to California than giving the majority party
unchecked power to raise taxes...
Referendum on unions in OC
May 07, 2010
Column: Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register (Updated May 11, 2010)"Most residents
probably don't think too much about the Board of Supervisors, but
there is one question that all voters should ponder before Election
Day: "Which candidate has the stomach to stand up to the county's
politically powerful public employee unions?" If a supervisor can't
say "no" to these groups, then the county's finances and public
services will suffer, especially now, when the economy is lean, and
pension debts are growing … This is the showdown we needed and that
I had in mind when I gave my speech," OC Republican Party
Chairman Scott
Baugh told me.
"Voters will be given clear choices between those who want to
reform a severely broken system and the union candidate who wants
to perpetuate the status quo." Baugh is referring to his speech
last year calling on Republican candidates – even in officially
nonpartisan races, such as supervisor – to eschew union
money...
Breaking the Teachers Union Monopoly - Big Changes Ahead
May 06, 2010
Dick Morris And Eileen McGann, DickMorris.com
A perfect storm is brewing
for the nation’s schools and the teachers’ unions that have them in
a stranglehold. Voter anger at the socialist, big government
solutions of the Obama Administration and its Democratic lookalikes
in state capitals throughout the country is about to combine with
massive education funding shortfalls brought on by the unions’
waste of taxpayer money. These forces will combine in November,
2010 to force gigantic changes in school financing and governance,
leading to the prospect of genuine school choice for the poor and
middle class as the rich have always had…
The Most Tax-Burdened States
April 26, 2010
Commentary: Jason Clemens and Robert Murphy,
Forbes The
Golden State? More like Taxifornia. As the pain of April 15 fades, most
Americans are bluntly aware that taxes matter. Too many politicians
and bureaucrats, unfortunately, ignore this. They have forgotten
that taxes change the incentives for people to work hard, save,
invest and be entrepreneurial, the bedrock of a prosperous society.
As the nation struggles with a sluggish recovery and deficits, it's
worth noting the tax differences across the states...
The Left's pension dilemma
April 16, 2010
Column: Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register (Updated April 18, 2010) Most of the
news stories focus, understandably, on the unsustainable costs to
government and taxpayers, as the bill for these millionaires'
pensions come due. There's no escaping the financial problem, borne
of elected officials who have bought labor peace by selling out
current and future taxpayers to the politically muscular public
employee unions. In a down economy, it's impossible to hide the
numbers much longer. But the other real story is that these pension
crises are undermining public services.
Taxifornia: PRI Study
April 15, 2010
Robert P. Murphy, Ph.D. and Jason Clemens, Pacific Research
Institute The
Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in
San Francisco, found that California ranked dead last in a combined
measure of the state's tax burden and tax structure according to
the newly released study, Taxifornia. It is the second study
in the California Prosperity series, a PRI project to evaluate
California's economic performance relative to other
states...
Pension crater much deeper
April 09, 2010
Column: Steven Greehut, The Orange County
Register (Updated April 11, 2010) Looks like
California taxpayers are on the hook to make up public employee
retirement system shortfalls to the tune of a half-trillion bucks.
Union leaders and the politicians they basically own have lashed
out at pension reformers, but the data continue to make it clear
that decades of union dominance and pension-hiking deals are taking
their toll on government budgets and on the fiscal health of the
nation. Could anyone really think it wouldn't cost anything to
create a class of government workers who can retire in their 50s
with 80 percent, 90 percent – or even more than 100 percent – of
their generous salaries?
Breaking bad: California vs. other states
April 01, 2010
Richard Rider, San Diego Newsroom
Here’s a depressing but
documented comparison of California taxes and economic climate with
the rest of the states. The news is breaking bad, and getting worse
(I keep updating this factsheet): -California has the third worst
state income tax in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation’s
2010 State Business Tax Climate Index: approximately 9.5 percent
tax bracket at $46,349, and 10.55 percent at $1 million...
Could School Bus Ads Save School Budgets?
March 19, 2010
Donna Gordon Blankinship, Associated Press Writer, ABC
News/Money The
wheels on the bus go buy, buy, buy: Could school bus ads be the
answer to budget woes?
Getting California's house in order
March 19, 2010
Alan
Bock, Brian Calle and Mark Landsbaum, The Orange County
Register The
state Legislature operates on the apparent notion that it should
spend as much money as politicians want to spend, or at least as
much as their constituents desire to have spent on them. That is a
bankrupting philosophy, rooted in the idea that government is the
granter of wishes, instead of the protector of rights. Ideally,
government would never spend a dime on anything except those things
that protect the peoples' God-given rights from those who would
abuse them. Alas, we don't live in an ideal world...
Irvine school board OKs $19.8 million in spending cuts
March 17, 2010
Alexis Bergjans, The Orange County Register
The Irvine Unified School
District Board of Education unanimously approved more than $19.8
million in cuts and budget reductions for the next two years and
submitted a "positive" interim budget report to the county
superintendent's office on Tuesday. The cuts, to close the
district's deficit and demonstrate IUSD's ability to meet its
financial obligations, include more than $7.8 million in ongoing
savings and almost $12 million in one-time fiscal fixes...
To cut $365 million, schools eye furloughs, short year
March 11, 2010
Fermin Leal and Scott Martindale, The Orange County
Register Orange
County students are likely to lose up to a week of instruction next
year while classes grow ever more crowded, teachers are let go and
course options shrink. Employee furloughs – up to 10 days long –
have joined class-size increases and teacher layoffs as favored
options for balancing 2010-11 budgets at local school districts,
which need to slash $365.3 million even after consecutive years of
deep cuts...
Who could blame us for cussing?
March 05, 2010
Column: Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register (Updated March 22, 2010)
California's
union-dominated,
Democratic-controlled Legislature is temperamentally incapable of
fixing the state's structural budget deficit, given that such a fix
would require reduced government spending and the granting of fewer
benefits to the state's class of government workers. As
Rome
burned, legislators last
week debated a meaningless "no-cussing" measure, which suggests how
out-of-touch these lawmakers remain...
Taxifornia: California's tax system, comparisons with other states, and the path to reform in the Golden State
March 01, 2010
Robert P. Murphy, Ph.D. and Jason Clemens, California
Prosperity Project, Pacific Research Institute
In a quest for solutions,
this second installment of the California Prosperity Project
assesses California’s tax burden, the structure of its tax system,
and how both of these affect the state’s competitiveness. The
research on which this study is based shows that taxes matter. When
we impose taxes on certain things, we basically tend to get less of
those things. Taxes influence decisions concerning work effort,
savings, investment, entrepreneurship, risk taking, and job
creation. These are all things California needs. Additional work,
greater investing by individuals and businesses, and more
entrepreneurship are the foundations for a prosperous society.
Understanding how tax rates, and in particular marginal tax rates,
influence these activities is critical in understanding the
challenges facing California…
Feeding the state budget beast
February 22, 2010
Column: Mark Landsbaum, The Orange County
Register Last
week enough Republican legislators defected to join with
tax-and-spend Democrats to approve $12.8 billion of new, allegedly
temporary, taxes, including another penny on the sales tax, as much
as a 0.5 percent hike in the income tax rate, a drastic two-thirds
reduction of dependent care tax credits and a near doubling of the
vehicle license fee. These people in Sacramento don't live in the
real world. They believe things will improve if they tax people
more even though they already are taxed more than people in 49
other states. They think increasing income taxes somehow is helpful
to Californians who already pay the nation's highest income taxes.
They think Californians who insisted that money raised by the state
Lottery should be restricted to schools will suddenly change their
minds. They foolishly believe Californians will approve a spending
cap for the Legislature even though it would mean an additional two
years of higher taxes. These people truly live in a make-believe
world…
States tackling public employee retirement benefits in 2010
February 19, 2010
Stephen C. Fehr, Stateline.org New Jersey appears headed towards
changing its state employee retirement system this year to bring
down costs. At least 16 other states besides New Jersey are
considering similar changes that could mean lower benefits, higher
retirement ages, freezes in cost-of-living adjustments and
increased employee contributions. Most of the changes would affect
newly hired state workers, but some states are weighing higher
contributions from current employees. The proposals are already
getting major pushback from state employees and retirees and their
unions … California voters may get to decide the fate of state
employee pensions in an election. Signatures are being
collected for at least three initiatives
for the November ballot
aimed at tightening retirement eligibility and offering reduced
benefits to new hires...
State meddling hamstrings schools
February 05, 2010
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010) To
show the results of union dominance of the public education system,
John Stossel, host of Fox News' "Stossel," on a recent show held up
a convoluted chart that detailed, in small print, the amazing
lengths to which New York school administrators must go to fire an
incompetent teacher. The viewer sees a long and detailed chart
filled with boxes connected by arrows. Then, Stossel reveals that
what he's holding up for the camera is only the beginning, as he
lets falls to the floor several more pages that had been hidden,
accordion-style, behind the first page of the termination
procedures chart. The joke – actually much sadder than funny – is
on us, as we realize that there's no way that even the worst
teacher can get sacked and that it's basically impossible to reform
the public school system as it is currently structured. Yet local,
state and federal officials go on proposing reforms that will
surely turn the nations' bureaucratic, government-controlled public
school systems into models of efficiency and high-performance
learning...
Guards union adds insult to injury
January 29, 2010
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010)
Still, we should celebrate good ideas. And Baugh – who told me
Tuesday that he accepts his share of the blame for this situation –
ended his talk with a good proposal: "No candidate will be
supported by this party who receives contributions and endorsements
from public employee unions." Now we're getting somewhere. Union
power needs to be attacked at its many sources, whether it means
proposing pay and benefit cuts that are best for taxpayers but
anger union officials, forcing unions to pay their tab to the state
or exerting some countervailing political pressure to union muscle.
It's heartening that more California officials are recognizing this
truth...
$100,000-plus pension club in Capo schools, Coast College
January 27, 2010
Teri Sforza, OC Watchdog, The Orange County
Register We
continue our “obnoxious” trek through the Big Public Pension Club
of the
California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS)
– adding to our list of
folks collecting more than $100,000 a year from OC
school/community college districts … Capistrano Unified School
District has 16: Sundra Hartman $194,015.64, James Fleming
$141,331.44, Stella Hubert $129,571.68, Geraldine Gordon
$119,301.72, Richard Johnson $117,128.40, Anthony Ferruzzo
$115,577.16, Elaine Hart $113,209.08, Patrick Levens $112,482.36,
Susan MacConaghy $111,425.88, Austin Buffum $110,602.32, James
Walshe $110,255.04, Richard Campbell $105,865.68, Lois Anderson
$105,126.60, Ronald Dempsey $103,703.52, David Schlesinger
$101,996.52, John Hopkins $100,583.88; Centralia Elementary has 4:
Roberta Mahler $149522.40...
Report: economy hurting state's public schools
January 21, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
Orange County's schools
plan to cut $280 million from next year's budgets – after cutting a
similar amount that last year...
Irvine schools' projected deficit now $22 million
January 18, 2010
Alexis Bergjans, The Orange County Register
Irvine Unified School
District's fiscal problem is worse than anticipated as new budget
numbers project a $22 million deficit, a nearly 50 percent increase
from the $15 million figure that the district had been relying on
as recently as early last week...
What's keeping state in sorry shape
January 15, 2010
Column: Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register (Updated March 22, 2010) Listen to
former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, the dean of California
liberalism, in a recent San
Francisco Chronicle column: "The deal used to be
that civil servants were paid less than private-sector workers in
exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.
But we politicians – pushed by our friends in labor – gradually
expanded pay and benefits ... while keeping the job protections and
layering on incredibly generous retirement packages. ... This is
politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide ... but
at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the
fact." The time for honesty is now – or else forget about
reform...
State applies for $490 million more in stimulus funds for schools
January 11, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
School districts and
universities used federal stimulus funds last year to fund programs
and hundreds of jobs that would have lost because of the ongoing
state budget crisis. But because the funds were one-time awards,
many districts are again faced with difficult decisions amid
looming deficits...
Optimism in short supply
January 10, 2010
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010) As
the legislative session heats up in the coming days, there will be
two choices: We can cut down government, unleash the private sector
and allow free and industrious people to rebuild this once-glorious
but now increasingly tawdry state. Or we can avoid the tough
choices, ignore reality and find clever ways to temporarily balance
the budget or not-so-clever means to make it easier to raise taxes.
Those are the only two real choices. It will take a great deal of
involvement and toughness by the people for the first course of
action to come to pass. If Californians follow the second path,
then, quite frankly, the future ain't so bright. The budget
situation will get worse...
Steven Greenhut on the governor: partying on the Titanic
January 08, 2010
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010)
But the state's education budget also is filled with waste. The
state spends 40 percent of its general fund on K-12 education, and
yet many of California's school systems are almost criminally
mismanaged and assure lifelong failure for the poorest students –
thanks in large measure to union work rules and protections for
incompetent, even abusive, teachers. The governor's proposed
constitutional amendment will never come to pass, and, even if it
did, it wouldn't do a thing other than create a legal mechanism to
further expand school spending...
Education spared more massive cuts
January 08, 2010
Fermin Leal, Gary Robbins and Scott Martindale, The
Orange County Register Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won't slash
K-12 or higher education like other services as part of a proposed
budget he announced today, but public schools still face a tough
road ahead, and it is possible Cal State University students will
experience another fee hike. The governor announced his proposed
budget will continue fully funding Prop. 98, the state law that
requires that about 40 percent of the state's budget be allocated
for K-12 education and community colleges...
O.C. schools expect to cut $365 million
January 04, 2010
Fermin Leal and Scott Martindale, The Orange County
Register 2010-11
O.C. school budget cuts: Data sources: Academic Performance Index
provided by the state Department of Education; 2009-10 spending
provided by the O.C. Department of Education; 2009-10 cuts,
anticipated 2010-11 cuts and cut details provided by Orange County
schools. Enrollment data provided by Ed-Data, a non-profit service
that partners with the state to generate California school
information…
Our out of control civil service
January 03, 2010
Willie Brown, Willie's World, The San Francisco
Chronicle The
deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private
sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job
security for life. But we politicians, pushed by our friends in
labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels
while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly
generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as
current workers…
School cuts hurt kids, parents and teachers say
December 18, 2009
Rashi Kesarwani, The Orange County Register
Second- and third-grade
teacher Marie Sykes, whose class size has grown from 20 students
last year to more than 30 this year, said it takes her 50 percent
more time to assess her students' work. For Sykes, the challenge of
teaching a larger class has been getting to know kids at the same
level as when she was teaching 20 students...
Homeowners get $204,000 tax reprieve
December 17, 2009
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Homeowners of a
master-planned, gated community that was never finished will see
one of their property tax bills nearly cut in half this year, after
the public agency that assesses the tax agreed to a one-year
reprieve. The Capistrano Unified School District, which collects a
special property tax known as Mello-Roos to residents of San Juan
Capistrano's Pacifica San Juan community, decided Tuesday to reduce
the Mello-Roos tax by 42 percent for all 63 homeowners...
Capistrano district may not meet financial obligations
December 16, 2009
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Faced with a $25.1 million
deficit in the 2010-11 school year, Capistrano Unified trustees on
Tuesday approved a preliminary spending plan indicating the
district might not be able to meet its financial obligations.
Capistrano's interim plan, due to county education officials this
week, will be filed with a "qualified" certification, a move that
officials say will give the district more time to resolve its
budget woes...
1,000 teachers protest outside board room
December 15, 2009
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Shouting “We are united!”
as passing cars honked their horns in support, about 1,000
Capistrano Unified teachers and their supporters rallied outside
the district’s headquarters tonight to protest the school board’s
insistence on 10 percent pay cuts to balance the district’s budget.
About 700 teachers and other employees arrived in 12 yellow school
buses, packing tightly into the northern end of Capistrano’s
sprawling district office parking lot, wedged between rows of cars
and cement planters. Union leaders pegged the crowd estimate as
high as 1,500…
Up to $36 million in budget cuts likely to hit Santa Ana classrooms hard
December 11, 2009
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
Santa Ana Unified may have
to cut $18 million to $36 million from schools this year because of
the state budget crisis, Superintendent Jane Russo said during a
community meeting this morning. Russo spoke to about 50 parents,
community leaders, city administrators, college officials, and
others during the informational meeting aimed at raising community
awareness about how the state's $10 billion budget deficit will
impact local schools...
O.C. school districts targeting $164 million in cuts
December 11, 2009
Fermin Leal and Scott Martindale, The Orange County
Register At
least five school districts across Orange County will file
preliminary spending plans next week with the county Department of
Education stating that they are unsure they can meet their future
financial obligations. And at least nine districts have already
identified about $164 million in budget cuts for the 2010-11 school
year. More local districts are likely to follow suit, as officials
continue to slash budgets and reassess financial projections amid
the ongoing state budget crisis. (Click here to see our
chart.)...
2010 initiatives: good, bad and silly
December 10, 2009
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010)
Any reform that will actually help fix the ongoing California
government's fiscal mess (serious spending limits, pension reform,
limits on union power, cutbacks in the size of state government,
educational privatization, etc.) cannot possibly pass, given
political realities. Anything that can actually pass will not fix
anything – or might make things worse. We're in a pickle, and it's
unclear how it will all play out...
Derailing public pension gravy train
November 22, 2009
Column: Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register (Updated March 22, 2010) Defenders of
government employees' current retirement system depict critics as
haters of government workers who want public "servants" to spend
their retirement years eating cat food and living in dire poverty.
That's the response I always get when I point to the absurdity of
the current pension system, whereby public employees who qualify
can retire as early as age 50 with 90 percent of their final year's
pay guaranteed for them and their spouse until they die. There's a
lot of middle ground between being a member of California's
"$100,000 Pension Club" and
eating cat food to survive, but this is the emotionalism I've come
to expect from public sector union members who resist even the most
reasonable, fiscally responsible and modest reforms…
Sneaky way to murder Prop. 13
October 30, 2009
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010)
There ain't no such thing as bipartisan, nondivisive reform ... Any
real change to California's dysfunctional political structure and
culture must gore somebody's ox, stir up contentious battles and
draw vicious rebukes. Real reform has to take on the special
interests that are destroying California, otherwise the "reform"
ideas will do nothing of substance to clean up the mess. There is
no reforming anything without going right down the middle and
taking on the heart of the problem – a government that is too big
and special interests, especially government employee unions, that
are so powerful they block any sensible improvement to
anything...
Assessing the State of the Golden State, California Prosperity Project
September 24, 2009
Robert P. Murphy, Ph.D. and Jason Clemens, Pacific
Research Institute California’s current economic woes are
often blamed on the national recession,” said Mr. Clemens. “But the
state’s suffering precedes the current cyclical downturn.
California’s mired economic structure has been hampering growth for
years …Unfortunately, many Californians don’t understand that the
policy under-girding the state’s failing economy still presides. We
believe that the current crisis is a direct result of a
tax-and-spend, regulatory economy that punishes taxpayers. Changes
must be made to our keystone economic policies in order to bring
about recovery and prosperity...
Schools adjust calendars to prevent funding losses
September 08, 2009
Carol Veravanich, The Orange County Register
Q. My son has been back to
school this week, and the impact of the State of
California's
financial disaster is very
obvious in all the classrooms this year. Not only did our great
little school lose some wonderful and talented staff, the classroom
sizes are bigger. This year we not only started a week earlier than
the last three years, we are also getting out a week later in June.
Those to additional weeks are offset by an extra week off in the
winter and spring. I just am curious as to how this realizes any
savings if any to the schools cut in funding. Is this normal, and
what is the idea behind it?
Assessing the State of the Golden State
August 01, 2009
Robert P. Murphy, Ph.D. and Jason Clemens, California
Prosperity Project, Pacific Research Institute
California is
blessed in many ways. The nation’s most populous state enjoys
advantageous trade access to Asian and North American markets, and
its well-diversified economy ranges from basic agriculture to
advanced research and development. California is home to some of
the world’s most prestigious and productive universities, which
serve as hubs of high-tech innovation. California also features a
hospitable climate that offers real lifestyle advantages to its
residents. And yet, with all these assets, the state’s economy is
very ill. The economic sickness, which has manifested itself in the
ongoing budget crisis and worsening debt status of the state, goes
well beyond the current cyclical economic downturn that is
burdening most states. In category after category of economic
performance, the Golden State is generally a laggard state, which
should be unacceptable given its vast potential and natural
advantages...
Time for pushback on pensions
July 26, 2009
Column: Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register Why
should government workers live so much better than everyone else?
And something needs to be done to take on union power and unions'
ability to tap into public employee paychecks for dues to fund
whatever political causes and politicians they choose to embrace.
It took years of craven political decisions to create this mess,
but we can start unraveling it now thanks to the current budget
crunch. When the economy was soaring, public employees didn't waste
an opportunity to enrich themselves. Those of us interested in
sound and limited government should not squander our opportunity
now by embracing half-measures that kick the can down the road.
This is the time for real reform. Let's not waste this
crisis...
Capistrano trustees: No added hours for administrator
July 13, 2009
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Stressing that all
employees need to do more with less, Capistrano Unified trustees on
Monday rejected a request to allow a part-time administrator to
work more days per month than stipulated by her contract. Interim
deputy superintendent bills the district for $1,850 more in June
than what was allowed under her contract…
What would you cut to save money at Capistrano Unified?
February 10, 2009
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Capistrano Unified
officials on Monday unveiled a series of deep cost-cutting measures
totaling $127 million that starkly illuminate just how aggressively
the district will need to scale back its programs and services in
response to anticipated state funding shortfalls. The measures -
ranging from the complete elimination of the kindergarten program
to laying off all district administrators - were presented to the
school board Monday to show what could legally be stripped from the
district's budget, despite community sentiments. Capistrano's
school board will be tasked this spring with cutting an anticipated
$32 million from the 2009-10 school year budget...
Voters face bonds, taxes, silliness
October 23, 2005
Editorial, The Orange County Register
School districts, cities
all over the region want more taxpayer money. The governor's reform
package of propositions, and its opponents, are grabbing the
headlines and the advertising dollars in the Nov. 8 special
election in California, but there are a number of local elections
that governments are using to raise taxes, propose new school bond
issues and make symbolic statements on a variety of
issues...
Making schools accountable
September 30, 2005
Editorial, The Orange County Register
The governor has signed
legislation that will help parents understand how schools spend
their money. Accountability and transparency of public school
finances advanced a step this week with a new bill signed into law
by the governor. It’s SB687 by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo
Alto. It requires that, beginning with the fall 2006-07 school
year, "estimated per pupil expenditures" and "an average of
salaries paid to" teachers at each public school and charter school
be tallied and reported...
Class-Size Reduction Politics
February 10, 2002
Column: James Fleming, The Los Angeles Times
When class-size reduction
was first implemented, the state did not pay the full cost. Wilson
wanted local school districts to make a conscious decision to apply
to participate and to pay a portion of the cost out of their local
discretionary budget. During the first year, the Capistrano Unified
School District assumed 10% of the cost, with the state picking up
the rest. Because of how financing was structured, however, today
the district assumes 24% of the cost, with its local percentage
share continuing to rise each year. The ever-increasing gap between
the state's share and the actual costs that districts must assume
exists because, when the program started nearly six years ago,
districts throughout California hired thousands of new teachers. As
those "beginning" teachers gained years of experience, they also
received automatic salary increases…