Posted on 04/29/2005 11:55:57 AM PDT by ZGuy
Schools Superintendent Alan Bersin agreed to leave his San Diego position in June, but is moving to something bigger.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Bersin as his State Secretary of Education Friday, 10News reported.
"Alan is a reformer and the perfect choice for secretary for education at this critical time for education in our state. He is a great leader with the tremendous qualifications necessary to guide our efforts to make sure California's kids get a quality education," said Schwarzenegger.
Bersin started the "Blue Print For Student Success" to improve literacy and math skills while cutting art and music programs.
Test scores went up, but Bersin's opinion rating went down.
Some parents, teachers and union leaders worked to gather 40,000 petition signatures last fall, encouraging the school board to oust Bersin.
His contract was supposed to expire in 2006, but last January Bersin and the five board members agreed to end the contract this June.
In response to the appointment, former San Diego school board member, John de Beck issued the following statement.
"Arnold won't help his re-election campaign with this controversial appointment. If he doesn't need to carry San Diego, this is a good choice."
Criticism to Bersin's appointment also came from the San Diego Education Association, which represents the teachers union.
"The whole office of secretary for education is a useless bureaucracy. This shows how out of touch the governor is with teachers and school employees across the state," said San Diego Education Association spokesman Terry Pesta.
I wouldn't be so quick to draw that conclusion. IIRC, even Roger Hedgecock had complaints about Bersin's Blueprint a few years ago, although I don't remember the details (maybe it had something to do with hiring expensive consultants but not delivering anything, or it could have been something else).
I wondered about that too, and what actual power he'll have.
Contributor |
Occupation |
Date |
Amount |
|
Recipient |
BERSIN, ALAN |
SAN DIEGO/SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT |
11/1/04 |
$1,000 |
|
DNC Services Corp |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
Bersin, Alan D Mr |
San Diego Schools/superintendent |
10/11/04 |
$2,000 |
|
DNC Services Corp |
San Diego,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
SAN DIEGO CITY SCHOOL/ADMINISTRATOR |
3/31/04 |
$1,500 |
|
Kerry, John |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
SAN DIEGO CITY SCHOOL/ADMINISTRATOR |
7/22/03 |
$500 |
|
Kerry, John |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
CITY OF SAN DIEGO SCHOOLS |
4/24/03 |
$1,000 |
|
Boxer, Barbara |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
S.D. CITY SCHOOLS/ADMINISTRATOR |
10/11/02 |
$250 |
|
Swett, Katrina |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
SAN DIEGO CITY SCHOOLS/SUPERINTENDE |
3/14/02 |
$250 |
|
Cole, Janice Mckenzie |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
SDUSD/SUPERINTENDENT |
2/4/02 |
$250 |
|
Kurpiewski, Elle |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
REQUESTED INFORMATION |
8/27/01 |
$250 |
|
Davis, Susan A |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
SAN DIEGO CA |
3/20/00 |
$500 |
|
Kelly, John |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN MR |
SAN DIEGO CITY SCHOOLS |
6/29/99 |
$1,000 |
|
Gore, Al |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
DOJ |
8/29/96 |
$200 |
|
Rathbun, Randy |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
U S DEPT OF JUSTI |
5/20/96 |
$1,000 |
|
Boxer, Barbara |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO |
1/13/96 |
$1,000 |
|
Wyden, Ron |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92106 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
USD |
4/30/93 |
$250 |
|
Kerrey, Bob |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92107 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
|
12/15/92 |
$1,000 |
|
Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund |
SAN DIEGO,CA 92107 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
|
8/21/92 |
$6,000 |
|
Democratic National Cmte |
LOS ANGELES,CA 90071 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN |
|
7/29/92 |
$5,000 |
|
Democratic National Cmte |
LOS ANGELES,CA 90071 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
ATTORNEY |
7/8/92 |
$1,000 |
|
Clinton, Bill |
VENICE,CA 90292 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
MUNGER, TILLIES & OLSON |
1/16/92 |
$1,000 |
|
Clinton, Bill |
LOS ANGELES,CA 90071 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ARTHUR |
SUPER DRUGS |
1/16/92 |
$500 |
|
Clinton, Bill |
LOS ANGELES,CA 90034 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ARTHUR |
SUPER DRUGS |
6/17/92 |
$500 |
|
Clinton, Bill |
LOS ANGELES,CA 90034 |
|
||||
BERSIN, ALAN D |
|
6/21/89 |
$400 |
|
Levine, Mel |
LOS ANGELES,CA 90071 |
|
Lisa Foster
Reno Names Prosecutor as 'Border Czar'
Los Angeles Times, Oct 14, 1995(snip)
Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has appointed U.S. Atty. Alan Bersin to a newly created post of "border czar," which will oversee the far-flung array of law enforcement agencies at the U.S.-Mexico line, Justice Department officials said Friday.
The designation of Bersin as the attorney general's special representative on border issues represents an unprecedented effort to improve the fight against drug and immigrant smuggling and overhaul a bureaucracy that suffers from internal conflicts, corruption and inefficiency. It also recognizes that the traditional federal approach--dividing the border into geographical and jurisdictional fiefdoms--falls short of the complex reality of the almost 2,000-mile-long boundary, which requires a comprehensive strategy, officials said.
While remaining the top U.S. prosecutor in San Diego, Bersin will report directly to Reno and coordinate multi-agency projects, such as using the FBI to target immigrant smuggling as organized crime and reorganizing inspections by the INS and the Customs Service, officials said. Bersin also will represent the attorney general in discussions with the Mexican government on immigration, drugs and other binational issues. The relationship between the two countries on border affairs has improved over the past several years but remains fraught with tension.
Bersin, 48, attended Yale and Oxford with President Clinton and Harvard with Vice President Al Gore. He worked in private practice in Los Angeles and taught law in San Diego before being named U.S. attorney in November, 1993. He quickly became the Justice Department's unofficial point man at the border, embodying a Clinton Administration enforcement campaign that has combined substantive progress with aggressive public relations.
(snip)
"He will be the attorney general's eyes and ears," Justice Department spokeswoman Carol Florman said. "The importance that the southwest border has taken on needs a more coordinated approach than a normal governmental structure will allow. This is reinventing government, to some extent."
-----------------
Official Defends Expelling of Drug Suspects
Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1996(snip)
U.S. Atty. Alan Bersin on Friday defended his office's policy of expelling some suspected drug smugglers from the United States rather than prosecuting them, saying, "We think we are getting a better deterrent at a cheaper price."
Bersin, the Clinton administration's border czar, was supported in his contention by his two predecessors as the top federal prosecutor in San Diego and Imperial counties, both appointed by Republican presidents.
William Braniff and Peter Nunez, also speaking to the private, nonprofit San Diego Crime Commission, said expelling some suspected smugglers and yanking "green cards" that allow them to enter the United States is a better way to deter drug smuggling than taking a chance of prosecuting them for misdemeanors.
The Times reported Sunday that hundreds of smuggling suspects apprehended at the border with substantial quantities of drugs were sent back to Mexico without prosecution under a program adopted by Bersin's office two years ago.
Secretary pick sparks outcry in California
http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/nation/story/2355159p-10593344c.html
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer
Posted: Friday April 29th, 2005, 6:07 PM
Last Updated: Friday April 29th, 2005, 6:07 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed the superintendent of San Diego schools Friday to be state education secretary, a pick that alarmed the teachers union and signaled continued friction between the governor and organized labor.
Alan Bersin, 58, will take the job when Richard Riordan resigns in June. Riordan, the former Los Angeles mayor and a political ally of Schwarzenegger, announced Wednesday that he will step down.
"Alan is a reformer, and that's what I love about him," Schwarzenegger said at his downtown office with Bersin at his side.
In Bersin, Schwarzenegger found an ally whose record suggests a willingness to confront organized labor, which has been feuding with the governor over school funding and other issues.
Bersin, a former federal prosecutor who has led San Diego schools since 1998, pushed reforms that caused division in the district. He emphasized literacy and math skills, hired highly paid consultants and increased teacher training.
Test scores went up, but some parents and teachers said the improvements came at the cost of arts, music and other elective programs.
"During his seven-year tenure in San Diego, Alan Bersin's top-down bureaucratic style divided the community, hurt teacher morale and failed to significantly improve student learning," said Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association.
The choice "shows how out of touch the governor is," said Terry Pesta, president of the San Diego Education Association, which represents 9,000 teachers and staff in the San Diego Unified School District.
The education secretary advises the governor and promotes policies but has no authority over the Education Department, which is led by state Superintendent Jack O'Connell.
"I'm not a governor that represents the unions - I represent the people," the governor said when asked about his strained relations with the union. "They are against the reforms that we want."
Alan D. Bersin, a University of San Diego law professor, is slated to become the new U.S. attorney for San Diego and Imperial counties, legal and political sources said Thursday.
Sen. Barbara Boxer has recommended to President Clinton that he nominate Bersin, 46, a Rhodes scholar with the President in the late 1960s, for the highly coveted position of top federal law enforcement official in the two counties, both of which border Mexico.
Sam Chapman, Boxer's top aide, would say only that the senator has sent her recommendation to Clinton. Although the President makes the formal nomination, senators are usually accorded considerable deference on these appointments.
(snip)
Chapman said that in making her selection, Boxer "relied heavily" on the advice of a committee of eight San Diegans, headed by Sister Sally M. Furay, provost at the University of San Diego. The committee included three Latino lawyers, two of whom are women; retired federal Judge J. Lawrence Irving, and discount store executive Sol Price.
Bersin worked at the Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson from 1975 until last summer when he moved to San Diego. His wife, Lisa Foster--an attorney and Common Cause leader--is from San Diego, and Bersin was active in the Clinton campaign there.
(snip)
... Sergio Feria, president of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Assn., said Bersin would do a fine job and bring a fresh perspective to the office.
(snip)
Although Bersin has never been a prosecutor, he specialized in complex fraud cases at Munger Tolles. He represented the Philippine government in its efforts to recover millions of dollars looted from the country's treasury by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda.
In another high profile case, Bersin was one of several Munger Tolles lawyers who helped Salomon Bros. clean house in the aftermath of financial scandals at the brokerage firm.
(snip)
A native of Brooklyn, Bersin studied political science at Harvard University, where he was an all Ivy League football player. After spending two years as a Rhodes scholar in England, he studied law at Yale University and moved to California in 1974.
----
La Raza ??
aRnold is clueless. He criticizes the borders policy yet appoints La Raza supporters, nt to mention a diehard liebral in wolf's clothing..
What the hell is he thinking?
oh, That's right. What the hell is Maria thinking. ;-)
If only he were a moderate. :-\
Well, to be fair, La Raza was supporting him, as opposed to vice versa.
I find the Buffett ties more disturbing. (Salomon Brothers and Munger Tolles).
Arnie is a Trojan Horse and will keep putting these folks in office as long as he can still hide behind the (R) next to his name.
WAKE UP folks! This has to stop.
You probably feel better but they aren't suddenly going to realize they aren't conservative, that the Austrian couldn't possibly be a conservative and they won't stop supporting/excusing his actions.
Thank you.
"WAKE UP folks!" was not.
Sometimes my frustration overwhelms my better senses. :-)
What a phoney existance!!!
>>"maaaaaaaaaaaaderats" maaaaaaaaaaaintering
I figured out the "moderates" part, but I can't decipher the rest, LOL.
Apply the same "ah" sound to the letter "a" as I applied in the previous word "moderates," and you get the Boston equivalent of monitoring!
"A." The vowell that started a movement!!!
Bersin really did a good job stopping the illegal aliens coming in..
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