Posted on 05/16/2005 2:24:48 PM PDT by calcowgirl
The multimillion-dollar campaign paid by starving teachers unions has finally placed our sadly neglected schools at the center of the budget debate.
Across California, children are bringing home notes warning of dire consequences if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's scorched-earth budget is approved -- a budget that slashes Proposition 98 public-school spending from $42.2 billion this year all the way down to $44.7 billion next year.
That should be proof enough that our math programs are suffering.
As a public-school parent, I have given this crisis a great deal of thought and have a modest suggestion to help weather these dark days.
Maybe -- as a temporary measure only -- we should spend our school dollars on our schools. I realize that this is a radical departure from current practice, but desperate times require desperate measures.
The governor proposed spending $10,084 per student from all sources. Devoting all of this money to the classroom would require turning tens of thousands of school bureaucrats, consultants, advisers and specialists onto the streets with no means of support or marketable job skills, something that no enlightened social democracy should allow.
So I will begin by excluding from this discussion the entire budget of the State Department of Education, as well as the pension system, debt service, special education, child care, nutrition programs and adult education. I also propose setting aside $3 billion to pay an additional 30,000 school bureaucrats $100,000 per year with the proviso that they stay away from the classroom and pay their own hotel bills at conferences.
This leaves a mere $6,937 per student, which, for the duration of the funding crisis, I propose devoting to the classroom.
To illustrate how we might scrape by at this subsistence level, let's use a hypothetical school of 180 students with only $1.2 million to get through the year.
We have all seen the pictures of filthy bathrooms, leaky roofs, peeling paint and crumbling plaster to which our children have been condemned. I propose that we rescue them from this squalor by leasing out luxury commercial office space. Our school will need 4,800 square feet for five classrooms (the sixth class is gym). At $33 per foot, an annual lease will cost $158,400.
This will provide executive washrooms, around-the-clock janitorial service, wall-to-wall carpeting, utilities and music in the elevators. We'll also need new desks to preserve the professional ambience.
Next, we'll need to hire five teachers, but not just any teachers. I propose hiring only associate professors from the California State University at their level of pay. Since university professors generally assign more reading, we'll need 12 of the latest edition, hardcover books for each student at an average $75 per book, plus an extra $5 to have the student's name engraved in gold leaf on the cover.
Since our conventional gym classes haven't stemmed the childhood obesity epidemic, I propose replacing them with an annual membership at a private health club for $39.95 per month. Finally, we'll hire an $80,000 administrator with a $40,000 secretary because, well, I don't know exactly why, but we always have.
Our bare-bones budget comes to this:
5 classrooms -- $158,400 150 desks @ $130 -- $19,500 180 annual health club memberships @ $480 -- $86,400 2,160 textbooks @ $80 -- $172,800 5 CSU associate professors @ $67,093 -- $335,465 1 administrator -- $80,000 1 secretary -- $40,000 24 percent faculty and staff benefits -- $109,312 Offices, expenses and insurance -- $30,000 TOTAL -- $1,031,877L
The school I have just described is the school we're paying for. Maybe it's time to ask why it's not the school we're getting.
Other, wiser, governors have made the prudent decision not to ask such embarrassing questions of the education-industrial complex because it makes them very angry. Apparently the unions believe that with enough of a beating, Gov. Schwarzenegger will see things the same way.
Perhaps. But there's an old saying that you can't fill a broken bucket by pouring more water into it. Maybe it's time to fix the bucket.
Tom McClintock represents the 19th District in the California state Senate. Write to him by e-mail at tom.mcclintock@sen.ca.gov.
What state was that? I ask because here in California, Tom McClintock was the ONLY one who stood up for Republican values and conservative principles. You must have been watching a different election.
That's what you can do when you have more money and guts, than sense!!!
Sorry to hear that. See my #102, below.
LOL!
But let's wave the magic wand and elect him LT Governor - the one office where he can't do any real damage.
You don't think the teachers are wasting their valuable time teaching do you? They have time to take care of the union duties because they all have teacher aides watch movies with the children.
I think the teacher's UNION has the time to do lots of nefarious things, but to then make notes that they have the teachers send home seems to me to be highly illegal.
He really doesn't deserve ANY office in government after the shenanigans of the last governor's race.
I used to think he only needed to get himself marketed better around the state to become successful, but after the last race, I realized he'd be dangerous with more power and his lack of response to the Republican party in California was astonishing. He's really burned any bridges he had IMO.
I like dog catcher for him.
What McClintock was standing on you usually need a shovel to remove.
His betrayal of Republicans in the governor's race when even they told him to step down was not standing up for anything conservative at all. It was an enabling of the Democrat party by attempting to spit the conservative vote.
Had Arnold not been a popular and incredible vote generator, McClintock would have gotten Bustamante elected with his actions.
Yeah, but it's a ping the tail on the spoiler list.
Had you been present at the time of the race, you could have heard Issa yourself all over local radio and TV.
The whole state knows how bad McClintock was no matter how you try and re-wrap this turkey of a candidate.
He's not honorable and that is my biggest gripe with him.
He should probably run as a libertarian with the typical 1% of the vote.
There are politicians who's lust for personal ambition exceeds what is good for the people.
What Tom McClintock put on display here in the CA election for Gov showed he has major ambitions that are personal at everyone else's expense. In addition, he has a low likability problem.
If Tom runs for major state offices, he all but hands the elections to Democrats IMO.
At this point, even if someone waved a magic wand and made him somehow electable, he is still undependable as a conservative team player.
We need to go back to the barrel and get better candidates.
That aside, if he brings up and issue and it gets discussed, GOOD!
"World Languages" indeed!
When did Foreign Language becoming WORLD Language?
More PC speak?
Many years ago, one could honestly conduct a political debate and use math as a tool to illustrate the consequences of decisions in dollars and cents.
Now, there is no such discussion, and the lack of such discussion is perhaps helped by the mainstream media, which glorifies emotionalism over logic.
Nothing is wrong with McClintock or his message.
The problem is communication and educating the voting public, which has been dumbed down to vote with anything but their brains.
And by the way, this problem is self perpetuating in the sense that most public school teachers, administrators, and Ed School profs have math phobia and pass it down to young students in elementary school. By junior high, those students' attitudes are set, and unfortunately it may be that a majority of people in the state have gone through the public school system and are now cast in this mold. They join what is probably a minority of older folks who should know better but don't, and also let their emotions dictate their decisions. No doubt, it's something both major parties and the media are aware of and don't hesitate to use to their own advantage when it serves their interests.
I respectfully disagree with you.
Before the last election, I thought McClintock was a good conservative man who was kind of rotten at self marketing.
The events of the last election where he stayed in with Arnold to split the conservative vote has me deeply against him now.
McClintock had no way of knowing what he did would have not gotten Bustamante in power. He for sure knew before election day that there were greater chances for snowballs in hell than if him getting elected.
He had the Republican party of CA ask him to get out and he didn't do so.
I think he equally deserves our deaf ear on every election he ever goes for in the future.
IMO he proves himself disloyal, not a team player and scary.
I base this on the facts surrounding his behavior in the governor's election and NOT emotion.
As I told you, I don't care what Issa said.
The whole state knows how bad McClintock was no matter how you try and re-wrap this turkey of a candidate.
Prove it. I just heard from a unionized teacher who LOVED this letter. Further, The Field Poll just before the recall election had McClintock with the highest favorable ratings of any of the recall candidates:
Meantime, McClintock's favorable went from 28% to 53%, even as his support for the race stalled and then dropped in the last week. His favorable rating is higher than any of the candidates and his unfavorable is lower...but he is in third place.
This suggests that voters think more highly of McClintock than they do of Schwarzenegger, but they will vote for Schwarzenegger anyway.
He's not honorable and that is my biggest gripe with him.
You have failed to prove it, citing only Darryl Issa's personal statements, which could easily have arisen from a misunderstanding. McClintock has called him a liar, publicly. IMO, you are seeking justification for your opposition during the recall and this is all you could latch onto. Pretty thin.
I've had my issues with Tom McC in the past, but I think (hope) he's shaping up well to be a great Lt. Gov candidate.
Correct. The teachers blame the parents, not realizing that the parents themselves largely products of public schools. There is no excuse.
I home educate my kids. They are both doing college level math as pre-teens. One has nearly completed calculus at the age of twelve. Third grade math was the key.
Tom McClintock did that nicely "for me" the last election by his deeds which spoke very loudly to Republicans and the people of California.
I like this guy !
So did Bustamante.
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