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.
< blush >
I still think McClintock is a bit of an arrogant jerk.
That said, I hope everybody in California reads this.
Don't bother talking reason or logic with Norms Revenge. He remains to this day this sites worst McClintiack. He's completely hopeless and absolutely will not listen to reason, logic, or anything else that might resemble intelligent thought.
As I said in my last post, I think McClintock is a bit of an arrogant jerk, and I would NEVER have forgiven him had he cost us the Governor's election, but since he didn't, there is no denying that he's a very smart and knowledgable guy who's right on most of the issues, so he's certainly worth supporting if the situation is right. I'd consider him for Governor in 2010, although it would pain me a little to see his recall stupidity being rewarded, he'd govern the state well.
Serve the people? HAH! Maybe people benefiting from the New Majority business interests, and his Greenie friends like Bonnie Reiss and RFK, Jr., but that's about it. His ambition is a narcissistic need for power and the desire to create a Kennedy-like legacy, similar to his 'great' father-in-law, founder of the Peace Corps, that he so often mentions.
And the state is still in rotten shape, and getting worse. More debt, higher spending, more leftists in power (appointed by Arnold), more land put under conservancy, etc. etc. etc.
It has already been demonstrated to you and others many times that this is an absolute falsehood. Repeatedly posting lies only continues to demonstrate your lack of credibility. Keep it up!
Absolutely correct!
Perhaps you should show the courtesy of pinging someone instead of sliming NormsRevenge behind his back. Since you didn't, I am.
And, while I'm at it, your statements are utter rubbish, IMO. NR applies more reason and logic than 95% of the people posting on these threads. He selflessy posts the daily California news so that we might all enjoy it and engage in honest debate. While being a consistent conservative, he shows moderation and tolerance of those with alternative opinions. Instead of saying 'thank you', you stab him behind his back. That tells me a lot about you.
If he'd been talkin good about you, I wouldn't have exposed his bad to everybody like this, but under the circumstances... POW!!! RIGHT IN THE KISSER!!! (now maybe he'll remember his manners next time)
Ain't it the TRUTH!!!
Lex, the truth hurts some folks feeelings here so be gentle.
The Recall didn't just happen all by its lonesome... and as you related, it could have as easily been rejected as well, and the conservatives would have gotten blamed for that as well.
A lot of folks had gotten tired of the stinkpile that StinkyMento had become and still is... but if ya buy the lie that only aRnie could draw moderate and indie support, well, then , it was inevitable we would continue to flounder as a state.
Rather than go the conservative path, a lot of folks bit for a Trojan Horse and a Q factor and little else to offer but hype.
Now we will endure countless weeks and months of more flame ads, etc, and for no guaranteed betterment of our state's condition.
The travesty is we have wasted 2 years and borrowed too much and allowed the c"Rats programs to remain in place uncut and funded fully and also, the GReens were ushered into numerous positions of power and influence as well.
Hey Muchacho.
Thanks for the compliment.
Ya know if I was a real loyalist and TomBot to the last tooth in my slacking jaw, I'd be kicking Tom in the arse for cozying up to anything aRnie is proposing, but he is a politician after all and crafty and as shifty as anyone in Sacramento today. And some folks hold that against him, Go figure.
At least he can get an idea across without a script rewrite every time a dem or union protests or the media reveals his shortcomings. We have gone from Squeaky Pete to Re-Pete2 in less than 10 years, but we sure had fun running up the debt, huh?
lso, AIt's not like these necessary reforms and such haven't been talked about for years by folks like Tom, but then, we all know he's irrelevant in the grand scheme of things when moderates and GReens run the party and its new agenda of reform, It's for the children, yaknow..
Were so over-run with both these colors that you'd think we were being governed by their mixture again... the "BROWN's!!! (Jerry & Willie Brown!)
They were too paniced to proceed without their "celebrity security blanket" because they thought people would look at Tom's off kilter eye, instead of his steady stream of truth and solid ideas!!! Now everything's off kilter!!!
Those idiots have never taken care of land and don't know the first thing about what it takes. They are destructive to habitat and are cashing in on the powers with which they fan their egoes, never mind that too often the land suffers for it when they are done. As far as managing habitat is concerned, they suck.
I've been here for over 4 years.
But I don't post all that much, largely because of morons like yourself who stick their nose into other people's business and don't care to debate things rationally.
...now were not only over-run with "RED's," but "GREEN's," as well!!! Were so over-run with both these colors that you'd think we were being governed by their mixture again... the "BROWN's!!! (Jerry & Willie Brown!)
ROFL! Great application of the color chart!
I don't really give a crap that he knows what I say about him, I've made it clear before, but you sticking your nose into my business is beyond immature and rude. You certainly have no right to lecture me about courtesy.
That may everybody's first mistake, at least in California.
I can't believe you McClintock folks actually believe that.
Although I'm sure you could find isolated incidents of D's voting Yes on the recall and for Bustamove, you have 0 evidence to show that it had any significant impact.
And your second assertion, that most of the McClintock supporters would have stayed home instead of voting is A. Unsubstantiated and B. says a WHOLE lot more bad things about them then I would ever even bother to say.
And even if you buy both of these things, there is absolutely no way it would have been enough. The Recall won 55-45. I dare you to find one reputable analyist actually say there is a decent chance that would have overturned the outcome.
I'm not from a particular wing of the Republican party. I am logical numbers type person that deals with reality and I base the political situation on what is, not what if!
Arnold was about 4 times the candidate at this time for the recall election. Without all the Democrat cross-over votes going for Arnold, Bustamante would have been the winner of that race.
Your principles are great for losing and advancing future losses and that is about it.
THE ONLY WAY YOU WIN AND MAKE A CHANGE IN CALIFORNIA IS THROUGH S*T*E*P*S.
I don't consider Arnold to be a perfect or most conservative candidate at all, but I do know he was the only chance to currently change the power structure and to begin steps in a positive direction for the advancement of a good business climate in California again.
Your principles mean nothing when balanced against what is winnable with the current crop of voters.
The goal is to get who you can elected, and to then slowly change the voting pattern of the general public so we can install stronger and stronger conservatives over time as a permanent thing.
McClintock is ruined in this state regarding a higher office like Governor. He did not follow the plan of winning the state in steps and instead tried to promote his own political career well after it was time to get out.
McClintock is a divider, not a uniter in CA and he will get the Democrats elected to office far more often than not IMO.
In the end, sure I want far more conservative leadership in CA, but if you think that is going to happen with one candidate overnight, dream on.
It can only happen in steps or it won't happen at all.
McClintock's bridge burning of the last election has ruined him for good.
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