CA: Schools chief enters fray over budget-He'll ask SC to void need for 2/3 vote

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 7/18/03 | Christian Berthelsen...

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Sacramento -- California's schools chief said Thursday he would ask the state Supreme Court to intervene in the protracted budget mess and override a constitutional requirement that the annual spending plan be approved by a two- thirds vote in the Legislature.

[Orangedog]

I was wondering how long it would take CA to follow suit with Nevada.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I believe it took 24 hours.

[Support Free Republic]

Your Donation Helps Counter These Guys
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[I_Love_My_Husband]

pingy!

[drypowder]

Yeh, that's a Democrat for you, just like Gray Davis did with prop 187, if a law gets in their way, get the courts to reinterpret it. If the state SC does as this it's time to start recalling the judges. It's simple, the law is the law unless you're a democrat.

[telebob]

I hope this demo A-hole does try pulling this bull move. Nobody will be fooled and it will be the death knell for Davis.

[headsonpikes]

The greed of public sector employees, such as teachers and educrats, takes precedence over any mere whim of the taxpayer!

Socialism Forever!

(/sarc)

[ReagansShinyHair]

Special education -- Adult education -- K-3 class size reduction -- Instructional materials -- Summer school and other supplemental instruction -- Pupil transportation

Special Ed - Big deal. We spend too much on it already. Costs have skyrocketed in the past few years. Let them cut it.

Adult education - Since when is it the state's responsibility to educate adults? It's nice, but not necessary.

K-3 class size reduction - This is already mostly funded on a local level. The state promised money for it but didn't deliver anything close to the amount needed to fund it. Besides...I went to school when class sizes were 32-35. My education was better then.

Instructional materials - Use the ones from last year. Duh.

Summer school and other supplemental instruction - These gravy programs were not even in place 10 years ago. What did we do then?

Pupil transportation - My old district already started charging students to ride the bus this year. Again, this is funded on a local level. When my district started looking at ways to save money, they discovered that throughout all the years, whenever there was road construction a new, alternate bus stop was set up. Those bus stops were never taken away, even though they were no longer needed when the first bus stop came back into service. The total savings was in the high six figures, if I remember correctly.

The charge that education can't happen without a state budget is not truthful.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting this bit of news.

Davis and crew didn't wait long after the Nevada Governor's successful us of their Supreme Court!

calgov2002:

calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. 

calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[Orangedog]

K-3 class size reduction - This is already mostly funded on a local level. The state promised money for it but didn't deliver anything close to the amount needed to fund it. Besides...I went to school when class sizes were 32-35.

Amen! I was never in a class smaller than 30 until high school. All of this class size reduction crap is nothing more than a way to swell the rolls of incompetent nit-wits for the "teacher" unions.

I REALLY wish someone on TV would call out these liars in the government on education spending. Almost every state in the country has been treated to "If you don't raise taxes, we'll make cuts in school spending." I can only speak for Ohio, but I'm sure many other states have NEVER spent less on public schools than they did in the previous year. Our idiot RINO governor "said that he had to cut money to education because he didn't get his tax increase. Guess what?...It was STILL more money than what was spent the previous year, even adjusted for non-existent inflation. What he did was only raise it 6% insread of the 10% he wanted to raise it.

[ReagansShinyHair]

All of this class size reduction crap is nothing more than a way to swell the rolls of incompetent nit-wits for the "teacher" unions.

Oh, gosh, now you got me started. The "educational" system is just one of those things that sets me off. Class size reduction is one of the few programs that actually *could* do some good. As a (former for right now) teacher, I can intervene and help kids that would never have made it in a group of 32. However, is it worth the cost? Given that there's been no overall improvement attributable to class size reduction, why should we keep doing it?

It is time to do some triage. Put the money towards the kids that it will do the most good for, not the lowest kids who make such minimal progress anyway. We have special ed and intervention programs for struggling kids. Get a few more pull out programs for much less than the cost of class size reduction.

For that matter, we need to stop spending $100,000 a year to "educate" severely retarded and autistic kids that are low functioning and can't even go to the bathroom. Get real, they are not being educated. I know it is awful for the parents to have to face the fact that the kid will never be able to hold a job, but spending a million dollars to "educate" them is not going to make it any better. It is just really expensive baby-sitting. I feel REALLY bad for the parents. I sit there and have to conference with them and cry with them, and it breaks my heart. It's just a bad situation, and expensive baby-sitting is not going to change it.

If I had to pick a best-case scenario, I would keep class size reduction in first grade only, since that year is so pivotal, and without an aide it would be extremely hard to teach 32 of these undisciplined kids these days. We are talking about kids who weren't even taught basic manners or how to sit in McDonald's for goodness sake. Dump class size reduction in the other grades, and start requiring that kids pass a test each year to go on to the next grade. If they don't pass, tough. They repeat. Start phasing the test in with first graders next year. The classes are big and the kids and parents better start taking their educations seriously.

I really think that's the only thing that will work. We keep lowering standards and it does NO good. We get a bunch of dummies who feel good about themselves for no reason at all.

Our educational system also requires a complete overhaul in terms of the standards being taught. They are in inch deep and a mile wide. Addition in first grade. Do it until they can add double digits with regrouping, and do it until it's automatic. Subtraction in second grade with a small amount of review, and so on and so forth. Do the same with reading, and forget about all the crap about "exploring literature". Just get the kids to be able to READ...they can pick what they like later. Heaven forbid they should have to do something they don't like. THAT never happens once you grow up, does it?

Money is not the answer. I would dump every state educrat and let local districts handle everything. THEY will decide if teachers are competent or not...not a stupid credentialing program that's full of worthless classes anyway. They should be able to hire and fire based on performance. Forget merit-pay, though, that creates more problems than solutions. You won't get any good teachers to teach the kids with "low potential", for one thing, and that's a shame. Lots of people think teachers are evil. Sure, there are a few, but most just plug along and feel trapped by the system, the same as most everyone does. They try to do the best they can with what they've got to work with.

[ReagansShinyHair]

I REALLY wish someone on TV would call out these liars in the government on education spending.

Amen to that!

[goldstategop]

In the higher education system the inevitable response is to raise fees and never cut spending. Its a captive market so they can make guinea pigs out of the students. Why, the government's entitled to the money!