Free Republic

As dismay grows in his own party and among many observers over Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s seemingly surprising embrace and defense of left-liberal Democrat Rob Reiner and his tenure as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission, it is becoming evident that some of Schwarzenegger’s highest ranking appointees and advisors have long been involved with the controversial commission and the movie director/initiative promoter himself and have played key roles in the direction the program has taken. “The First 5 Commission,” says one Schwarzenegger friend using the Reiner commission’s nickname, “and Reiner himself have been much closer to the governor...

<p>Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's secretary of education, says a friend tells him that the only time he opens his mouth is to change feet.</p> <p>But Riordan's take on what he calls "the mess" in financing California public schools and his hopes for reform are right on.</p>

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education adviser is calling for a complete and dramatic overhaul of the way California pays for public schools.</p> <p>Education Secretary Richard Riordan said Wednesday that in light of The Bee's recent investigation of school financing, the new Republican administration is expanding its proposals for education reform to include a new kind of student funding formula.</p>

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed spending cap faced sharp criticism Tuesday from education advocates who claimed it eventually would gut funding to public schools by $2 billion a year and strip their constitutional guarantees of funding. Administration officials acknowledged the Proposition 98 protections would be weakened, but Education Secretary Richard Riordan insisted Schwarzenegger intends to fully fund education, even as he deals with the massive budget shortfall he inherited. The criticism of the governor's fiscal recovery plan followed a report from the nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst's Office, which estimated that the Schwarzenegger spending cap could eventually cut $2 billion...

<p>ONE OF the enduring fictions in California, and the United States, is that schools are controlled by local school boards, which are just one step removed from parents when it comes to deciding how children should be educated.</p> <p>But during the past two decades decisions about schools have increasingly been made at the state and federal levels.</p>