A note from csba: California, Lindsay Lohan and the Capitol menagerie
By:
Jeff Vaca
Published: March 17, 2011
California bashing has always been somewhat of a national pastime, but last fall a column that appeared in the Wall Street Journal took the practice to new heights (or, depending on your point of view, new lows). The column began with this shot across the bow:
“Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You’re the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.”
There’s not a lot of gray area in that statement, and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone at the moment who would want to be compared to Lindsay Lohan. But if a conversation I had during a recent trip to Texas is any indication, it’s a fairly accurate estimation of how the rest of the country looks at the Golden State. At a social gathering, I made the mistake of mentioning that I was from California, which led to a spirited, 20-minute monologue from my fellow guest—who happened to be a former resident of the state—about California’s shortcomings.
I’ve come to believe that the best and most engaging political commentary is to be found on the Internet, and I try to read as many political blogs and online newsletters from across the country as I can. Those with a point of view much different than my own are the ones I read regularly, as a way to challenge my own thinking and my own assumptions. At this point in time, one thing is very clear: The political tea leaves—particularly from pundits on the right side of the political spectrum, but also from many at or near the center—forecast doom and gloom for California. And reading the daily headlines about the cuts California’s school districts are facing, it’s hard not to despair for the state’s future and wonder whether those forecasts are correct.
On the positive side, it’s heartening to see that Gov. Jerry Brown has recognized the beating K-12 schools have taken in recent years. It’s also a positive development that the governor is approaching this year’s budget with the attitude that now is the time for the state to make difficult choices—the kind of choices that schools have had to make for years, but which statewide leaders have managed to studiously avoid through a series of “solutions” that, in the words of one legislator, amounted to little more than “kicking the can down the road.”
If you go to the governor’s website under the heading of “Budget,” this is what you read: “The Governor must be ready to stand against the crowd to lead a broken legislature out of a morass of poisonous partisanship. It will take old fashioned hard work, patience, and a keen understanding of the process.” Right about now, you have to wonder how the governor’s patience is holding up. Members of his own party are opposing many of the cuts that he’s suggested in his proposed budget, and the leadership of the minority party appears uninterested in participating in a process that involves anything resembling compromise.
By the time this column goes to print, we’ll know whether there will be a special election in June to extend the temporary revenues as a means to protect education funding. CSBA is on record as supporting the extension, and many school districts and county offices of education have responded in kind by adopting the resolution that is available to CSBA members on the front page of our website. But we’ve also received criticism for our position, from members and others who feel that any budget solution involving revenues is no solution at all.
While I appreciate and respect that position, there is no doubt in my mind that CSBA is doing the right thing by supporting the extension of the temporary revenues. One needs only to read the legislative analyst’s report on what a “cuts-only budget” would look like to know that it would be catastrophic for the state’s schools. For many districts, there are no cuts to be made that would not impact the quality of education that kids are receiving. If CSBA did not support the governor’s proposal, it would be rejecting the very tenets behind the association’s vision—a state where local citizen governing boards are fully vested with the means to advance the best interests of students and the public, and where the futures of all children are driven by their aspirations, not bounded by their circumstances.
None of which is to say that there isn’t room for compromise on both sides of the aisle in the state Capitol. When it comes to state expenditures, there are a lot of elephants in the room, and a lot of sacred cows. Until such time that the entire menagerie is on the table for discussion, there can be no hope for a long-term solution. The Golden State’s veneer will continue to tarnish, and the days when California was viewed as a leader in this nation will become a distant memory.
Another milestone that will have occurred by the time this column goes to print is the selection by CSBA’s Board of Directors of the association’s new executive director. Judging from the number of inquiries and comments my colleagues and I have received, the matter has—not surprisingly—generated intense interest in the field. Based on the profile that the board approved last December, I’m confident that we’ll soon be joined by someone who is well prepared to lead our ongoing efforts to become a remarkable association. For my part, I strongly believe that CSBA has made great strides, on several fronts, since the difficult days of last summer. We’ve made changes, and we are in the midst of making many others. We’ve tried very hard to restore the confidence of our members and our colleagues, and we remain committed to providing the highest level of programs, services and support to California’s school districts and county offices of education. I hope that in my short tenure as interim executive director, I’ve helped to move this process along. I expect to continue doing so in the months to come.
Jeff Vaca (
jvaca@csba.org
) is the interim executive director of CSBA.