The Governor's Strange Priorities

The governor’ s strange priorities,
March, 2005.

California has a school crisis-described again by the Rand Corporation (www.rand.org). We have been under investing in our schools for the last twenty years, and in higher education for the last 15 years. As a consequence, our children are falling behind children in other states. If you have a school system funded like Louisiana and Mississippi, we will soon have an economy like Louisiana and Mississippi.
Rather than responding to this real educational crisis, in his State of the State speech the governor called for changes to teacher pay and teacher tenure. These proposals do not respond to the real problems as described by the Rand study .
Why would a politician introduce these less important issues rather than respond to the real problems, like class size and teacher preparation? It looks to me as if he is trying to protect his high income tax avoiding friends, his special interest group.
If we rank last in the nation, or third from last, then heads should roll. Which heads? The people responsible for the near criminal levels of under funding, the governor and those legislators who oppose all taxes.

Dr. Duane E. Campbell
My special interest in public schools. What is the Governor's special interest group?