Breton 2, Sacramento CTA 0

  But it is only the first inning.

This anti union tirade  by Marcos Bretón on page B-1 of the Bee today, leaves much to be desired.  I will leave aside the argument about Manny Virrael. Others have dealt with that.  And, Breton may even be right. But the rest of the article is lame.

What Breton does not say - we have an economic crisis.  Forty states have budget crises.  Almost all of the school districts in the state have budget crises. What caused this crisis ? It was caused by the greed and avarice of the financial class on Wall Street  and aided by the politicians of both major political parties.

Major banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown. The major bankers, finance capitalists in the U.S. robbed the bank last year  – and the federal treasury.  The Wall Street crisis crashed into main street.  People lost their jobs and their houses.  When they lost their jobs, they paid less taxes.  So, the schools and the states are in crisis.  Wall Street  took hundreds of billions of dollars .  The crisis was not caused by students, teachers, public employees  nor recipients of social security. 

 Teachers, like all taxpayers, are already paying for this theft.  What Breton does say.   Bretón thinks that teachers  should pay more through forloughs and cuts in benefits.  And, he thinks he knows best.  He inserts his views into the negotiations by publically condemning the teachers union and stirring up – or revealing- this intense teacher bashing exposed in the comments on the story.   Some people, like Steve Poizner, blame immigrants for the economic crisis.  Breton blames teachers unions.  In both cases it is scapegoating rather than looking at the evidence.

For a second opinion,  please read the Grand Jury Report issued today.  Here. full grand jury report,  http://www.sacgrandjury.org/

The Grand Jury report completely buys the position of the new Superintendent, without much evidence to support this position.  They should have been more investigative.   But, at least, the report describes the problem  in a less anti union manner.  It describes the real economic issues facing the district.

Breton of the Sac Bee reports graffiti

From the Sunday Bee:
Marcos Bretón: Conflict puts Sac State in a sorry state

By Marcos Bretón - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, May 13, 2007

The walls of a men's room are never good reading, especially when the message is:

"Never hire a beaner to do a white man's job."

Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez was the target of this vulgarity, which was discovered in late April scrawled near a Sequoia Hall toilet, and came to light last week in the campus newspaper.

Penned with black markers, the sentiment exemplifies the dark side of a caustic climate afflicting Sacramento's public university.

How caustic? When a call for comment went out to the chancellor of the California State University system last week, Charles Reed called back in minutes.

"That is totally uncalled for on a university campus," he said.

No one is saying there's a link between the racist graffiti smeared in anonymity in a Sac State bathroom and the professors on campus at odds with Gonzalez. Those Gonzalez opponents -- 77 percent of the faculty members who participated in a referendum -- went very public on April 27 with a vote of "no confidence."

"It was not about Alexander Gonzalez the man," Juanita Barrena, a professor of biological sciences and campus fixture since 1975, said of the vote.

"It's about what's happening inside the university."

Put more bluntly, it's about power.
+++++++
Note: Breton claims he is not linking the graffiti to the conflict with Gonzalez; but of course that is exactly what he did.
He printed graffitti as is it was news.
What a strange choice.