“We would benefit greatly if budgets were spent on minds instead of mines”
30,000 march for public education in North and South Carolina
Tens of thousands of educators and their supporters marched in Raleigh, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina yesterday to protest low wages and abysmal public-school funding in the two states. North Carolina educators have seen a decline of 9.4 percent in real wages since 2009, and the state ranks 39th in the nation in per pupil funding. South Carolina ranks 38th in teacher pay and 31st in funding.
Organizers estimated that more than 20,000 marched in North Carolina and 10,000 in South Carolina. So many teachers, counselors, school bus drivers and other school support staff in North Carolina called off Wednesday that classes were cancelled for more than 850,000 of the state’s 1.5 million public school students.
Inspired by teachers in the neighboring state and organized on social media in less than two weeks, the South Carolina protests, one of the largest in the state capital in recent memory, forced seven school districts to cancel classes due to a lack of substitute teachers.
Marchers in Raleigh, North Carolina
The mass protests in the Carolinas are part of a continuing wave of teacher struggles that began last year with wildcat strikes in West Virginia and continued with walkouts in Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, and Denver this year. More than a 100 charter school teachers walked out of four schools in Chicago yesterday, and teachers in the California capital of Sacramento are set to carry out a one-day strike on May 22.
US educators are fighting austerity and inequality along with their counterparts around the world. Thousands of striking teachers in Honduras have gone on a national strike along with doctors to oppose government measures that could lead to mass layoffs. Last week, contract teachers in the North African country of Morocco, who are fighting for permanent jobs, protested in the capital city of Rabat and were attacked with water cannon and batons. Over the last year, teacher strikes have spread across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.
A sea of red shirts covered the capitol district in Raleigh on May Day. Educators carried homemade signs with their demands, including for improved pay, funding for teachers to complete master’s programs, increases in Medicaid funding to help low-income students and increased hiring and pay for support staff, including librarians, psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses and other health professionals.
In South Carolina, teachers demanded a 10 percent raise, a halt to threats against teachers for making public policy statements and the hiring of more mental health counselors.
Laureen and Denise, a teacher and a custodian from nearby Durham, North Carolina
Shannon has been teaching elementary school for eleven years in Robeson County, one of the poorest areas in North Carolina, with a child poverty rate above 70 percent. The county seat of Lumberton flooded badly in both 2016 and 2018 when hurricanes overwhelmed poorly maintained infrastructure .
Describing the effect of widespread poverty on her students, Shannon said, “Many of our students come to school hungry, lacking sleep, lacking [school] supplies, and it’s not that they leave them at home. They literally do not have them.” She explained that teachers regularly pay out of their own pockets to buy classroom supplies to “make sure my classroom is funded and that my kids have the supplies they need.”
A teacher from the Raleigh area, Mr. Grayson, said he was marching because “we wanted to be a part of the increasing voice in general for collective bargaining and for rights of workers to have a voice in their legislature.” He acknowledged that if he was a “betting man,” he would say the legislature would continue to ignore teachers, but “there is strength in numbers and as many people as possible are needed for our voices to be heard.”
Mr. Grayson and Mr. Noteboom
Asked what changes needed to happen, Grayson said, “We need increased spending within the school system, not necessarily per teacher, though that would be nice. But I think a major focus should simply be to provide more teachers, to be more equitable in how budgets are spent, more towards education and less toward militaristic means. We would benefit greatly if budgets were spent on minds instead of mines.”
Teachers have received widespread public support in North Carolina, with a poll from Public Policy Polling showing 71 percent in favor of the statewide protests.
The militant mood of the demonstrators contrasted sharply with the bankrupt policy advanced by the North Carolina Association of Educators, whose leaders like president Mark Jewell urged teachers to appeal to the Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature to hear their demands. Democratic Governor Roy Cooper was brought onto the stage to issue empty platitudes.
After state legislators ignored the demands of teachers in a mass rally of 20,000 last May, the NCAE called for teachers to campaign for the election of Democrats to end the Republican super-majority in the General Assembly. Cooper and the Democrats, like their counterparts across the country, have collaborated with the Republicans to starve public schools of funding while providing an endless flow of tax cuts to big business and the wealthy.
On the day before the march, the state legislature proposed a budget with meager pay raises—ranging from 10 percent for school principals, to 4.6 percent for teachers and just one percent for supports staff. These insulting pay raises, which will no doubt be funded through the implementation of regressive taxes or cuts to other vitally needed social program, will do little to make up for the loss of real income over the last decade or to stop the exodus of teachers from the state.
Bonita a retired teacher
A WSWS Teacher Newsletter campaign team distributed 1,500 copies of the statement “The teachers’ revolt and the fight for social equality.” The statement called for educators to draw the lessons of the strikes of the last year, which were betrayed by the teacher unions, and build new organizations of struggle, independent of the unions and both big business parties.
The statement concludes:
“A fundamental change in society’s priorities will not be accomplished by appealing to the powers-that-be and their representatives in the Democratic and Republican parties to increase their taxes and create a more humane capitalism.
“The working class must build a powerful political movement against both corporate-controlled parties to fight for a workers’ government and the socialist reorganization of economic and political life. This will include the expropriation of the ill-gotten fortunes of the rich, a vast redistribution of the wealth, and an infusion of resources to raise the material and cultural level of the entire population.”
Immigration Is the Elephant in the Room in L.A. School Strike
https://www.cis.org/Camarota/Immigration-Elephant-Room-LA-School-Strike?utm_source=E-mail+Updates&utm_campaign=7503f20bde-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_27_04_17_COPY_01&utm_m
By Steven A. Camarota on January 25, 2019
The recently
settled teachers' strike in the Los Angeles Unified School district was a
bitter dispute about resources, with class size and lack of staff support
taking center stage. The tables below show that immigration's impact on the
school system is enormous. Immigration has added large numbers of students to
the county, but at the same time a very large share of both legal and illegal
immigrants have modest levels of education and almost certainly pay less in
taxes than natives who have higher levels of education and incomes. Immigration
has also added significantly to the number of public-school students in the
county who live in poverty and speak a language other than English at home.
Overall enrollment has not increased in the district in recent years, but
immigration has reduced the proportion of students whose families pay
sufficient taxes to cover education costs, creating the ongoing strains on the
district budget.
Although it
is not possible to use Census Bureau data to look at only residents of L.A.
Unified, it is possible to examine Los Angeles County to gain insight into
what's happening. We identify legal and illegal immigrants based on the
methodology used in this
report. The data
comes from the public-use files of the Census Bureau's 2012 to 2016 American
Community Survey.
Among the
findings for L.A. County:
·
Public-school
students from immigrant-headed households comprise 58 percent of public-school
students in Los Angeles County (Table 2).
·
Of
all students in the county, 22 percent are from illegal-headed households and
36 percent are from legal immigrant households (Table 2).
·
The
poverty rate for students from both legal and illegal immigrant households is
more than 50 percent higher than that of those from native-headed households
(Table 1).
·
Of
students in poverty, 70 percent are from immigrant households — 28 percent from
illegal households and 42 percent from legal households (Table 2).
·
Of
students who speak a language other than English at home, 82 percent are from immigrant
households — 35 percent from illegal households and 47 percent from legal
households (Table 2).
·
47
percent of illegal-immigrant-headed households are headed by a person who did
not graduate high school; the figure is 30 percent for legal-immigrant-headed
households. This compares to 7 percent of native-headed households (Table 3).
·
The
average income of illegal-immigrant-headed households is only 58 percent that
of native-headed households; for legal-immigrant-headed households it is 79
percent of native-headed households (Table 4).
·
Illegal-immigrant-headed
households have three times as many students in public school on average as
native-headed households; for legal-immigrant-headed households it is 50
percent higher. (Table 4).
·
Illegal
immigrants (ages 25-64) are more likely to hold a job (76 percent) than natives
(74 percent). The rate for legal immigrants is somewhat lower at 70 percent
(Table 5).
Pollak: Educating Illegal Aliens and Their Children Costs L.A.
Schools Hundreds of Millions Per Year
18 Jan 2019164
3:03
The ongoing strike by the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union
against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is about teacher pay,
classroom size, support staff, and especially charter schools, which the union
says take money away from the district.
Left
unspoken, however, is the cost of educating illegal aliens, and their children
— which could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year, if not
billions, experts say.
Steven
A. Camarota, director of research, at the Center for Immigration Studies, told
Breitbart News on Friday that “between one-fifth and one-fourth of the students
in LAUSD are the children of illegal immigrants — though most of those were
born in the U.S.” He said that a smaller percentage of the students (“in the
single digits”) are illegal immigrants themselves.
With
roughly 700,000 students in the
district, at a cost of over $13,000 per student, that means
the district could be spending about $1.8 billion annually on educating the
children of illegal immigrants. The total annual expenses for the LAUSD in
2017-2018 amounted to $7.52 billion.
The
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) put the cost of educating the
children of illegal aliens statewide at over $12 billion in a 2014 study. A
significant proportion of those students are served by the LAUSD.
Twenty
years before, with a much lower population of illegal aliens, the U.S. General
Accounting Office — in a study prepared for then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
estimated that California spent $1.6 billion on educating the children of
illegal aliens. The cost has increased almost tenfold as the “undocumented”
population has grown.
The
exact numbers are elusive, but even a conservative estimate would put the costs
of educating the children of illegal aliens in the LAUSD in the same ballpark
as the costs of charter schools, which unions complain cost
the district some $600 million per year in lost funding.
The
U.S. Supreme Court held in Plyler v. Doe (1982)
that students could not be denied a free public education on the basis of their
immigration status.
However,
the continued arrival of illegal aliens has arguably strained the public
education system — and will continue to do so unless the country’s borders are
secured.
Yet
no one in L.A. seems to be discussing the problem.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is
a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the
co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story
of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
CALIFORNIA and
the RISE OF THE LA RAZA MEXICAN FASCIST WELFARE STATE
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/08/they-invading-horde-waving-their.html
Accounting for these differences reveals that California's
real poverty rate is 20.6 percent – the highest in
America, and nearly twice the national average of 12.7 percent.
"The public schools indoctrinate their young
charges to hate this country and the rule of law. Illegal aliens
continue overwhelming the state, draining California’s already depleted
public services while endangering our lives, the rule of law, and public safety
for all citizens."
Least-Educated
State: California No. 1 in Percentage of Residents 25 and Older Who Never
Finished 9th Grade; No. 50 in High School Graduates
California Gov.
Jerry Brown and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) outside the U.S.
Capitol, March 22, 2017. (Getty Images/Alex Wong)
(CNSNews.com)
- California ranks No. 1 among the 50 states for the percentage of its
residents 25 and older who have never completed ninth grade and 50th for the
percentage who have graduated from high school, according
to new data from the Census Bureau.
Texas
ranks No. 2 for the percentage of its residents 25 and older who have never
completed ninth grade and 49th for the percentage who have graduated from high
school.
9.7
percent of California residents 25 and older, the
Census Bureau says,
never completed ninth grade. Only 82.5 percent graduated from high school.
8.7
percent of Texas
residents 25 and older never
completed ninth grade, and only 82.8 percent graduated from high school.
California
and Texas—while having the highest percentages of residents 25 and older who
never finished ninth grade and the lowest percentages who graduated from high
school—are the nation’s two most populous states.
In
fact, the 2,510,370 California residents 25 and older who, according to the
Census Bureau, never finished ninth grade outnumber
the entire populations of 15 other states.
In
California, children are required to attend school from six years of age until
they are 18. “California’s compulsory education laws require children between
six and eighteen years of age to attend school, with a limited number of
exceptions,” says
the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, an agency of the California state government. (The National
Center for Education Statistics also indicates that children in California
are compelled by law to attend school from 6 to 18 years of age.)
Massachusetts
ranks No. 1 for the percentage of its residents 25 and older—42.1 percent--who
have earned at least a bachelor’s degree.
These
rankings are based on data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey
5-year estimates, which were released this month.
In
the survey, the
Census Bureau asks respondents to specify the level of educational attainment for each
individual in their household. The question is: “What is the highest degree or
level of school this person has COMPLETED. Mark (X) ONE box. If currently
enrolled, mark the previous grade or highest degree received.”
The
survey form then offers the respondent multiple options ranging from “no
schooling completed” to “professional degree” or “doctorate degree.” If an
individual has not earned a high school degree, the respondent is asked to
specify the highest grade the individual actually completed—ranging from “nursery
school” through “12th grade—NO DIPLOMA.”
The
Census Bureau’s American Community Survey queries a random sample of more than
3.5 million U.S. households each year and publishes a one-year estimate for
each year. The five-year estimate, the bureau says, “is a weighted average of
the five one-year estimates.” The newly released five-year estimates are for
the period from 2013 through 2017.
Nationwide,
5.4 percent of residents 25 and older have never finished ninth grade,
according to the latest five-year estimates.
Ten
states exceeded the nationwide level of residents 25 and older who have never
finished ninth grade. These include: California (9.7 percent), Texas (8.7
percent), New York (6.5 percent), New Mexico (6.5 percent), Kentucky (6.1
percent), Nevada (5.9 percent), Arizona (5.9 percent), Mississippi (5.6
percent), Rhode Island (5.5 percent), and Louisiana (5.4 percent).
Wyoming—with
1.8 percent—had nation’s smallest percentage of residents 25 and older who
never finished ninth grade.
In
seventeen states, the percentage of residents 25 and older who at least
graduated from high school was less than the nationwide percentage of 87.3
percent.
These
seventeen states included: California (82.5 percent), Texas (82.8 percent),
Mississippi (83.4 percent), Louisiana (84.3 percent), New Mexico (85 percent),
Kentucky (85.2 percent), Alabama (85.3 percent), Arkansas (85.6 percent),
Nevada (85.8 percent), West Virginia (85.9 percent), New York (86.1 percent),
Georgia (86.3 percent), Tennessee (86.5 percent), South Carolina (86.5
percent), Arizona (86.5 percent), North Carolina (86.9 percent), and Rhode
Island (87.3 percent).
Nationwide,
30.9 percent of residents 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
In
nineteen states, the percentage with a bachelor’s degree or higher exceeds the
national percentage. These nineteen states include both No. 14 California
(32.6) and No. 9 New York (35.3), which respectively ranked No.1 and No. 3 for
the percentage of residents 25 and older who never finished ninth grade.
The
ten states with the highest percentage of residents 25 and older who earned a
bachelor’s degree or higher are: Massachusetts (42.1 percent), Colorado (39.4
percent), Maryland (39 percent), Connecticut (38.4 percent), New Jersey (38.1
percent), Virginia (37.6 percent), Vermont (36.8 percent), New Hampshire (36
percent), New York (35.3 percent), and Minnesota (34.8 percent).
West
Virginia—at 19.9 percent—has the lowest percentage of residents with a
bachelor’s degree or higher.
In
another seven states, the percentage of residents who have a bachelor’s degree
or higher is less than 25 percent. They are: Mississippi (21.3 percent),
Arkansas (22 percent), Kentucky (23.2 percent), Louisiana (23.4 percent),
Nevada (23.7 percent), Alabama (24.5 percent) and Oklahoma (24.8 percent).
In California, according
to the Census Bureau’s five-year estimates,
the resident population 25 and older was 25,950,818. Of those individuals,
2,510,370—or 9.7 percent--never completed ninth grade.
Another 2,033,160 California
residents 25 and older completed the ninth, tenth, eleventh or twelfth
grade—but did not earn a high school diploma. Thus, a total of 4,543,530
California residents 25 and older—or a nation-leading 17.5 percent--have never
graduated from high school.
Those 2,510,370 individuals 25
and older in California who never finished 9th grade outnumber the entire
populations of 15 other states, according
to the Census Bureau’s latest population estimates. These include: Alaska (737,438), Delaware (967,171), Hawaii
(1,420,491), Idaho (1,754,208), Maine (1,338,404), Montana (1,062,305),
Nebraska (1,929,268), New Hampshire (1,356,458), New Mexico (2,095,428), North
Dakota (760,077), Rhode Island (1,057,315), South Dakota (882,235), Vermont
(626,299), West Virginia (1,805,832), and Wyoming (577,737).
In Texas, the
resident population 25 and older was 17,454,431. Of those individuals, 1,513,995—or 8.7 percent—never completed
ninth grade. That outnumbers the populations of 11 states.
Is California the next Detroit?
Most Californians live
within about 50 miles of its majestic coastline — for good reason. The
California coastline is blessed with arguably the most desirable climate on
Earth, magnificent beaches, a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and natural
harbors in San Diego, Long Beach and San Francisco. There is no mystery why
California’s population and economy boomed after the Second World War.
The Golden State was aptly
named. Its Gold Rush of 1849 was followed a century later by massive growth in
the 1950s and 60s. Education in California became the envy of the world.
Stanford became the Harvard of the West. A college education at the University
of California and California State University systems was inexpensive. The
Community College system that fed its universities was ostensibly free.
California’s public school
system led the nation in innovation and almost all of its classrooms were new.
The highway system that moved California’s automobile-driven commerce
eliminated the need for public transportation systems like New York and
Chicago. The fertile soil of the Central Valley became the breadbasket of the
world.
The next golden wave in
the 1980s grew from former orchards south of San Francisco known as Silicon
Valley. Intel and other companies led the world’s computer and software
revolution. In the 1990s, the dot-com revolution brought immense wealth to more
Californians. Its innovators, Google, Apple and others, ushered in the Internet
Era. The 2000s brought the greatest housing and mortgage boom in the nation’s
history, with innovation centered in Orange County. California was truly the
Golden State.
Why then would the author
have the temerity to ask, “When did Californians become Stupid?” And: Is
California the next Detroit?
Unique
oblivion
Californians, due to their
golden history, live in unique oblivion. When the Tea Party movement caused a
political tsunami that swept more than 60 incumbents from political office in
2010, the wave petered out at California’s state line. There was no effect on
the 2010 election that saw Democrats take every elected office in the state.
California voters rejected
Meg Whitman, the billionaire founder of Ebay, in favor of Jerry Brown. Gov.
Brown signed into law a “high-speed rail” bill that will spend $6 billion (the
state does not have) to build a train between Fresno and Bakersfield — not Los
Angeles and San Francisco, as promised. There was little outcry.
California has a $16
billion deficit that no one seems to notice. Brown’s budget “assumes” that
California voters will pass massive tax increases on themselves. If they do
not, the 2013 deficit becomes a mind-numbing $20 billion. The budget, mandated
to balance by the Calfornia Constitution, has been billions in the red for 10
straight years. How could Californians re-elect the same politicians year after
year that produce budgets with multi-billion dollar deficits?
To protect the endangered
Delta Smelt, a fish known better as bait, water has been diverted from the
Central Valley to the Pacific Ocean. Orchards in the Central Valley have been
allowed to wither and die, resulting in unemployment in the Central Valley as
high as 40 percent. Imagine Californians living in what was the breadbasket of
American now living on food stamps. California voters rejected Republican Carly
Fiorina for U.S. Senator in 2010. She ran Hewlett Packard. Instead, they
re-elected Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer ,who vowed to protect the Delta Smelt at
the expense of the Central Valley.
California has 519 state
agencies, like the state Blueberry Commission, that pay each of their
commissioners more than $100,000 per year. State politicians, when asked to
make cuts, fire teachers and fire fighters to inflict maximum pain on its
citizens, while leaving these patronage commissions intact. State politicians
have elevator operators in the state capital to push the buttons for them.
Their solution for the overcrowding of the state’s prisons is to release inmates
or transfer them to local facilities in already bankrupt cities. Yet, they are
re-elected by California voters in numbers consistently higher than the old
Soviet Politburo.
California’s public
education system, once the envy of the world, now ranks 49th in the
nation. Its business climate, according to 650 CEOs measured by Chief Executive
Magazine, ranked dead last. Apple will take 3,600 new jobs to Austin, Tex. at
its $280,000,000 new facility. Texas ranked first in the same survey.
California unemployment is
consistently higher than 10 percent of its workforce, but it’s under-employed,
according to a Gallup poll, is 20 percent. There are few jobs for college
students who graduate with as much as $100,000 in student loans. Despite the
overwhelming evidence that bad public policy is chasing away jobs, the same
state politicians are sent back to Sacramento every two years.
In the last two months,
three California cities have declared bankruptcy. Compton is next. More will
follow. Some cities will simply cease to exist due to $500 million in unfunded
pension obligations they simply cannot meet.
The unfunded pension
obligations, now swamping California cities, were approved by these same
politicians whose re-elections are financed by the unions they serve. Nine
years ago, outraged Californians recalled Gov. Gray Davis from office for
excessive spending and crony capitalism. Nothing has changed a decade later.
Its residents believe the golden state will be golden forever. It may not be
the case.
Detroit
History has an unpleasant
precedent known as Detroit. In the 1950s, Detroit was a major American city
with a dynamic labor force built on the manufacturing miracle that won World
War II. Its factories quickly converted tanks, planes and artillery shells into
trucks, automobiles and refrigerators that baby boom families demanded.
Everyone had a good paying job. Detroit Iron had no competition. Its burgeoning
middle class was the model of the world with excellent public schools and
universities. It was the 4th largest city in America with 2 million
inhabitants, with the world’s most dominant industry — the automobile.
Detroit in 2012 is a
shadow of that once great metropolis. Its population has shrunk to 714,000. There are 200,000
abandoned buildings in the derelict city. The average price of a home has
fallen to $5,700, unthinkable in California terms. Unemployment stands at 28.9
percent. It has a $300 million deficit. Its public education system, in
receivership, is a disgrace, producing more inmates than graduates. The jobs
have long ago abandoned Detroit for places like South Carolina and Alabama, far
hungrier than Detroit’s leaders who believed the gravy train would never end.
In 2006, the teacher’s
union forced the politicians to reject a $200 million offer from a Detroit
philanthropist to build 15 new charter schools. The mayor has proposed razing
40 square miles of the 138 square miles of this once great American city,
returning it to farmland. Even such a draconian plan may not be enough to save
the city from itself.
If a hurricane hit
Detroit, more of us would know of this tragedy in our midst, but this fate was
man-made and not wrought by nature. Detroit has had one party rule for more
than 50 years. Louis C. Miriani served from September 12, 1957 to January 2,
1962 as Detroit’s last Republican mayor. Since that time, the Democrats have
ruled the Motor City.
John Dingell, Democrat congressman for
the 15th District outside Detroit, has served since 1956. His father was
the congressman there from 1930 to 1956. Despite the disastrous decline of
their city, Detroit voters send him back to Congress every two years.
One-party rule
Similarly, California now
has one-party rule. The Democrats of California did not need a single
Republican vote to pass their budget. They now own the Golden State’s fate. The
politicians’ plan to address the nation’s largest deficit is to raise taxes
instead of cutting spending. If the Proposition 30 tax increase passes, the
deficit would drop from $20 billion to a mere $12 billion.
Democrats have done
nothing to cure the systemic problems of a bloated bureaucracy. Brown,
referring to the state’s highway system, once said, “If we do not build it,
they will not come.” Caltrans stopped building highways under Brown, but the
people kept coming. Now 37 million Californians are locked in traffic jams each
day.
Brown was rewarded for
such prescience with re-election as Governor. California’s egotistical
politicians passed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006. Dan
Sperling, an appointee to the California Air Resources Board, and a professor
of engineering and environmental science at UC Davis, is the lead advocate on
the board for a “low carbon fuel standard.” The powerful state agency charged
with implementing AB 32 and other climate control measures claims the low
carbon fuel standard will “only” raise gasoline prices $.30 gallon in 2013. But
The California Political Review reported implementation of these the policies
will raise prices by $1.00 per gallon.
Detroit was once the most
prosperous manufacturing city in the world. Will California follow
Detroit down a tragic path to ruin? In 1950, no one fathomed the Detroit of
2010. In 1970, when foreign imports started to make a foothold, the unions and
their bought and paid for politicians resisted any change.
In the 1990’s, as
manufacturers fled to Alabama and South Carolina, the unions and their
political lackeys held firm even as good jobs slipped away. No one in Detroit
envisioned their future, even as schools declined, the jobs withered and the
once proud city deteriorated in front of their own eyes.
No longer
golden
California was once the
Golden State. Today, it is no longer so golden. Its schools are in decline. Its
business climate is equally dismal. Its cities are facing economic ruin, with
exploding pension obligations and a declining tax base. Housing prices have
fallen 30 to 60 percent across the state, evaporating trillions of dollars of
equity. Unemployment remains stubbornly high and under-employment is rife. The
Central Valley is in a depression, with 40 percent unemployment. Do our
politicians need any more signs?
Brown’s budget will first
slash money to schools and raise tuition on its students, while leaving all 519
state agencies intact. He apparently will protect political patronage at all
costs. Jobs, and job creators, are fleeing the state. Intel, Apple, Google and
others are expanding out of the state. The best and brightest minds are leaving
for Texas and North Carolina. The signs are everywhere. State revenues are
declining during many years. Meanwhile, the voters sleep and blindly send the
same cast of misfits back to Sacramento each year — just as Detroit did before
them.
The beaches are still
beautiful. The mountains are still snow capped and the climate is still the
envy of the world. Detroit never had that. But will California’s physical
attributes be enough? If the people of California want to glimpse their future,
they need look no farther than once proud City of Detroit. It can happen here.
Robert J Cristiano, Ph.D., is
the Real Estate Professional in Residence at Chapman University in Orange,
Calif. and a Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco.
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