Certainly the most intreguing news in California politics surrounds Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reappointment of Joe Nuñez to the State Board of Education earlier this week. You see, Nuñez is a State VP with the California Teachers Association — and according to the CTA’s President Barbara Kerr, Nuñez is actually in charge of their union’s legislative and political activities. Yes, this would include the massive assault on Governor Schwarzenegger and his reform agenda on last year’s special election ballot. Even better — Nuñez is actually the Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California, which is the actual front-group formed by the unions to fight the Governor.
It has been postulated in at least one newspaper that Schwarzenegger may have re-appointed Nuñez in order to shepherd through the confirmation vote on his former State Education Secretary Alan Bersin, whom Schwarzenegger also appointed to the State Board of Education last year. Once appointed, you can serve up to a year without Senate confirmation, which Bersin has yet to get. As a matter of fact, his one-year is coming up soon.
I don’t know if this theory is correct, it might explain a little about Nuñez’s re-appointment. But COME ON. The idea of extending the time that a union boss who wants to perpetuate the problems that we have in California’s education system has to serve on the state’s education board is atrocious. The Governor should withdraw this appointment immediately. Frankly, Bersin’s appointment isn’t worth it. Apparently it takes a 2/3 vote of the State Senate to confirm members of the State Education Board. The Governor should appoint real education reform advocates like Lance Izumi or Gloria Matta Tuchman.
If Democrats don’t want to confirm the Governor’s qualified selections, then we can have a debate on that. Bersin can be a martyr (if he’s worth it), and there can be a debate about what the role of the State Senate truly is in the confirmation process. The reality is that despite the strong efforts of Nuñez and his union boss allies, Gray Davis was recalled and Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Governor of California.
The next chapter of this story has begun as it has been revealed (check the stories on the main page) that the Alliance for a Better California (Mr. Nuñez, Chairman) has now filed an FPPC complaint against the Governor for not properly reporting late contributions in last year’s special election. Given that this filing has taken place right after Nuñez’s appointment, it is pretty clear that Nuñez and company aren’t interested in burying any past differences.
We’ll see what continues to develop with this story… Hopefully a headline soon about Schwarzenegger reconsidering Nuñez’s appointment to the State Board of Education. An appointment that is poor on the public policy side, and most unhelpful on the political side (my e-mail box doth overflow with reaction on this).
April 1st, 2006 at 12:00 am
The appointment by a Republican governor of Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education is overwhelmingly puzzling, to say the least. Joe Nunez, pictured recently in the newspaper with the Executive Officer of CTA hugging Nunez from behind, is also a high ranking official in the CTA and Chair of the Alliance for a Better California (ABC), the organization considered by many to be the most responsible for the governor’s loss in November. When one understands the scenario here, there seems to be no logical reason for making such an appointment; other than perhaps the governor finds himself in a similar “strangle-hold?” What can be said regarding the continuing appointments and decisions coming from the governor’s office since the November ballot? If truth be stranger than fiction, this seems to be the story here. I certainly hope he has more than an Ace up his sleeve, because a simple Ace will not win this hand. We need a whole new deck to play this game fairly.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I think it’s a good idea to make an effort to work with people who hold opposing views. The California Teachers Association would be well-advised to follow Arnold’s example. Personal power struggles have no place in education. Adults should work together for the sake of children. CTA President Barbara Kerr unwisely tries to control every aspect of the thinking of her board of directors–even to the extent that they are not allowed a secret ballot when they vote for her. Good for Arnold for trying to get opposing parties focused on the shared goal of educating kids. Unlike Barbara Kerr and her lawyer Beverly Tucker, he doesn’t need lap dogs like the CTA Board of Directors, which includes David A. Sanchez, Dean Vogel, Larry Allen, Donald L. Bridge, Paula Caplinger, Larry C. Carlin, Mikki Cichocki, Tom Conry, Dayton Crummey, Michael R. Green, Dián Dolores Hasson, Lynette P. Henley, David Hernandez, Mignon W. Jackson, Dianne K. Jones, Marc Knapp, Robert C. Nichols, Mary Rose Ortega, Cynthia Peña, Lloyd N. Porter, and Pixie Hayward Schickele.