About6.2 millionstudents attend California’s K-12 public schools. Of those, over 570,000 are enrolled in public charter schools. Most of these charter schools operate with a degree of management autonomy and teacher accountability that goes well beyond what is permitted by the union work rules that govern traditional public schools. These charter schools themselves are accountable – if they don’t deliver better academic outcomes cost-effectively, they are closed down. They are a laboratory for excellence in education and administration, and they’re working. And their success is a tremendous threat to teachers unions.

Enter the ACLU. In astudyreleased earlier this week, the ACLU said it hadidentified 253 schoolswith “exclusionary policies,” and noted “this is just the tip of the iceberg.” The exclusionary policies were (1) exclusion based on academic performance, (2) discrimination against English… Read More

Monday, Donald Trump gave a pretty good speech on taxes. Putting aside the protectionist rhetoric on trade and the obvious negative impact it would have on U.S. exports, the tax portion of his speech was pretty good.

Unfortunately, it won’t get the attention it deserves because it follows a week of self-inflected distractions, the most serious of which being the assertion the election is “rigged.”

The election is not rigged.

For a decade I have traveled the country and the world teaching conservative candidates, political party leaders, and activists the skills necessary to wage strong political campaigns. In addition, I’ve served as an international election observer in countries such as Honduras and Kenya. While America’s political system isn’t perfect, it is among the best in the world, and it certainly isn’t “rigged.”

This is a dangerous assertion for the nominee of a major political party to make, for many reasons. Here are just a few.

It discourages people from engaging in the process – why volunteer, donate, or even vote if the outcome has been predetermined by some all powerful conspiracy? The… Read More

Below is an article and TV news segment revealing widespread nepotism in the huge water department of city of San Diego. I’ve got a sound bite in the video.

But this rigged hiring process is not an isolated instance. Not hardly!

In California, local government nepotism is widespread. It’s most predominant in the few highly-prized firefighter openings. LA and Oakland recently had huge nepotism scandals revealed.

It should not take a fraud hotline call to find these rigged hiring practices. Just routinely and VIGOROUSLY audit all departments’ employment processes. Better yet, contract out more government functions via open, COMPETITIVE bidding.

Most CA state and local government employment provides considerably higher compensation than equivalent private sector jobs. It’s become our state’s version of an aristocracy — complete with hereditary positions.… Read More

“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin

Despite damning evidence of bias, and the disgraceful behavior of a state official who sits in judgment of others, theState Senateconfirmed Genevieve Shiroma’s reappointment to the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board 26-11, once again proving the Democrat Party is no longer Democratic.

In California, the Democrat Party now adheres to Joseph Stalin’s rule book. In April Shiroma, one of thethree-memberCalifornia Agricultural Labor Relations Board,… Read More

California’s State Controller, Betty Yee, normally displays a measured, albeit liberal, view of California fiscal affairs. While viewed as reasonably competent and not given to hyperbole, her recent statement in a local government blog was one she must have known to be flat wrong.

The blog, called County Voice, is disseminated by the California State Association of Counties. In it, Controller Yee pushed her vision of California tax reform – something about which she has written frequently. Yee, like most policy leaders both liberal and conservative, has recognized that California’s tax structure is broken. In fact, Yee is correct when she writes “our system leaves the state budget prey to boom-and-bust cycles, in turn disrupting funding of essential public services.”

While the real cause of California’s fiscal distress is that political leadership lacks the will to save money during the boom times, most agree that revenue volatility is a real problem that needs to be addressed.

However, after her observations about California’s volatile and highly progressive tax structure, Yee said this about property taxes: “Meanwhile, in the nearly four… Read More

RIDER NOTE: While my article below describes the rigged nature of the ​San Diego ​​establishment’s“taxpayers association,” it’s really a textbook example of what is the situation in most of the large cities and counties in California.

The board of directors of the San Diego County “Taxpayers” Association just voted UNANIMOUSLY to support the county SANDAG countywide sales tax increase on the ballot this November.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/aug/03/taxpayers-association-endorses-half-cent/

To me, the SDCTA decision is not surprising, but theunanimousvote is both surprising and disappointing. Especially so when one realizes that 30% to 50+% of the VOTERS in the county will vote against the tax. How can four dozen members of a “taxpayer” boardALLbe in favor in massive new 18 BILLION DOLLAR county tax increase?

I’m a long-time taxpayer activist. I’m also a member of… Read More

An article in today’sAmerican Prospect, of all places, offers an in-depth look at just how little progress has actually been made towards restoring quality education to California’s public school students. Because the article appears in a publication that is “dedicated to American liberalism,” and because “American liberalism” depends more than anything else on billions in annual political contributions from government unions, you almost have to read between the lines to realize who the bad guys are.

Nonetheless, “California’s Ed Reform Wars,” by Rachel Cohen, all 3,200 words of it, is a fine piece of work. Read it closely, if you can stomach the facts. The bad guys – a matter of opinion, of course – are the government unions. The victims? California’s students, and the future of this great state.

Covered first is the uncertainfate of theVergara case, funded by wealthy activists – many of them liberals – in the Silicon Valley.… Read More

If public attention is being drawn to national politics and the presidential race, there is a group of local officials who are thrilled. They have plans for the contents of taxpayers’ wallets and they would prefer to fly under the radar. The less voters pay attention, the greater the chance they will be able to pass local school bonds, which raise property taxes. Voters need to be alert. If past general elections are any indication, we will be facing several hundred local school bonds and additional tax measures in November.

August 12, is the deadline for officials to approve local measures for the November ballot. Consultants — usually paid by firms that expect to do business with the school district once a new bond is approved — advise local education officials not to publicize the bond election to the entire community, but to target only their supporters. This means running a stealth campaign, communicating only with administrators, the local teachers union, the PTA, and parents who have children in school. Part of this strategy is waiting until the last possible minute to approve the new bond measure, giving potential opponents less time to… Read More