You have to chuckle just a bit when you read about the fact that the Obama Administration and California are at odds over the issue of the ability to use student achievement as a measure for rating the effectiveness of teachers. Apparently at stake are some federal dollars for California’s education system because California is one of a few states that actually has a law (no doubt passed with the considerable helf of one of the state’s largest public employee unions – the California Teachers Association) that actually prohibits using student achievement to rate teacher performance. Read about it in the Los Angeles Times here.

First and foremost, how lame for us here in California. It makes NO SENSE to not have as a factor (and perhaps as the largest factor) in assessing a teacher their ability to sucessful get their students to learn. Do we have a law that says you cannot judge an auto-mechanic based on their ability to fix cars? Or how about determining if an attorney is doing a good job based on whether they win their cases? Oh… Read More

In baseball, they call this time of year "The Dog Days of Summer", the period between early July and early September when the weather is hot, players get tired and many of the hopes and dreams of the season are dashed. In Sacramento, we have our own version, only we just call it the state budget process.

So with the latest semester of the State Legislature’s clown college on summer break, let’s take a look at some other issues that fall by the wayside when we’re concerned with, you know, possibly going bankrupt.

No one ever mentions all the radical fringes that have significant sway in Sacramento. I don’t just mean the jackbooted thug state employee unions or even the teacher’s association that claims to represent underpaid educators, but somehow found $1… Read More

There has been a lot of conversation taking place, especially on the GOP side, about the billions of borrowing from local governments that takes place in this current budget deal.

Let me start out by saying that if I were to articulate the biggest problem with it — it is the "borrowing" part of it. The last thing that the state should be doing, if we are going to solve our chronic budget woes, is borrow money that has to be repaid (I guess this applies to education as well). Ideally you want to cut state spending to match available revenues — and we already know the state is maxed out on taxes. In the case of the education piece, I would put a repeal of Proposition 98 on the ballot…

Anyways, once we get past the borrowing problem, you get into the question of "from where" you are borrowing the money — for the purposes of this diatribe, local government.

As a taxpayer, I guess being the simple guy that I am, I had a ledger with only two sides — my money, and the money I give to government. I don’t distinguish what… Read More

This blog post falls under the catagory, "you can’t make this stuff up."

Apparently a major sticking point in the not-yet-complete budget deal has to do specifically with the education funding component. The "deal" calls for some significant cuts to education spending this year, and a promise to "pay those funds back" to education in a few years.

Whether or not you think that either sides of the education equation (cuts, repay) are a good idea or a bad idea, apparently the way things were set up was that at minimum, these changes would take place in two bills — with the cuts requiring a 2/3 vote (due to "urgency") and the payback side needed to pass on a majority vote. There was some discussion, I am told, that if proponents of the payback side of things could muster up a 2/3 vote in each house, then it could also be passed with urgency (why this is important is unclear to this non-policy guy).

Things start to get a little more sticky at this point. On the natural, it seems to me that you would move this education issue in two separate bills – presumably to allow more Dems to avoid voting for… Read More

As of around 7am when I am writing this, the State Senate has finished approving a bunch of bills that make up the budget deal negotiated by the Governor and legislative leaders over the past weeks. The State Assembly has approved most of the package, but is still hung up on the issue of the repayment of money to education.

It’s been a marathon session — and not much sleep for a lot of people. I know that I was up to the wee hours and just caught brief cat naps here or there. This is probably a good chance to talk about how embarrassed I am for the process around this marathon latenight session. There was no need to hold these votes through the dead of the night, away from the watchful eyes of the public. Oh, and all of the lofty words from Republican legislators about "transparency" and insisting that all of the language of these many bills be in print for at least 24 hours (inadequate but better than nothing) were just rhetoric. Many of the bills voted on were voted on upon receipt of the final language. So the fair and open and transparent process was sacrificed on the alter of the "deal" — sigh.

Moving… Read More

As of around 7am when I am writing this, the State Senate has finished approving a bunch of bills that make up the budget deal negotiated by the Governor and legislative leaders over the past weeks. The State Assembly has approved most of the package, but is still hung up on the issue of the repayment of money to education.

It’s been a marathon session — and not much sleep for a lot of people. I know that I was up to the wee hours and just caught brief cat naps here or there. This is probably a good chance to talk about how embarrassed I am for the process around this marathon latenight session. There was no need to hold these votes through the dead of the night, away from the watchful eyes of the public. Oh, and all of the lofty words from Republican legislators about "transparency" and insisting that all of the language of these many bills be in print for at least 24 hours (inadequate but better than nothing) were just rhetoric. Many of the bills voted on were voted on upon receipt of the final language. So the fair and open and transparent process was sacrificed on the alter of the "deal" — sigh.

Moving… Read More

When the Wall Street Journalbellowsthat the "Budget Deal Gives Boost to California Republicans", you know the Party has finally turned the the corner.

Senator Dennis Hollingsworth whose initial ascent gave hope to Republicans, that Republicans would behave like Republicans instead of accommodationists for bankrupt [literally] union legislative spending.The prior leader was woefully out of his depth. Let’shope that he is thelast of the ‘let’s get along crowd’ that has dramatically tarnished the Republican brand, hurt CRP fund raising and discouraged conservatives.… Read More

For FlashReport readers with a strong constitution and about seven extra minutes to spare, check out this video of State Senate President Darrell Steinberg. Within the first minute of his remarks of this afternoon, he starts railing on the 2/3 vote requirement to raise taxes and to pass a budget. It is a theme that he echoes over, and over, and over again. The voracious appetite of liberals to overtax the people is just stunning — and serves as a reminder of why the supermajority vote requirements are there. It is abundantly clear that Democrats want to end those requirements so that they can ratchet up a redistribution of wealth scheme that will leave our state floundering with an even worse economy.

Oh well, here is the whining of the Senate President…

(At the tail end, Steinberg talks about pushing a vote tonight or in the early hours. I sure hope that State Senate Republicans block such a manuever. Shame on them if, when it is over, they never gave conservative policy experts outside of the building a chance to review the documents and give substantive input.)… Read More