Both Propositions 30 and 38 will raise taxes to fund education. But they do so in different ways. What I find interesting is that the groups behind them are campaigning against each other. Unless something changes I do not expect either to pass.
Click on continue reading for an email from the supporters of Proposition 30 asking supporters to contact PTA leaders that support Proposition 38.
Will you be voting for either?
Dear Supporter, We need your help today - please contact the PTA and tell them they need to stop their negative campaign against Prop. 30.Gov. Jerry Brown is leading a positive, grassroots campaign that asks Californians to take a stand against further school cuts by supporting Prop. 30.
Right now, the voters are with us. They know we can't keep cutting our schools and expect our economy to grow.
Unfortunately the Prop. 38 campaign has pursued a different path, signaling their intent to run a harsh and negative campaign even if it means neither Prop. 30 nor their measure prevails.
We should all agree that the worst outcome for our kids is another $6 billion hit to our schools when we will face a shorter school year, more teachers laid off, and more tuition hikes on university students when their families are still struggling to stay afloat.
Senators Feinstein, Boxer and legislative leaders have called on both campaigns to adopt a Positive Campaign Compact.
We already accepted.
But in a letter today, the State PTA refused to commit to these most basic rules: to "refrain from attacking or referring to" our campaign in "all advertisements, public statements and voter contact materials."
Will you contact your local PTA and ask them to join the Positive Campaign Compact?
It's fine to have different views about a solution, but the worst outcome for our kids would be a negative campaign that results in both measures losing, and our schools and colleges taking another $6 billion cut this year.
As Senators Feinstein and Boxer said, "Let's allow each initiative to stand on its positive merits, and let's all stand together to do what's right for our kids."
Ace Smith
Yes on Prop. 30
For more information visit yesonprop30.com
Twitter YesOnProp30 | Facebook Yes On Prop 30 | Google+ Yes On Prop 30
Paid for by Yes on Prop. 30--to Protect our Schools and Public Safety, a broad coalition of business, labor, law enforcement, teachers and Governor Brown. Major funding by Californians Working Together to Restore and Protect Public Schools, Universities and Public Safety, Coalition of Educators, School Employees, Working Men/Women, Doctors, Speaker Perez & Community Org. Yes on Proposition 30 and United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.
Brian:
In a recent 89.3 KPCC So Cal Public Radio on-line news article, Dan Schnur, who head's USC's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics cut straight and true to the heart of the stark tax-raising political choices facing California voters this November.
Namely, “Californians overwhelmingly believe the public schools deserve more financial resources, but they are just as adamant that the money needs to be spent in fundamentally different ways in order to have the desired impact."
In other words, until and unless a majority of California voters choosing to vote on one or both of these tax-raising propositions are convinced that proposed school performance efficacy trumps projected increased school tax collection efficiencies; it is likely that neither Proposition 30 nor 38 will pass.
And, with apologies to Abraham Lincoln, as a matter of practical politics and tactical campaign warfare, it may be that "..A Democratic tax-raising house divided against itself will not stand.."
NostraDemus
NostraDemus,
Can you clarify what you mean by "school performance efficacy trumps projected increased school tax collection efficiencies; it is likely that neither Proposition 30 nor 38 will pass." ?
I agree with you that these Propositions will be difficult to pass when the groups that would normally support them are divided.
Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.
Brian:
Simple - increasing taxes in support of a public education system in which far too many parents are unengaged, distant and view teachers as baby-sitters instead of important professional partners in educating their children; overpaid and unaccountable six-figure administrators and principals who are self-absorbed and dictatorial; unappreciated, unsupported and unrewarded dedicated and high-performing teachers left hanging-out-to-dry, while at the same time that far too many under-performing teachers are bureaucratically insulated from career consequences of their own non-performance actions; mindless genuflection before homogenous test result consistency instead of development of critical thinking skills in our most precious resource, our children; and bureaucratic conformance with politically correct curriculum which has no relation with real world skills required to thrive in a 21st Century in a cut-throat competitive global economy is a prescription for utter failure..
Does that clarify the meaning of my remarks sufficiently for you, Brian?
NostraDemus,
I see great things happening often in local public schools. But I agree with you. The public needs to have confidence their money is being used properly. I know that if they believe money is being spent properly they will continue to support public education. Reforms are needed to restore their confidence.
Thanks for reading my blog. I appreciate your comments.
Brian:
Thank you..
I agree. In spite of all these existential challenges, there are many great things happening in local public schools each and every day.
Many of which are never reported or acknowledged, because the media cynically prefers to focus on "..when it bleeds it leads.."
And if my earlier post caused any misunderstanding, let me clarify my remarks further.
I have nothing but the greatest personal respect and civic admiration for the profession of teaching.
Given my ancestral heritage, you will not find it surprising that I fully agree with Marcus Tullius Cicero who said, "What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation."
But given my partisan registration, and political grounding as a working-class Democrat, you might be surprised learn that I also agree with none other than Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate for President in 1940 who observed, ".. Education is the mother of leadership."
Nonetheless, the Democratic Party, which is the party of government, and has been greatly influenced and beholden to the educational elites' lobby, has much to answer for, given the current state of public education in this country, and in California.
But so too, the Republican Party, which more often than not, rhetorically supported the patina of educational reform when it was deemed politically expedient [i.e. No Child Left Behind] in order gain the electoral votes of suburban elites, but when push came to shove, lacked the necessary political courage to support the substance of real educational reform, when it was most necessary.
Regardless, I think that Einstein said it best when he observed, "..If you think education is expensive, imagine the cost of ignorance."
Who are some of your favorite education reformers or politicians that support reform now?