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schools
Sorry to have been absent all day. Both club and Spanky seem to be misconstruing what I am saying about education funding. To anyone familiar with what has happened in this state, it is undeniable that public education in California used to be much better, and has suffered as funding has been cut. I'm not saying that spending more money will magically transform things, but it's a prerequisite for real change. There's a staunch conservative on a bus I sometimes take -- always reading National Review and proselytizing with libertarian readings -- and I have talked to him from time to time. His pet issue is education reform, and he says he's completely frustrated because any change involves spending money -- e.g., if you want new curriculum, you need to pay to replace books -- but the GOP insists on blaming the unions for everything and won't spend money, and the Democrats won't hold the unions to anything and insist on spending money. This may be satisfying for partisans, since it lets them blame everything on the other side, but it's frustrating for us parents.
I don't have any particular sympathy for teachers unions, but blaming them is like blaming government contractors for waste in defense spending. They're acting out of self-interest, just like many, many actors in other policy areas. Get over it. Blaming the unions is a useful crutch for failing to have fresh ideas about what should be done.
Improving schools is difficult. Cutting their funding, and preventing localities from taxing themselves to try new things makes it even harder.
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“It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage." - Larissa MacFarquhar
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