We support the position of Steve Lopez, LA Times columnist, re California's race to the bottom for quality public education.
Over the past decade state funding for schools has declined by 42% and the effects have been devastating.
The remedies are not simple but as Steve puts it:
You cannot fix any of this in a state more inclined to build prisons than schools, despite projections of a huge shortage of college-educated workers by 2025.
You can’t fix it when you’re the only major oil-producing state with no excise tax, and you refuse to correct the huge property tax advantage Proposition 13 extended to corporations.
You can’t fix it without modest concessions from public employees, including teachers, on pensions and benefits.
And you certainly can’t fix it with three competing and unimaginative tax-increase proposals — one by Gov. Jerry Brown — that would restore some school funding, but are likely to do each other in come November.
http://www.latim
