I have read today on these walls another comment about how "initiative-happy" Californians have created a budget mess.
This is easy CW to parrot, but it reflects a major misunderstanding on how effective the initiative process has been in creating the Progressive success that is California. The problem is not that the "people's laws" are out of whack, the problem is that the will of the people contradicts the philosophy of the Republican Party.
The great example of the initiative process is Proposition 13. As a result of this initiative, property taxes can only grow at a fixed rate, and schools are centrally funded from the overall property tax revenue.
More after the jump...
Property taxes, collected locally, are the traditional funding source for education. The money goes into a city or county, then back out to the school system. It does not work that way in California. Here, the state collects, and tries to distribute (with flaws) the money equally to all school districts. This is very progressive.
Where the tough part comes in is that educating children equally is fabulously expensive and cannot be afforded by property tax receipts. In addition, other city and county services that depend on property taxes like fire and police just add to the deficit.
Some would have CA drop prop 13. Do you believe that it is better when high property-value cities spend double per pupil than low property value ones? Sure, that is common in the US, but it is extremely anti-progressive.
Should we let property taxes rise? Like Texas? Sure, but then you force people out of their homes, and you eliminate a very virtuous characteristic of California society.
The plain fact is that educating every child in our state, or any other, is very expensive. This is not because of unions or administration, it is because education is hard, and expensive. Private schools cost $25,000 per student plus significant donations where I live. Public schools get $4,000 per student in elementary school and $7,500 per student in High School.
You cannot alter the math of education very much. Good outcomes come from manageable class sizes with good teachers in safe locations. At the high school level, that is about $10,000 minimum, without significant enrichment or counseling.
So California's real problem is that it is committed to universal education by constitution, and committed to protecting the homes of its residents. Are these bad objectives?
Yes, if you are a Republican.
You see, achieving these goals takes a great deal of money. More than is collected under the current property tax regime, and more than is collected through current income and sales taxes. If you believe in absolutely no new taxes, you are stuck.
The majority of Californians are Democrats, and the majority support funding for schools and Prop 13. A minority of Republicans, however, will not entertain tax increases of any kind. Even the repeal of Prop 13.
So education spending has fallen to 48th in the country.
The 2/3 majority requirement for spending and tax laws makes it possible for this minority of Republicans to hold the line on taxes. They don't care about education. The wealthier use private schools, and find it offensive that their money goes to the "others". They don't care that we have to beg for H1-Bs every year to fill basic jobs. They don't care that we do not graduate enough qualified workers to fill available positions.
They care about taxes.
So no, it is not those Initiative-crazy Californians. We feel as strongly about educational parity as many Americans feel about free speech. It is incontrovertibly positive ethically and economically. It is part of our constitution and it makes us more progressive than almost any state in the Union.
It is the fault of the Republicans, including our governor, who are ethically incapable of deciding to pay taxes to achieve the will of the public. They don't vote for California, they vote for Republicans.
Please be more sophisticated before parroting a naive view of the iniatitives in California.
note: I don't like Prop 8, either, but it will get overturned soon enough, either through another proposition or the courts. The initiative process is great that way - it reflects the will of the people, and it corrects its mistakes.