The Little Dead Schoolhouse 3
At one time, California had one of the best public education systems in the world.
No more. At Asia Times, Andy Kroll takes a look at what happened.
California’s public higher education system is, in other words, dying a slow death. The promise of a cheap, quality education is slipping away for the working and middle classes, for immigrants, for the very people whom the University of California’s creators held in mind when they began their grand experiment 144 years ago. And don’t think the slow rot of public education is unique to California: that state’s woes are the nation’s.
October 7, 2012 at 11:16 pm
The poison fruit of Howard Jarvis, essentially. Even dead, he owns a repugnant legacy.
October 8, 2012 at 8:44 am
One of the true apostles of the philosophy of “I’ve got mine,”
October 8, 2012 at 10:47 am
And history just repeats. I saw this happen. Schwarzenegger came to power because -Enron- had precipitated an energy crisis in California causing rolling blackouts as its power traders gamed a badly designed power distribution system. The public got enraged, a recall was instituted. Schwarzenegger promised he would refund the “car tax” — which everyone pays, when he got into office. The polity thought, “What a great idea!” It blew a hole in the state’s budget, one he could never close because the GOP minority party here, of which he is a part, can tie up the legislature on any matters of revenue because of a state rule requiring a 2/3 majority vote. So his own party screwed him over for his entire tenure, making his governorship a disaster for him as well as the state. And at the very end he complained the GOP had to change. They had excommunicated him for not being far right, enough.