California sinks

Another excellent column from George Will, one of the few voices of reason and intelligence out there. The point is clear, which is that my poor state has finally succombed to the years of abuse that are only possible under a staunch liberal government. Combine that with the past 8 years of conservative (if we can really call the insanity that was George Bush conservative) abuse at the federal level and its a wonder the country and state are not in worse shape. The most interesting part of this column was this bit:

Flinching from serious budget cutting and from confronting public employees unions, some Californians focus on process questions. They devise candidate-selection rules designed to diminish the role of parties, thereby supposedly making more likely the election of "moderates" amenable to even more tax increases.
But what actually ails California is centrist evasions. The state's crisis has been caused by "moderation," understood as splitting the difference between extreme liberalism and hyperliberalism, a "reasonableness" that merely moderates the speed at which the ever-expanding public sector suffocates the private sector.

The state needs a revolution, but who is there to lead?

Wrong answer, its seniority

I was losing interest in this story up until the paragraph before last. Its about a teacher who was voted Teacher of the Year by the PTA, based on ratings by the students, but who will be laid off next year. The statement, by the school principal was the following:

"We've got a great teacher," Carpenter lamented, "and he's gone because of the budget problems."

This is exactly wrong. This teacher is being let go because of union rules forcing teachers with less seniority to be let go first. I'm going to come off as a cold, heartless bastard, but the teacher's union in California has destroyed our educational system, making it one of the worst in the country despite the huge amount of money that is spent on education every year (teachers salaries are the highest in the country, yet we consistenly rank near the bottom on test scores with states like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and New Mexico). As a father of two going through public schools now, its painful to see and hear this hypocrisy.

Does California need a new constitution?

This story discussed the increased interest in updating California's constitution. About the only thing we can all agree on here is that the system is broken, but how can any citizen of this fine state trust a state politician to do the right thing here. Note that this is a state that has increased spending over the decade at a rate well above the inflation and population growth rate and yet has completely failed to provide its citizens with any significant improvements to their way of life.
The saddest part is that there is no obvious place to start to work for real reform. Certainly not with either party, one of which has orchestrated this mess (Dems have run the state for decades) and the other of which is more concerned with gay marriage and abortions than about the stuff that really matters in government. What a shame!