Thinking about yesterday’s comments regarding high-taxpayers fleeing California, a particular item stuck in my mind, which was Governor Brown’s “suggesting that high-earners must shoulder the largest burden in bailing out the state, particularly its debt-ridden public school system.”
I guess the governor’s position remained with me because I’ve never thought of California as being particularly strong education-wise, but not knowing the facts, I looked a few up.
First I found that the state system ranks about thirtieth in the nation, just about middling.
I then found a column, John Fensterwald’s, Educated Guess in a Silicon Valley Education Foundation publication which says: “This year California ranked 43rd among the states and Washington, D.C.; last year it was 46th. The $8,852 spent per pupil in 2008 – before the full impact of the recession hit California’s schools – was $2,371 below the national average of $11, 223. It will probably be headed lower once 2009 and 2010 figures are out. California is squeezed between #42 Washington, just ahead of Arizona, and a free-fall behind top-spending, low-cost Wyoming’s adjusted figure of $17,114.”
I then found another column by Phil Yarbrough and Donald P. Wagner of the Orange County Register, saying that the state’s “Prop 30 is a fabrication with the true intention of funding pensions that increase by $200 million this year .” And that “This year's budget is already $15.7 billion out of balance. Pensions and other retirement programs for state employees will cost $6.4 billion this year and they will increase to $7.6 billion by 2016, and they will keep increasing thereafter, forever until California is bankrupt.”
Now, considering the tax hikes the incumbent’s tying to jam down the throats of the few really making any bucks under his upside down vision of economics, I’m glad I did the preceding research about California. Because it truly helps me to make my point, whereas it’s obvious that state’s budget shortfalls, lack of funds and need for increased taxation has nothing to do with “education” at all.
The state already has billions invested in its educational system, yet ranks in the middle nationally quality-wise, while it’s spending per pupil ranks down near the bottom. But, in the meantime, “pensions and other retirement programs for state employees” keeps increasing at a pace that will soon bankrupt the system completely.
So, here we have a perfect example of governmental mismanagement, and a seemingly total disregard for those who provide the income that supports this gross financial injustice. However, as I wrote yesterday, California's top earners are not all just sitting still, they’re beginning to depart for elsewhere in droves.
And now that I’ve done the research and seen the statistics I can easily foretell that those who remain in the state will not only be flat broke, thanks to teaching being so poorly performed, they’ll remain ignorant as well.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
I guess the governor’s position remained with me because I’ve never thought of California as being particularly strong education-wise, but not knowing the facts, I looked a few up.
First I found that the state system ranks about thirtieth in the nation, just about middling.
I then found a column, John Fensterwald’s, Educated Guess in a Silicon Valley Education Foundation publication which says: “This year California ranked 43rd among the states and Washington, D.C.; last year it was 46th. The $8,852 spent per pupil in 2008 – before the full impact of the recession hit California’s schools – was $2,371 below the national average of $11, 223. It will probably be headed lower once 2009 and 2010 figures are out. California is squeezed between #42 Washington, just ahead of Arizona, and a free-fall behind top-spending, low-cost Wyoming’s adjusted figure of $17,114.”
I then found another column by Phil Yarbrough and Donald P. Wagner of the Orange County Register, saying that the state’s “Prop 30 is a fabrication with the true intention of funding pensions that increase by $200 million this year .” And that “This year's budget is already $15.7 billion out of balance. Pensions and other retirement programs for state employees will cost $6.4 billion this year and they will increase to $7.6 billion by 2016, and they will keep increasing thereafter, forever until California is bankrupt.”
Now, considering the tax hikes the incumbent’s tying to jam down the throats of the few really making any bucks under his upside down vision of economics, I’m glad I did the preceding research about California. Because it truly helps me to make my point, whereas it’s obvious that state’s budget shortfalls, lack of funds and need for increased taxation has nothing to do with “education” at all.
The state already has billions invested in its educational system, yet ranks in the middle nationally quality-wise, while it’s spending per pupil ranks down near the bottom. But, in the meantime, “pensions and other retirement programs for state employees” keeps increasing at a pace that will soon bankrupt the system completely.
So, here we have a perfect example of governmental mismanagement, and a seemingly total disregard for those who provide the income that supports this gross financial injustice. However, as I wrote yesterday, California's top earners are not all just sitting still, they’re beginning to depart for elsewhere in droves.
And now that I’ve done the research and seen the statistics I can easily foretell that those who remain in the state will not only be flat broke, thanks to teaching being so poorly performed, they’ll remain ignorant as well.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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