I THINK IT’S APPARENT to most Democrats in California that after six years of a Republican actor as governor, it’s time to elect a qualified candidate from among our own ranks in 2010. But please forgive me if I’m underwhelmed by our choices right now.

The indefatigable Jerry Brown hasn’t even officially declared yet and has already raised seven times as much money as his nearest Democratic competitor, Gavin Newsom, a likeable but flawed candidate.

On the short list of alternates often mentioned is Jackie Speier, a dynamic freshman Congresswoman from San Mateo. So when I was recently invited to hear her speak at a luncheon hosted by the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County, I happily accepted.

With a friendly nature, indomitable spirit and ambition to spare, the popular Speier spent 18 years in Sacramento in both the Assembly and the Senate and was elected with 75 percent of the vote last fall to the 12th Congressional District. She lost a primary contest for lieutenant governor in 2006 by a very narrow margin to John Garamendi.

Few in the mostly female audience disagreed with her assessment that we need more women in public office. “The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world,” Speier said, quoting Charles Malik, former president of the United Nations.

But while California has two female senators, currently only 17 percent of the U.S. House is female. And giving up her House seat to run for governor would be a “difficult” decision, she said.

But we urgently need someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to the special interests, Speier maintained. “I won’t support anyone who won’t take on the prison guards union.”

That’s a pretty fearless statement considering the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is one of the most powerful unions in the state and has funded many an independent expenditure attack on candidates who cross them.

But Speier is well known for her courage. While a young staffer to Congressman Leo Ryan in 1978, she was part of the delegation ambushed in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple. She was shot five times, left for dead and waited 22 hours for medical attention. Congressman Ryan and four others were murdered. The next day, more than 900 members of the cult committed suicide.

In 1994, Speier’s first husband died in a car crash while she was pregnant with their second child.

AND SO, IN COMPARISON, political obstacles seem far less formidable. She’s been a prolific legislator with more than 300 bills signed into law, many focusing on consumer protection issues and financial reform, and she chaired the state Senate committee investigating fraud in state government. On her first day in Congress, she delivered a gutsy but rousing speech against the Iraq war.

Speier recently held a town hall forum on health care in her district which was peaceful. “There is no point in pursuing health care reform without a public option,” she said. What would she do to fix California politics? Get rid of term limits (which give us a perpetual crop of rookies) or limit each legislator to 12 years, jettison the two-thirds vote needed to pass a budget and bring on open primaries (which will encourage moderates).

So perhaps instead of a fake action hero for governor, we’ve found a real one.

Go Jackie!

Marie Lakin is a community activist and writes the Making Waves blog for the Ventura County Star

JIM WUNDERMAN has saddled himself with quite a challenge: fixing a state that The Economist magazine called “ungovernable.” Wunderman and his group Repair California want to rewrite a state constitution that has previously been amended 512 times into a bloated, contradictory mess.

California’s governance process has followed a parallel evolution and now that the economy has tanked, all the nasty underpinnings are sticking out for the world to see. Ventura County Star Sacramento Bureau Chief Timm Herdt, a panelist at the Repair California event held Monday at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, said he has watched one too many deals made in the wee hours of all-night budget sessions in the legislature: “Now they only have one trick in their book and that’s sleep deprivation.”

A Bay area businessman, Wunderman says he has been joined in his efforts by a cross section of political groups like Common Cause, The New America Foundation, The Courage Campaign, Orange County Lincoln Club and Joint Venture – Silicon Valley Networks. Others are coming on board.

With so much contributing to the state’s dysfunction, agreeing on what to fix may take some doing. For example, the Commission on the 21st Century Economy is currently locked in a partisan battle on tax reform. But Wunderman outlined the following possible issues for a state constitutional convention:

• Eliminating the 2/3 requirement to pass a budget (but not necessarily the 2/3 to pass a tax increase.) California is the only state to require a 2/3 vote for both.
• Revising the fiscal inequities which exist between Sacramento and local governments because of Prop. 13. “They didn’t exactly intend for what’s happened to happen,” Wunderman said of the drain on funds for cities and counties.
• Election reform. “It’s a special-interest controlled mob up in Sacramento right now. … The short terms in the Assembly have given it rookie-league status so they operate at the behest of special interests and staff, the only ones who have experience.”
• Reforming the ballot initiative process. “It wasn’t intended to become what it’s become. It’s been taken over by special interests.” Initiatives of the future could have sunset clauses and a requirement to reveal economic impact.
• Requiring performance measures for established programs.

THE CURRENT SYSTEM SPECIFIES that the legislature must call for a Constitutional Convention. But Repair California wants to bypass them and go directly to the voters with it. Once the Attorney General’s Office issues titles and summaries for a proposed ballot measure, the group has only 150 days to gather 800,000 signatures to qualify it for the November 2010 ballot. The convention would take place in 2011 and the delegates’ reform package would be voted on in November of 2012. 

How would delegates be chosen? Herb Gooch, a political science professor at CLU, and one of the day’s panelists, told me he thought they should be selected by Assembly district with all potential candidates voted on by the public.

While seasoned Sacramento hands like Herdt believe special-interest lawsuits will torpedo these efforts, the folks behind Repair California remain optimistic. If the packed room on Monday was any indication, the will is there.

“The people have the power to change this and nothing can stop them,” Wunderman said.

Marie Lakin is a community activist and writes the Making Waves blog for the Ventura County Star

A NEW STUDY from the Public Policy Institute of California predicts that a majority of the state’s schools will fail to reach No Child Left Behind’s impossibly high goals for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) next year. “Very soon almost every public school in California will be labeled a failure,” the study’s authors write.

The program mandates that schools and districts receiving Title I federal funds make satisfactory yearly improvement toward an established individual goal in math and English. A school which consistently misses its goal over several years is eventually subject to major restructuring. These efforts are costly and their success has been mixed.

The study identified many factors behind its findings but suggested that the larger problem is a  system which does not account for the significant differences in challenges between schools. “Fifty percent of elementary schools with the highest share of low-income students made AYP in 2007, whereas 98 percent of elementary schools with the lowest share of low-income students made AYP,” according to the PPIC.

“As a result, a school that inherits many high-achieving students but teaches them very little can be labeled a success, whereas a school that inherits many low-achieving students and teaches them a great deal can be labeled a failure,” the authors write.

California has a high percentage of disadvantaged students.

The situation will not likely improve given the economy and severe cutbacks and larger class sizes California’s schools face next year as a result of state budget negotiations.

WHAT CAN BE DONE besides a complete overhaul of the NCLB rules? The study makes many worthwhile suggestions:

• Invest in preschool. High-quality programs can help close the achievement gap.

• Re-evaluate programs which are not working. The study points to a remedial program for students who have failed the high school exit exam as one which has been ineffective, yet the governor’s current budget allocates $73 million to it.

• New, innovative programs which work should be nurtured, piloted and implemented statewide.

• Reform school finance by replacing it with a weighted formula more closely tied to the actual costs of educating students. Schools which have more students from low socioeconomic background should naturally receive more funding, but those with higher regional costs should also receive more dollars.

While few would argue many reforms are needed in California’s education system, NCLB has had an unhealthy effect on the education community nationwide, something Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the American Federation of Teachers conference last week:

“This idea of labeling and stigmatizing schools as failures — it is unbelievably demoralizing to faculty; it’s confusing to parents.”

Marie Lakin is a community activist and writes the Making Waves blog for the Ventura County Star

(Penny Wise and Pound Foolish. Welcome to the Recession Era California that Will Drive Your Depression Era Relatives Crazy! – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

IT’S A NIGHTMARE that is likely playing over and over in the heads of tourism bureau directors in beach towns around California: how many visitor dollars will go away if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger really shuts down our state parks?

In seaside getaways all along the coast, the lure of the ocean draws tourists and their money, but the parking lots and campgrounds at most state-run beaches will be padlocked in a year if the governor’s proposal to close more than 80 percent of our state park system is approved. This will save the state $143 million and will likely put businesses dependent on visitors to state parks under water.

According to the California Travel Industry Association, studies have shown that every $1 that funds the state park system returns $2.35 to the General Fund, largely through economic activity in communities surrounding state parks. This is an estimated $350 million.

Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau Director Jim Luttjohann is finding the possible closures sort of surreal. “It’s so huge it’s almost unfathomable,” he said. He just returned from a state conference on tourism where the mood was very somber. Schwarzenegger, who was scheduled to attend, didn’t show up. Other pressing matters kept him elsewhere, his staff explained.

For beachfront hotel owners on state lands, the prospect of fenced-off dunes must seem ludicrous. Luttjohann pointed to one Ventura hotel’s positioning near San Buenaventura State Beach, one of those on the closure list.

“We would have a beachside hotel where guests couldn’t go to the beach.”

ACCORDING TO THE GOVERNOR’S PROPOSAL, in July of 2010, 223 of our 279 state parks will be fenced off and closed to the public. In Ventura County and neighboring areas that would mean the closure of the popular San Buenaventura State Beach, Carpinteria State Beach, Emma Wood State Beach, El Capitan State Beach, Gaviota State Park, Leo Carrillo State Park, Malibu Creek State Park, Malibu Lagoon State Beach, McGrath State Beach, Refugio State Beach, Point Mugu State Park and Will Rogers State Historical Park.

It will also close access to the majestic beauty of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz area and Anza-Borrego near San Diego, among many other treasured spots.

But closing a state park doesn’t necessarily mean people will stay out, Luttjohan pointed out. There will be issues of safety with no lifeguards available in beach areas, no public restroom facilities and no maintenance. Vagrants could easily set up camp and the area will quickly become blighted.

Closures will force more beachgoers to neighborhoods with beach access unaffected by the budget cuts, clogging beach lanes with parked cars.

BUT THERE IS A SOLUTION. It’s just not popular with the minority Republicans, who are against all new fees and taxes, even ones which could keep our state’s tourism industry from taking a huge hit. Today the Senate Republicans voted against this plan despite polling done last year showing 74 percent of respondents in favor.

A $15 surcharge on vehicle license fees has been proposed which would allow anyone with a California license plate free day-use to our parks. (For example, the $8 entrance fee to San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura would be waived.) This would generate enough to keep all our state parks open with enough left over to pay off debt on past park bonds. But it needs a 2/3 vote by both houses of the legislature to pass.

Go visit a state park today while you can. Take a long walk on the beach or in the woods and ask yourself: is this something I want to live without? And how long do we let a stubborn minority ruin the state for the rest of us without offering any of their own solutions?

Marie Lakin is a community activist and writes the Making Waves blog for the Ventura County Star

I attended my youngest child’s “graduation” ceremony from elementary school today. It was a touching morning filled with awards and a montage of baby photos, girls dressed up in their best dresses and boys squirming uncomfortably in collared shirts. As a long-time parent, I’ve attended quite a few of these affairs.

But at the end came something that was markedly different from any ceremony I’ve attended before. We bid goodbye to a favorite teacher. My son’s beloved part-time health teacher received a pink slip this spring. In good years these “temporary” teachers find themselves with a job again after the budget issues have settled down. But this is not to be this year.

A cheer went up among the children when her name was announced along with the other teachers. She’s a favorite with the kids. My quiet little son, who seldom relays details of his school day, often came home with stories about the great discussions he’s had in her class.

Clearly this is a teacher who is making an impact. And yet we seem to be unable to afford her salary any longer. This is the grim reality of state budget cuts. A family without a second income will be making fewer purchases in the community. Next year’s students will not receive the benefit of her instruction.

It is a chain of ruin with profound impacts on the future of our children and the economy.

I went up to her afterward and assured her she would land on her feet. Unable to find child care today, she had her small daughter with her. She thanked me for my words of support and I could see the tears forming in her eyes.

I think back to the day I watched the TEA Party protesters in Ventura in giddy celebration of taking down the government.

This is the government: a now unemployed health teacher who really gets through to her pupils, holding the hand of her 3-year-old.

Marie Lakin is a community activist and writes the Making Waves blog for the Ventura County Star

WHAT’S THE BEST REASON to not cut our state education funding? In the future we’ll need sharp minds to get us out of these budget messes.

I’ve been hunkered down for the past few days looking over documents and trying to make some sense of the budget package the governor just signed and how it will affect the bottom line of our schools. It’s a precarious hodgepodge of $8.4 billion in cuts offset by reforms and accounting tricks. And all of this hinges on a package of ballot measures up in May, some designed to reshuffle prior ballot measures.

This labyrinthine budget reduces Prop. 98 guaranteed school funding from now through 2010 and then adds in another ballot measure to help to help restore the lost funds in 2011. Yet another tinkers with Prop. 98 formulas because the state now needs to borrow from future lottery earnings that would’ve gone to our schools.

Several of the seven ballot measures coming up on May 19 are so complicated that one could safely predict most voters probably won’t do anything but vote no in protest, if they bother to cast a ballot at all.

AND THERE’S MORE: Categorical funding for many important programs is being slashed 20 percent between now and 2010. Included in this are programs for gifted students, college preparation, middle and high school counseling, deferred maintenance, technology, English language acquisition, summer school, ROP programs, and, of course, arts and music. In return, school districts are being given the “flexibility” to move these pots of funding around, but it’s sort of like figuring out which child doesn’t get dinner that night.

Upcoming federal money, which would help reduce state taxes, would have no effect on K-12 classroom funding this budget year, according to the California Department of Education. In the longer term, “these resources will have a minimal impact on reducing the size and magnitude of the state reductions in education funding,” according to the California Association of School Business Officials.

AS YOU CAN SURMISE, budgeting for the next school year is like playing pin the tail on the weasel. It’s a moving target which the dedicated folks who can actually figure this stuff out HAVE to wrestle with because the deadline for letting teachers know whether or not they will have jobs next year is March 13. Yet, they won’t have any answers until June. Maybe.

Here in the City of Ventura, school officials are looking at a mighty big gap. “… It will not look like business as usual here,” said Superintendent Trudy Arriaga. “We should not be celebrating a state budget that is cutting $10 million out of a little budget like the Ventura Unified School District has.

“We should be outraged.”

Most people just pay attention to all this by how it affects them personally. If you have a child in the public schools in California, expect bigger class sizes, no new textbooks, fewer supplies and technology, less remedial help, reduced maintenance and less emphasis on programs such as arts, music and physical education. Some familiar faces in teaching, staff and administration will be gone.

“About the only thing schools won’t have less of is testing,” said Ventura Unified Educators Association President Steve Blum.  “The more-and-more testing crowd made sure state testing will be untouched.

“All this together is not good. This generation’s shortsighted approach to preparing the next generation for the future is sad.”

Marie Lakin is a community activist and and writes the Making Waves blog for the Ventura County Star