by Jack Lee
California’s single biggest expenditure is in educating our future generations, but as you know declining tax revenues have forced school budgets to be cut to the bone and it has teachers counting pennies for classroom supplies. Everywhere you look schools are strapped for cash. Well here’s a few overlooked pennies…how about the $2.6 million dollars spent by the California Student Aid Commission to rent an empty EdFund buidling in Rancho Cordova last year and the year before. This would be $2.6 million paid for rent that could have provided financial aid for up to 1,000 college students And here’s the worst part, the California Student Aid Commission is still spending $1.3 million a year to rent it even though the Aid Commission has been relocated to a cheaper rental site. They had a lease and they were afraid the building would be sold so they didn’t want to move in for fear of having to move right again, so they are stuck with the lease agreement.
In Chico, teachers are struggling and fighting to get a new 2 year contract. But, not all educators have it so tough. Take for instance, the generous salaries in the CSU system. The California State University Board of Trustees voted unanimously to keep the annual salary of incoming Cal Poly interim President Robert Glidden roughly the same as that received by outgoing President Warren Baker, who is retiring at the end of the month after 31 years as president.
Mr. Baker is paid $328,209 per year, making him the highest-paid of the 23 CSU presidents. The brand new president, who is slated to begin at Cal Poly on August 1, will receive $328,200 – just $9 less than the 31-year veteran.
The CSU board also voted to provide Mr. Glidden with a university-owned vehicle and housing on the Cal Poly campus. The outgoing president receives a $60,000 housing allowance per year for his off-campus residence, plus a $1,000-a-month car allowance.
Life is pretty darn good for some in California’s edcuation system. This is pretty small stuff compared to the paying for an empty building, but there is so much wasted money, if we had tax money spent right schools would be very well funded. This is the gripe conservatives have had all along and one that liberals don’t wish to acknowledge. We don’t mind spending billions on education – but we do mind if a big portion of it is wasted on stupid stuff. Is that too much to ask, that they just spend the money reasonably?
“They had a lease and they were afraid the building would be sold so they didn’t want to move in for fear of having to move right again, so they are stuck with the lease agreement.”
A private corporation might well be done into bankruptcy by such a blunder, and countless likely have been. But we’re not talking about a widget maker, we’re talking about our government, charged with administrating an educational edifice of myriad complexity (something could be done about this) … whose blunders we will cover, for the sake of higher education for all those capable of it.
You, you can buy yourself some body guards and take yourself off to Somalia.
California has been a rich state for so long, with an electorate that hasn’t been paying attention. The bureaucrats found billions in pork they could feed themselves while calling it compassion for others.
But then the extremists came and ran out all the businesses and prosperity. No more money for pork or to educate our kids. The game is over.
Now we have to turn back the tide. Throw out the environmental extremists, kick out the bureaucrats, and finally bring jobs back to our state. It starts, for now, by passing Proposition 23. Then we’ll really get rough.
When did a college education become a right? When did it become the responsibility of tax payers to pay for it? Stuff has got to change and people are not going to like the changes but that’s life.
I am sure reforming the college system will be one of the very last changes made due to the fantastic brainwashing job that has been performed on the taxpaying public.
Why can’t education be streamlined? Get rid of all the “oh that class looks like fun” and replace them with the basics. Stop catering to the non-English speaking people. You want to go to school here and have us pay for it learn to speak English on your dime. Look how much money could be saved if we made people coming to this Country actually learn to speak English before they get a free ride. If those people learn English it stands to reason their children who we are paying to learn how to speak English will learn it at home as most of us have. I would just once like a liberal to be honest and tell me what is wrong with that idea. If liberalism is such a great thing why wouldn’t you want a English speaking voter base? That is what it all boils down to, keep them stupid, keep them off balance, keep them dependent, keep them in fear. Liberalism is pathetic.
Could not have said it better thank you Toby! Well done!
Steve, you’re right and if people are paying attention Prop 23 will pass despite all the disinformation and zealotry against it.
This is an old cliche’, but it’s still true and that is, California doesn’t have an income problem it has a spending problem.
Just think if we had the same accountability as successful businesses and watched the spending just as prudently as they do how much we would have to spend on our children. I wish our educational system was in the hands of private industry, I think we would do much better than government schools.
Libby, would it surprise you to know that nobody was fired over squandering this money?
See, this is part of the problem – accountability. We need people to be more accountable and when it involves a huge loss like this there should be something done, a demotion, time off without pay, a firing, just something to say that was pretty stupid and guess what you did it, and now you’re being held responsible! This seems never to happen. Look at home many blunders there were in 9-11. Did one person get sacked over it?
There are three levels of higher education in Calif. The UC, CSU and community college all are state funded with our taxes. All have tuition or admission fees. Community colleges have no admissions floor except to be 18 years of age or a high school graduate. CSUs and UCs have an academic admission requirement. Foreign students and non-residents pay a higher tuition than residents.
The problem exist because of the non-English speaking/reading students fail to learn English at the high schools and Adult Education facilities. Community college have to higher teachers and use classrooms to teach thousands of students basic English instead of offering college-level courses to English as a first language students.
Community colleges are mandated by the state of meet the needs of the community, and when a large portion of the population is speaking English as their second language the colleges are forced to use their budget to teach them English. English as a first language students who should be in a community college because they dont meet the CSU English level are now taking basic level courses at the CSUs instead of the community college where they should be.
After working in the counseling department of a community college for over 27 years I know of what I say. As the coordinator of our new student orientation process since the state mandated the Matriculation process in the early 1990s Ive seen thousands of these students.
For things to get better our Education Code needs to be revised to require English as a second language adult students to be taught through our fee based Metropolitan Adult Education programs and not in our public educational institutions. Our taxes going to our higher education institutions should be used to teach higher educational courses.
Again, I will state if changes are to be made to how our educational institutions are funded changes MUST be made to our Ed. Code. There are no current restrictions for salaries and benefits of administrators, faculty and support staff. The common practice of, Use it or lose it. at the end of the fiscal year leads to millions if not billions of waste.
Ive seen a hundred office chairs, at roughly $300 each, roll into a department in June and three brand new cars and vans show up on campus because the surplus in a departments budget had to be used up to justify their allocation of funds for the next fiscal year. And the chancellors salary going from $125,000 in 2003 to over $300,000 in 2009. Ed Code regulates top managements salaries to be maintained at a certain percentage above lower-level management, faculty and staff, but does not regulate from top down. Therefore, funds allocated from the state often goes to pay the top management salaries instead of the salaries for new faculty, instructional aids, and other support staff positions needed to educate the students.
Libby: “But we’re not talking about a widget maker, we’re talking about our government, charged with administrating an educational edifice of myriad complexity…”
Perhaps this is the problem. All that money spent lavishly on what according to you is nothing more than an “elite body”. We need a lot less of this some pigs are more equal than others stuff because these pigs, no matter how special, are not producing the kind of result their compensation should warrant.
Fire them? Damn straight! Then give the job to people who actually want to see our kids well educated and able to work. Right now, even at that lowly widget company, we are seeing high school graduates with such poor educational training that they can’t figure out how to fill out an application…it’s pathetic.
Good heavens Libby you’ve lost your freaking mind!!!
Toby: “When did a college education become a right? When did it become the responsibility of tax payers to pay for it?…”
Brilliant questions (and comments)! My answer to the questions is when elitist snobs decided making widgets was not worthy of respect!
It started when elitist thinkers decided that the piece of paper was a ticket to success rather than actual excellence in higher learning and achievement of the student. It started when elitists decided anyone with a college degree (the paper) was more valuable to our society whether or not they can perform at a higher level. Institutions of higher learning are often nothing more than assembly line factories creating cookie cutter “graduates”.
A doctor in town once asked me which was more important/valuable to society, a doctor or a garbage collector. I value both but his point was well taken. Without those who do less glamorous jobs we’d soon find ourselves piled high in a smelly, sickening mess. When we beging to have more respect for all work and honor those who are craftsmen, businessmen, hard working wiodget makers and the like we’ll see a healthier society with fewer wasting time and money pretending to make it through college.
Jack: ” I wish our educational system was in the hands of private industry, I think we would do much better than government schools.”
It may come to something like this. People are fed up with the attitude that the people’s money is a never ending fountain that can be tapped at will without regard to hgow wisely and prudently it is being spent. If we’re going to pay for a gold plated widget we should get a gold plated widget on delivery.
Peggy you are a jewel! Thank you for sharing your experience with our readers. It’s one thing for an ouitsider to notice that something is wrong and another for someone who’s witnessed it to speak up.
What we all want is a better educational system and children who are well prepared to become good, responsible citizens capable of contributing to society and providing for their own needs and wants.
When we begin to have more respect for all work and honor those who are craftsmen, businessmen, hard working widget makers and the like we’ll see a healthier society with fewer wasting time and money pretending to make it through college.
I completely agree with you for two reasons. We need cosmetologist and auto mechanics just as much as we need surgeons and biochemist. And not all students have the same interest and academic abilities to obtain a Masters or PHD and many students dont poses the critical thinking and problem solving ability to be a plumber and carpenter.
When my two sons began high school back in the 1980s they had to pick from four plans to graduate.
Plan A was completion of 200 units with a 2.0gpa.
Plan B was the same as A with a concentration of vocational courses.
Plan C was the same as A with CSU prep courses
Plan D was 240 units of college prep for CSU and UC with a major in math and science.
At 13 and 14 years old they were being asked what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. Plan A prepared them for nothing. Plan B and C at least prepared them for something, but if during their junior year they decided to go to Berkeley as a math/science major theyd be 40 units short. So, I did the only thing a parent could advise them to do. Go with Plan D and if they changed their minds to any plan except for Plan B they could at least graduate with more than the minimum units required.
I dont know what high schools are doing now, but sure hope and pray they have done away with anything equivalent to Plan A. Every student deserves more than just a piece of paper after 12 years. They need a chance to succeed in a job they may want to do for a very long time.
Since schools are funded by ADA (average daily attendance) I’m all for tax credits to individuals home schooling and sending their kids to private schools. When public schools receive less funds from the state it will force them into evaluating their curriculum and standards to be competitive .
Well said Peggy!
As I see it, if we require people to speak English before they get to this Country we can cut all that English speaking funding from the budget. I have no idea what that dollar amount would be but it is a start.
“When did a college education become a right?”
Ah, a strict constructiist. The rest of us have expanded the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to include a shot a higher education … for those capable of it.
You, and Antonin, can buy yourselves some body guards and take yourselves off to Somalia.
Libby: “The rest of us have expanded the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
So now you speak for everyone?
Everyone already has a shot at higher education in America. If one poor kid can get a higher education any poor kid can who wants it badly enough can. The precident has already been set.
If higher education floats your boat you are free, as is anyonbe, to donate more to higher education, no one will stop you! You can also donate to scholarship funds, specific colleges…or to your own nieces or nephews educations. Go for it, Libs…expand away…it’s your individual right!
In America the idea is that we are each free to pursue life, liberty and happiness as we see fit…not as Libby dictates. See when Libby dictates that “liberty” thingy no longer makes sense. When Libby dictates liberty is denied.
Libby, that was weak.
Libby, you just put a caveat on your requirements to a higher education and limit it to those capable of it? Surely you don’t mean you would take a way afformative action?????!
Everyone has an opinion and even jabs at those that disagree.
I remember when education was free, books and all supplies provided through high school, college was free or minimal.
Then some Einstein decided we needed another federal agency overseeing education for all the states, that was the catalyst of where we are.
50% of this states revenue is slated for education, very little of that gets to the classrooms, maybe an in depth investigation should be made NOW, too many top level people in Sacramento,local schools have principals, asst, principals then of course the superintendents and their assistants,and on it goes.
The system is bloated needs to be chopped from the top in Sacto.
I would like to see the Trade schools return not everyone wants to go to college or for that matter capable,
Excellent thoughts Harriet…you should be running for the school board.
“I remember when education was free, books and all supplies provided through high school, college was free or minimal.
Then some Einstein decided we needed another federal agency overseeing education for all the states, that was the catalyst of where we are.”
This is very vague, Harriet. Explain yerself. Higher education in this country was virtually free until your boy, Reagan, took the highest office in the land.
My first semester at a CSU campus was in ’74 and cost $104 dollars. Shit happened.
When I recommenced my college education in ’82 … $400 plus, and climbing by hundreds every year since. Thanks to … althogether now ….
Deny it how you like. Facts is facts.
Libby, the cost of tuition almost always reflects the costs of providing it to students. That’s overhead. Let me do some checking and see how the overhead has increased…I’ll be right back.
This post is from Jack: Geez Libs, something must be wrong… according to what I just found California State colleges have the 12th lowest tuition in the nation at $391.75 (Maximum Charge per Credit Hour).
The figures I found were last updated Aug. 30th of 2010 as reported by the Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs. Now maybe that is something only for vets? I’ll do some more checking and be right back.
Libs… I just found this, it’s dated though, “Tuition and mandatory fee charges at four-year public institutions rose in every state, startlingly so in some cases. In Massachusetts, for instance, tuition jumped from $3,295 to $4,075, an increase of 24 percent, largest in the nation. Iowa, Missouri and Texas increased tuition and required fees by 20 percent, North Carolina by 19 percent, Ohio by 17 percent. Sixteen states increased tuition and fees by more than 10 percent.
Tuition increased by just two percent in New York State last year, but Governor George Pataki, after cutting the State University of New York’s 2003-2004 budget by $184 million, proposed a 35 percent increase in SUNY undergraduate tuition. The governor trimmed the City University of New York budget by $83 million, but left it up to the system’s governing board to determine tuition charges.
Community college tuition and mandatory fees rose in all but two states (California and Maine),”
(From Jack Lee)
Libby, vague? perhaps as you usually include all minutia.
takes awhile to get through your posts, although you are very good, I tend to want to scan.
Have you heard of Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt? She was a former senior policy advisor of the US Dept. of Education.
I am giving you a link where there is an outline of her book.
The book, by the way, I also scanned very detailed very long as I recall more than 700 pages.
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/pages/book.htm
Libby, Jack here again… I found exactly what [[[[[[ [you] ]]]]] need to see!
So Reagan really shafted students, did he? Wow…then this chart that I found must be completely wrong. Because it shows that UC tuitions dropped under Reagan and State colleges remained almost flat and then dipped following the trend line for the UC’s in Reagans final year. This chart which is done by teachers organization is a pro-democrat website. Check it out and report back will ya?
http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/314/is-privatization-a-national-trend-beyond-our-control
Harriet, Libby said Gov. Reagan gave us a 400% increase in tuitions to state colleges – well, turns out not to be true. Check out this graph:
http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/314/is-privatization-a-national-trend-beyond-our-control
What we have here is runaway spending by democrats – they make up the budget, not the gov. he can only approve the budget. Under democrats the state tuition has skyrocketed! To be fair we must remember that the Board Regents establishes tuition cost, not the legislature, but their funding certainly impacts the tuition cost. Jack Lee
Libby: “Higher education in this country was virtually free until your boy, Reagan, took the highest office in the land.”
Libby higher education was only virtually free at state sponsored colleges and the person responsible wasn’t Reagan; it was CARTER!!!
Reagan knew that once the federal government got involved two things would happen. 1. More money would go to bureaucracy and 2. Those people involved in education decision making, warmed by the thought that a never ending flow of federal funds would follow, no longer gave a rats a*s about careful management and delivering a good product at the best price! Carters creation of the Department of Education was, psycologically, the equivalent of giving colleges and Universities (and all schools) a gold card with an unlimited credit line. Not only can we spend more now we can spend it on all kinds of fun things unrelated to preparing kids for adulthood…whoopie!
In terms of education generally and higher education specifically I found the following:
From CATO:
http://www.cato.org/research/education/articles/reagan.html
Other assessments have found similar examples of wastefullness, poorly managed funds or unnecessary spending. It seems those who make decisions about spending put priorities for glamor and excess above a solid foundational education for students:
http://www.suite101.com/content/why-are-college-costs-rising-a90578
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/education/21college.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tamar%20lewin%20staff%20jobs&st=cse
Blaming Ronald Reagan for the terrible decisions made by administrators and bureaucrats since Carter gave us the BIG government solution is nuts but typical. You thought Harriets response was “vague”. Your’s was not only try vague, it was erroneous and therefore misleading.
I am not about to defend the spending priorities in higher education. Like Harriot, I have seen the sausage being made, and it is not a pretty thing.
Chico State just added two new VP’s and a new office of diversity, to go along with the office of civic engagement, and the office of service learning. Administration to faculty ratios have risen faster than tuition.
That said, this state did have a compact for higher education that said that the highest performing students would have the opportunity (right) to a college education.
The real deal breaker was Prop 13 which froze corporate property taxes forever since corporations never die. So Southern Pacific Railroad, Harris Ranch, and Shell Oil still pay the same taxes they did in 1973. To bad real living people can’t get such a deal.
Harriet, Libby said Gov. Reagan gave us a 400% increase in tuitions to state colleges –
I know she did, but Liberals always blame Reagan, prop 13, or some other conservative accomplishment.
Libby could have looked up facts on Reagan if she had wished, but easier to demean.
I gave the Iserbyt link as that is from a woman who was A top official in the US Dept of Education, she documents all her works and describes what was done to education.
I am not about to defend the spending priorities in higher education. Like Harriot. Mark, I don’t think I defended them I said it should be investigated and quite frankly curtailed.
WE all benefit from prop. 13, I just got my tax bill it is 1763.00 if prop 13 was not in effect it would be 4 times that and we could not pay it.
The corporations you mentioned hire alot of people Mark. What would all those employees do if they lost their jobs?
_______________
an aside note, you have been spelling my name wrong forever, please correct that.thanks
I’m with you Harriet, my tax bill is $1600 a year, without 13 I would have to move to a cheaper place…like Arkansas.
Mark, the companies you mentioned are not affected by Prop 13. This was for homeowners and it limits property tax increases to 2% a year.
Comment 26, directed toward Libby, was atrtributed to Post Scripts…but it was my comment. Sorry for any confusion.
Sorry Harriet. And if you re-read the post, I was agreeing with you.
Jack, Prop 13 aslo applies to commercial property. From the LA Times,
“It’s terrible economics,” said Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Assn. “We have the heaviest tax on new investment and no tax on windfall.”
Goldberg knows that any change to residential tax rates would be a tough sell. So he favors starting with commercial property, which is indeed the right place to begin.
Assessing all commercial property at market values could add $5 billion more to state coffers, Goldberg estimated.
“The assessment of commercial property is the biggest hole in the state’s tax system,” he said. “It’s completely indefensible.”
“If the older portions of the Disneyland resort were assessed at the same level as newer ones, he observed, Orange County would be raking in millions of dollars more each year in revenue. This, in turn, would make the county less reliant on assistance from the state.”
“It’s only fair,” Goldberg said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/09/business/fi-lazarus9
Mark: “From the LA Times…”
The writer of Marks article can be summed up in just a few of his own words:
Keep your mugggy hands off prop 13! If the people making decisions can’t create a budget and reign in spending without the dire consequences this elitist snob envisions he and they should step aside and let others do the job.
Demanding, and expecting, a continuous flow of free cash is NOT how things work in the REAL world. Families and businesses cannot operate with this fairy tale mindset. There is no taxpayer to extort (and destroy) for them. What an A**hole!
Try reading this article by Richard Rider, Salon, about prop 13 and the revenue that continues to flow from property taxes:
http://www.open.salon.com/blog/richard_rider/2010/09/04/a_defense_of_prop_13_property_tax_revenues
In the real world when the budget is busted families and businesses cut spending and sell/eliminate all extras. They go beare bones. Because of irresponsible government those in our society not paid by tax dollars have been suffering for a couple of years now and our savings, investment and “lifestyles” have been lost or curbed dramatically.
It’s time for government to get with the program…MAN UP… and CUT SPENDINGELIMINATE WASTE AND FRAUD, CUT UNNECESSARY FAT FROM THE BLOATED BUREAUCRACY. It ;s time for them to work hard to make government a lean, efficient machine. That is what is needed.
Politicians keep telling us only more of our money will make things work. Its a LIE and has been for years. They have spent our money like fools; they have damaged and disrespected the goose that supplied all of those golden eggs. Now they want to grind sustenance even from the broken goose feathers.
We may be hurting but we are not suicidal. GO FISH!
(all emphasis mine)
Tina,
You are shifting the conversation from the fact that corporations are taking advantage of California tax codes intended to help families stay in their homes to the tune of $5 billion a year.
Mark: “You are shifting the conversation from the fact that corporations are taking advantage of California tax codes…”
Horse feathers. That’s a liberal talking point. Corporations are paying taxes according to current law.
Progressive Democrats in the state don’t want to face the uncomfortable music. Their policies have driven business out of the state, crushed the economy, and now that the money flow has trickled down to a slow drip they are looking for DEEP POCKETS to RAID!
What’s sick is that YOU fall for this tripe and rally to defend them.
This idea will simply drive more business from the state, subject apartment dweller and small business rents up, and cause the price of goods and services to go UP.
If the state needs $5 billion let it find it in the mismanagement and waste in the bloated bureaucracy, and let them eliminate ALL unnecessary froo froo. Let the state operate like the military rather than a country club. How about we start with those new positions you mention at CSU:
Do you think that CSU is the only college or university doing this. Do you think any of the offices of our government have tried to cut expenses lately…or do you think government has grown bigger over the last few years?
Government and educational system employees have had an easy ride with respect to worries or concerns about where the money that funds them comes from and how difficult it is to generate. You just lap it up and when it’s gone expect more to just be provided.
When money gets tight the politicians throw fits like spoiled children and attack business or the wealthy, as if the money they have BELONGS to them.
HEY…THAT FIVE BILLION YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT IS NOT THE STATES MONEY!
“Corporations are paying taxes according to current law.”
You are such an apologist.
Corporations manipulate the legal process to fit their needs
Mark: “Corporations manipulate the legal process to fit their needs.”
EVIDENCE PLEASE! Let’s have a few examples. If you’re going to make the point, make it!
One way or the other it’s still NOT THE STATES MONEY!