Good Legislation: Freeing Up Education Money

State Senator Alan Lowenthal has certainly sponsored some questionable legislation, two pieces of Lowenthal's work this year I have previously labelled Dumbest and More Dumb. But if his SB 1396, co-authored with his ex-wife Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, passes he will be the author of a groundbreaking pilot program that can change the future of education in our state.

If it becomes law SB 1396 would initiate a three year pilot program for three school districts, at this point Long Beach Unified School District, Fresno Unified School District and Garden Grove Unified School District. Under the pilot program the State Schools Superintendent would convert funding for the Districts for "categorical education programs" to block grants. In short, the bill would eliminate state spending mandates for the Districts and allow the local boards of education and Superintendents determine how those funds can best be spent within their districts to improve student education.

This program is the first step to return control of education to the local communities, putting more responsibility for education funding and programs with the Districts, and therefore with the parents and residents within the Districts. This legislation greatly diminishes the control of the state government and bureaucracy, which means it also diminishes the influence and control of the California Teachers Association and other unions representing education employees. This legislation will allow Long Beach, Fresno and Garden Grove to show Sacramento, and the nation, that the closer to the source government revenue is controlled the more efficiently it is used.

As part of the legislation the districts must show measurable improvement in API scores, graduation rates and students headed off to college. The funds are not just going to be dumped on the districts with a "good luck, see you in three years." As well they will still have to adhere to any federal spending mandates tied to any federal funds received. By setting the goals and having the ability to apply spending where needed to meet those goals however allows significant more opportunity for success than having to meet goals set from the state with mandated spending by a bureaucracy that has no idea what local needs may be.

Long Beach Unified is on the record as proposing the legislation, and since the Lowenthals' districts cover areas of Long Beach Unified, Bonnie was a member of the LBUSD Board of Education before her election to the Long Beach City Council. The ties between the Lowenthals and LBUSD are long and deep. A very progressive school district, LBUSD was first in the nation to require every student in elementary, and then middle, school wear a uniform every day, required students reach benchmark reading levels at 3rd and 8th grades, required students with multiple fails to repeat 8th grade, and has been a finalist for the Broad Award several times, winning once. The partnership between the Lowenthals and LBUSD is a natural for this legislation impacting Long Beach.

Education reform is extremely difficult to achieve given the nature of funding for districts, they raise no funds on their own but rather receive funding from the state and/or federal government directly. Because their revenues are filtered through the state the revenues are able to be controlled by the state. Through the years special projects and agendas have resulted in funding mandates for revenues sent to districts. As more and more mandates are placed upon the revenues local school districts have less and less control over their budgets. Even how teachers can be laid off or let go due to poor performance or egregious actions is dictated by the State Code of Education, handcuffing the ability of Districts to able shift personnel and needs for their students. Needless to say this control by the state over employment also prohibits school districts from creating and utilizing performance criteria for teacher evaluations; therefore the teachers you get and that stay through good times and bad are the ones there the longest, which means some of the best will be left behind when layoffs occur.

Across the country there has been significant moves by states to remove power from the state capitals and return it to the local districts, to dilute the power of the state and local teachers' unions and their strong influence on budgets and policy. Florida came very close to a major education overhaul until the bill was vetoed by Governor Crist because of politics and his campaign for U.S. Senator. That California is considering a change in funding for school districts and decentralizing the budgetary control is a major step for not only our state but for the nation.

I called out Senator Lowenthal for his legislation to out law parking and to require carbon monoxide detectors in all homes, it is only right that I laud him for legislation that unwinds state spending mandates and allows school districts the freedom to allocate funds as needed within their districts, not as dictated by Sacramento. Well done Lowenthals, let's hope your fellow members of the Senate and Assembly agree with you.

DCS 04212010

Political Calculus

There are those who follow politics the way others follow baseball and box scores, there are hits, runs and errors. These days in the City of Long Beach, and the State of California, one needs not a box score but a calendar. For any politician, or anyone thinking of becoming a politician in Long Beach, a calendar is the most important tool in the box; well besides financing from unions.

Term limits are the root cause of our state's political and budgetary problems. While term limits in the city create problems locally, even our city budget issues can be traced directly to the term limits for elected officials in Sacramento. Enacted in 1990 by voters, primarily to get then Speaker Willie Brown out of office, members of the State Assembly are limited to three terms of two years each and members of the State Senate are limited to two terms of four years each.

Further compounding the problems caused by term limits on the state level has been the drawing of legislative districts that create "safe seats." In the last election voters passed one of the few worthwhile propositions we have seen in the past two decades, Proposition 11 took the ability to redraw legislative districts out of the hands of the legislature and gave the power to a panel appointed by a commission of auditors. If the Prop 11 re-districting commission works as voters hope then after the 2010 census our state's legislative districts will be redrawn to more accurately reflect population and geographic boundaries than political party boundaries. However, big however, the changes will not be in effect until the 2012 state elections at the earliest.

Virtually every seat in the California Assembly and California Senate is a "safe seat". Our Bixby Knolls abode sits in the 55th Assembly District and the 27 Senate District, it does not really matter who the elected representatives are because they have been and will be Democrats due to the districts each being over 65% registered Democrat. So while we have term limits for those currently in office, what we have is a revolving door of the same person in a different body always in the Assembly and the Legislature.

Everyone knows when a seat will become available, and everyone knows who will get elected. In all but 3 of the Assembly and Senate seats whoever has a (D) next to their name on the ballot in November will win the election. In the other seats the winner of the Republican primary will win the election. So if you live in the Bixby Knolls area your Assembly representative, Wayne Furutani who was elected in a special election in 2008 will be leaving office in 2016 (finish his special election term then finish his two terms under term limits).

Of greater interest locally is when will Bonnie Lowenthal be termed out of office following her election to the State Assembly in 2008? Following her re-election in 2010 (and with the safe districts how can she not?) Lowenthal is termed out of her seat. And already individuals are lining up to take a run at her seat which overlaps parts of the both the Long Beach 1st City Council District and the Long Beach 7th City Council District. If my map reading and knowledge of home addresses is correct, this confluence of term limits and current district boundaries presents a 2014 showdown between two very bright up and comers in the Democratic Party.

Earlier this month Robert Garcia ran a perfect campaign on the Obama blueprint and won a special election for the Long Beach 1st Council District (filling the seat vacated by Bonnie Lowenthal). Garcia was attacked by the local Democratic Party because he is a "newcomer" to the party, but make no mistake Garcia's politics are very aligned with the Democratic majority in the region. Everything about Garcia makes him star material for the Democrats, born in South America, immigrating with his parents as a young child, received amnesty under President Reagan, left the Republican Party, Hispanic, homosexual, working on a PhD, incredibly bright and articulate and handsome to boot; Garcia is a great political package and he has a political future beyond the Long Beach city council. Garcia will be finishing his first term, presuming he wins his re-election in 2010, which he will by landslide, when Lowenthal is termed out of office in 2014.

Further uptown Long Beach City Council 7th District Representative Tonia Reyes Uranga is being termed out of office in 2010 and her husband Roberto Uranga was a stated and obvious candidate to keep this seat under family control. Uh, not so fast. You see the 1st District is not the only geographic area of the state with young, intelligent and political savvy individuals. A few days after Garcia won the election for the 1st District, James Johnson announced his candidacy for the 7th Council Seat in 2010.

Johnson gets a complete breakdown of his experience in the City of Long Beach on the Long Beach Report, while I am generally not a huge fan of the site's primary contributor his history on Johnson taken in context is pretty thorough. Johnson is very intelligent and also a rising star in the Democratic Party. He apparently is also good at math as if he wins the 7th District Council seat he will be ending his first term when....Bonnie Lowenthal is termed out of office.

Now there is a chance that the 54th Assembly District Boundaries could be redrawn before the 2014 election, but with the natural border of the 710 Freeway on the western edge of part of the district any redrawing will probably include the home bases of both Garcia and Johnson. Looking beyond the Assmebly both are in the same California State Senate District as well as the same Congressional District.

Because of term limits both these intelligent young men know what is avaiable politically in 2014, know their best chance of winning the prize of the Assembly is to have experience on the City Council to help boost their fund raising and friend making, and know that even with re-districting their district will not change much demographically--it will still be solidly Democrat. Further, both being bright they know that incumbents within the party are extremely difficult to beat so they must win in 2014 to continue their political futures.

So sports fans, grab some popcorn and a lawn chair. The race for the 7th District Council Seat in Long Beach is a race for much more than just that seat. Due to political calculus and term limits it is also a race to set up opponents in 2014 between two of our city's brightest young men with equally bright political futures...potentially.