The California Education Budget – One Parent’s Perspective

There are other things I could be doing.

I have two master’s degrees, education that I would like to apply to an innovative business idea my husband and I are planning to develop; a business that, if successful, could contribute to the environmental health of the state and to state coffers. Instead I’m doing the work I did as a teacher’s assistant when I was fresh out of college before I attended graduate school. My talents and education, most of it, by the way, subsidized by the State of California, are not being used to their fullest (so the short-sighted lack of revenue for schools now is diminishing the return on revenue spent two and three decades ago) and if our schools aren’t properly funded our children’s talents will never be developed. This is the most pernicious type of governmental waste. It is not only costly in economic terms; it is indifferent to the value of human potential.

The constant uncertain funding that public schools face – the fear of losing teachers, programs, adequate facilities and supplies – make me feel like my government is working against me, not for me. In fact, I feel like my children are under attack. At the risk of sounding naïve, I would like to remind people of the words in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, words so familiar that they are easily ignored, but which clearly outline government’s purpose and seem wholly appropriate as a touchstone in budget decisions.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

An Op-Ed piece by William Voegeli in the February 24th edition of the Los Angeles Times asks California to choose whether it wants to be Sweden or Mississippi; do we want high taxes and high benefits or low taxes and low benefits? High taxes are something very concrete that voters readily understand; high benefits are somewhat nebulous, but becoming less so every year as we see our standard of living erode in all arenas, not just education. With a little courageous leadership from our officials, I think those are still resistant could understand the real advantages of increased taxes, the ways those taxes do, in fact, contribute to our “Safety and Happiness.”

Prompted by Voegeli’s article I visited the Swedish government’s official website. Now I think his question should be rephrased. Sweden, it seems, has taken Jefferson’s words to heart while we have forgotten them – the real question is does California want to be as American as Sweden?

Carol Millar taught ESL at community colleges in Los Angeles for eight years; now, besides volunteering at her children’s school and in the community, she works part-time in the construction company she and her husband own.