Accountability For The Governator

Shari, at An Old Soul, is calling the Governator out on his broken promise to restore the $2 billion in public-education funding that was cut from the budget last year. We couldn't agree more. Public education in California needs to have it's funding fully restored.

One of our disappointments with Schwarzenegger has been his unwillingness to substantially streamline the layer-upon-layer of educational bureaucracy that is to be found here in California. There is quite a bit of deadwood and redundancy to be found in county and district offices throughout the state. And each one of those educrats guards his or her turf very jealously.

The inefficiency of California's system of educracy is only exceeded by the degree of condescension and arrogance that many educrats display toward those teachers and administrators who actually work with kids.

Here in Imperial County, the number of students served by the public school system has only increased by about 20% in the last ten years. And yet the number EduCrats employed at the Imperial County Office of Education has more than doubled. Sadly, most of these sinecures positions pay more than a classroom teacher earns with 20 years of service and a Master's.

Since these jobs are invariably under the patronage of the well-entrenched superintendent, there isn't anything like a meritocracy when it comes to competing for these posts. As with most self-perpetuating bureaucracies, folks are hired based upon who they know, not what they know.

We firmly believe that monies spent on public education are best spent at the school site, not in the office suites of various bureaucracies.
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