Direct democracy at its best

For San Diego's North County Times

As the campaign season heats up for the 2012 elections, we hear candidates singing the same old song, "What the American people want is ..." Candidates seem confident we want our elected officials to follow, rather than lead us.

If Californians don't like what politicians do after they're elected, they can take matters into their own hands by recalls, initiatives and referendums. Ours is one of 24 states that allow votes by the people to throw the rascals out, overturn unpopular laws and create new ones. It's called "direct democracy."

California adopted it by constitutional amendment exactly one hundred years ago in an attempt to eliminate the bribery and corruption that ruled state politics at the time. On Oct. 8, 1911, two days before the measure was passed by the legislature, a New York Times editorial warned of its potential negative effects:

"The number, complexity, and minuteness of the propositions submitted to the popular vote make it physically impossible that the ordinary voter shall understand their nature and effect or the actual consequences of his own act."

Peter Schrag, a former editorial page writer for the Sacramento Bee, recently praised the prescience of that editorial. In the recent edition of BOOM: A Journal of California, Schrag wrote, "What was designed to be an exceptional remedy has come close to overwhelming representative democracy."

Citing several examples of how direct democracy doesn't work as promised, Schrag gave three important reasons for its failure:

1. It costs only $200 to file an initiative proposal, but volunteers alone can't bring it to the ballot. You need about $3 million to pay signature collectors, direct mail firms, consultants, pollsters and lawyers. The process is driven more by big money than by little guys with big ideas.

2. Rather than being subjected to the scrutiny of elected representatives, a proposition's fate is vulnerable to the rampant rumors of the blogosphere.

3. Successful propositions that don't allow for their own amendments can only be changed by another cumbersome and costly initiative process, even if serious problems turn up.

Direct democracy at its best comes to Oceanside in June, when residents will vote on whether to overturn the city council's decision to phase out rent control in the city's mobile-home parks. The referendum drive, conducted entirely by volunteers, produced 15,000 signatures, twice as many as required for the ballot and nearly four times the number of mobile-home park residents.

If rent control is phased out, the winners will be out-of-town park owners and the well-to-do. The losers will be Oceanside's most vulnerable residents: the elderly, retired military veterans and the disabled.

The city's values hang in the balance.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/riehl/article_16957d97-0a5f-58c9-a2a1-481b60f28aea.html#ixzz1YmSwh35v

Schools only part of the problem

For San Diego's North County Times

After 10 years of relying on student test scores to promote a competitive free market approach to school reform, what do we have to show for it?

Schools in wealthier districts continue to prosper. Those serving low-income populations face sanctions or closure. Charter schools, most of which enroll students who've never been left behind, flourish despite producing few measurable results of improved learning.

While we can argue about whether all that prepping for English and math tests has been worth taking so much time away from other important subjects, like science, history, literature, the arts and vocational training, most would agree it's good to track evidence of student learning.

The latest student tracking news came from last month's release of a report by the California Department of Education on high school dropout rates. It tracked the progress of the 2006 statewide cohort of ninth-graders. We learned 18 percent dropped out before earning a high school diploma. It was 16 percent in San Diego County and substantially lower in North County, according to a report in this newspaper ("Local schools have fewer dropouts compared with state, county," Aug. 11).

But before we rest on our laurels, consider this small sample of dropouts by student population. La Costa Canyon High School, with the lowest numbers of low-income and English-learner students, had a total dropout rate of 2.8 percent ---- but 16 percent of low-income students and 22 percent of English-language learners left school without a high school diploma.

Oceanside High School, with the largest number of economically disadvantaged and English learners, had a 14 percent total dropout rate. Fifteen percent of low-income and 25 percent of English learners dropped out.

The CDE released another report last month, "A Blueprint for Great Schools," issued by a 59-member committee consisting of parents, educators, business and union leaders appointed last January. Two of the committee's recommendations caught my eye.

The first was the call for a coordinated early learning system, beginning at birth, to assure that all children thrive in preschool. The second was the creation of wraparound support services in "community schools," incorporating school staff and their partners (local government, community agencies) working together to identify and address the various needs beyond the classroom of children and their families.

According to the report, "current education reform strategies often ignore the very real needs of children for secure housing, regular health care, supportive out-of-school environments, and educational assistance."

Maybe it's not schools that are most in need of reform. We may have to abandon the belief that schools alone can repair the damage done to kids outside the classroom before and after they get there.

Wrong jobs to outsource?

For San Diego's North County Times

The August edition of Carlsbad Currents, the city's bimonthly publication mailed to city residents, carries the headline, "Carlsbad maintains good financial health."

The story boasts of a budget balanced by reducing the size of the city's workforce and operating more efficiently. The city's 2011-12 budget report explains the workforce was cut back by eliminating 10 currently vacant positions, including a fire marshal, a graphic artist, a building inspector and two custodians.

We learn from the newsletter that sales and hotel taxes are expected to grow, while property tax is projected to decrease slightly. Finance Director Chuck McBride assures us that investment in the city created by new hotel, retail and commercial projects puts the city "in a good position to capitalize on opportunities as the economy recovers."

It appears happy times are here again.

But maybe not for the city's worker bees. Here's why:

1. A projected $600,000 surplus in the 2011-12 budget will add to the city's current $53 million in reserve. That's 47 percent of the 2010-2011 budget. City policy requires only 30 percent in reserve.

2. There's enough room in the budget for a $1.8 million direct subsidy to bail out golf course operations again. City Manager Lisa Hildebrand explained it "no longer made sense" to call the annual bailouts loans that have to be repaid ("Budget plan gives and takes away," North County Times, June 6).

3. This year's contract with city employees imposed a 7 percent pay cut for the lowest-paid city workers, resulting from a wage freeze combined with shifting to employees the share of pension contributions the city has formerly paid on their behalf.

4. Despite the city's projected prosperity, council members are considering outsourcing city services.

Outsourcing leads to layoffs or lower pay or both. With the latest uptick in the local unemployment rate from 9.6 in May to 10.5 in July, you'd think outsourcing would be an acceptable option only if the city were going broke or if residents were complaining about the quality of city services.

In this case, there's no evidence of either. Word from City Hall is that the budget's in great shape. The city's latest "Public Opinion Survey and State of Effectiveness Report" showed 92 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with city services (60 percent very satisfied/32 percent satisfied), causing Councilmember Ann Kulchin to gush about city workers: "This is your report card. As a parent, I feel like I'd like to take you all out for an ice cream cone."

When it comes to confidence in city government, 78 percent reported they were satisfied (22 percent very satisfied/55 percent somewhat).

Comparing report cards, I'd say it would make more sense to outsource city government than city services.

Carlsbad's Taj Magolf's extreme makeover

For Carlsbadistan.com

Mark Twain once called the game of golf “a good walk spoiled.” Something like that could be said of Carlsbad’s $68 million public golf course--a splendid setting for weddings, dining and golf, spoiled by tilting fairways, undersized greens, and lost balls.

A struggling economy, the many affordable courses nearby, and its playability have been blamed for the course’s annual deficits. Hopes for a financial turnaround are based mostly on the attractiveness of the venue.

That was a summary of a consultant’s report for the city of Rockville, Maryland on the financial condition of its Redgate Municipal Golf Course. The recommendations? Modify greens and bunkers, build additional facilities for player convenience, and launch a more aggressive marketing campaign.

Sound familiar? The differences between The Crossings and Redgate are foreboding. Rockville’s course is 40 years old. You can play it for half of what you pay for a round at Carlsbad’s Taj Magolf.

The Crossings has failed to meet its budgeted number of rounds each year since it opened, plunging from 52,000 in 2008 to 42,000 in 2010. Despite a three percent loss in green fee revenue last year, a three percent increase was budgeted last November for 2011.

A consultant, who was paid $16,000 by the city to explain why golfers weren’t flocking to Carlsbad, explained the course is too difficult and the players need a lounge to build camaraderie.

A third party golf course architect recommended modifications to 10 of the 18 holes. The Crossings website boasts the course was designed by Greg Nash, “whose name is synonymous with beautiful, playable courses.” Maybe he should be given the chance to rebut the claim that more than half his creation needs a do-over.

After city staff identified the three holes most in need of fixing, the council agreed to the one with the lowest cost, $80,000 for the 18^th green. Estimated costs to modify the 10^th green and the 15^th fairway were $179,000 and $264,000 respectively. If the average cost of these three is applied to the remaining seven needing work, the course will be acceptably playable after the city kicks in another $1.2 million.

City staff suggests the Boardroom be converted into a players’ lounge. That assumes the sweaty survivors of frustrating hours on an unplayable course will march happily up a couple of flights of stairs to relax with a cool one in a small, windowless room, surrounded by kitchen sounds, hall talk by diners headed for the restaurant, and the drone of TV sports commentators.

If revenue doesn’t increase this year as expected, will the city pin its hopes for next year on a friendlier 18^th green and a comfy golfer’s lounge?

Stay tuned.

Congressman's phony school reform bills

For San Diego's North County Times

Halloween has come early this year for local Congressman Duncan D. Hunter, R-El Cajon. He's already picked out his school reformer costume ("Now is the time to fix education," North County Times, July 17). Next month he'll embark on a trick or treating campaign among friendly Tea Partiers in Congress, carrying his bag of bills to fix education.

Hunter concedes No Child Left Behind has failed to close the academic achievement gap, but his proposed solution would only widen the divide between the haves and have nots.

A closer look at the two bills he's authored, HR 1891 and HR 2218, reveals a plan to improve education by "giving local stakeholders the flexibility to do their jobs."

HR 1891 is simply a warmed over attempt to cut federal funding for schools. It's taken almost word for word from a section on education cuts in HR 408, the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, which would slash $2.5 trillion from the federal budget and is dying a slow death in committee since its introduction in the House in January.

While Hunter's name is missing from the list of HR 408 co-sponsors, his HR 1891 doubles down on the number of federal grants to schools he wants to eliminate. The bill's long title is ironic: "To repeal ineffective or unnecessary education programs in order to restore the focus of federal programs on quality elementary and secondary education programs for disadvantaged students." Rather than keeping that promise, it eliminates the very programs designed to help disadvantaged students.

Here are just three of the 42 programs Hunter calls "ineffective or unnecessary."

Early Reading First, $113 million for early childhood centers of excellence focusing on pre-reading skills for children from low-income families.

Even Start Family Literacy Program, $66 million for local family literacy projects integrating early childhood education, adult literacy, and parenting education for low-income families.

Improving Literacy Through Libraries, $19 million for buying books, up-to-date school library media resources, advanced technology, and access to school libraries during non-school hours, weekends, and summer vacations.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, HR 1891 would stop the $413 million spent on programs Hunter targets for elimination. His HR 2218 would allocate more than $1 billion over the next seven years to build charter schools that have produced no better measurable results than traditional public schools, while serving fewer low income families and students of color.

For a glimpse of Congressman Hunter's vision of the future of school reform, check out the mediocre test scores and relatively few disadvantaged students being served by North County's 18 charter schools, most of which amount to nothing more than certifying home schooling.

College Bound Students Still Fail the Grade

For San Diego's North County Times

Reports of school test scores have been depressingly predictable.

No Child Left Behind has long been left behind. All students will not be grade-level proficient in English and math by 2014. That's unlikely to happen before 2030, given the glacial rate of improvement.

And despite all the hand-wringing, finger-pointing, and high hopes for charter schools, the achievement gap dividing students by wealth and skin color remains unchanged.

One of the few local success stories can be found at Cal State San Marcos, where dramatic improvement has been made in helping entering students who were unprepared for college-level English and math courses. The sad side of the story is that so many college bound students need remediation.

In 1997 the California State University Board of Trustees set a goal for 90 percent of its entering students to be fully prepared in English and math by 2007. At the time, only about half the freshman class was ready for college-level instruction in both subjects.

The CSU launched an effort to improve student preparedness by requiring applicants with low SAT scores to take English and math proficiency tests before enrolling. If they fail to get passing scores, they're not denied admission, but test results are used to identify those who need remediation to gain college-level proficiency in the two subjects by the end of their first year. If they don't make the grade in both subjects by the end of the year, they face disenrollment.

Unfortunately, there's been very little improvement over the last 10 years in the number of college-bound high school graduates who are fully proficient in both subjects before applying for admission to the CSU. That imposes an additional financial burden on families and on campuses that must offer unprepared students a series of high school level courses in their freshman year.

Over the last decade the percent of CSU entering freshmen unprepared in either English or math, or both, has declined only slightly from 62 to 58 percent. The percent of that group successfully remediated in the first year has risen from 81 to 83 percent. At Cal State San Marcos the number of entering students needing remediation fell from 71 to 66 percent, while the number of those reaching proficiency in one year jumped from 60 to 84 percent.

The CSU is required by law to offer admission to the top third of California's high school graduates who've completed, with grades of "C" or higher, four years of English and three years of math, including two years of algebra.

You'd think more than half of those headed off to California's largest university would be college ready in both subjects.

But you'd be wrong.

Vista school scandal? You decide

For San Diego's North County Times

It's time to set the record straight on what a Vista school board member called taxpayer robbery, an Escondido charter school chief declared a student rip-off, and the local FOX channel ballooned into an expose.

The target for the overblown rhetoric was the $80,000 settlement of a $128,000 lawsuit filed by VUSD to recover several years of union underpayments for the union president's release time from teaching duties.
Board member Jim Gibson, an outspoken union critic, pushed initially for repayment of the entire $500,000 estimated shortfall over 15 years. He said he cast his lone vote against the compromise settlement because he thought it was an "absolute robbery."


But the depiction of a greedy union stealing from taxpayers is grossly distorted. Board president Steve Lilly separated fact from fiction in his Dec. 24, 2009, Community Forum in this newspaper.


In their 1995 contract with the district, the union agreed to reimburse 60 percent of the president's salary while on full-time leave from teaching duties. In response to several challenges in recent years, the district's attorneys repeatedly assured the board the arrangement was legal. It was also considered mutually beneficial, since both parties recognized the value of having union leaders work with administrators to head off costly litigation by mediating grievances before they wind up in court.

But a 2008 California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) ruling in a Berkeley School District case held the union responsible for full salary reimbursement to the district when the union president is on leave of absence. What had become common practice throughout California was for the first time ruled not in compliance with state law.

The PERB ruling led the district to discontinue the policy beginning in January 2010, and to ask the union for reimbursement of the district's portion of salary costs over the past three years, the statute of limitations in such cases.

If the district had launched a legal battle to collect another $48,000, as Gibson demanded, it would have cost taxpayers far more than that in legal fees. Fortunately, the adults in the room prevailed with a 4-1 vote, which included a guarantee of full reimbursement of the union president's salary in future years.


Gibson's opinion was shared by the executive director of Escondido's Classical Academies.
In a June 22 letter to the editor, Cameron Curry claimed that Vista students were being "ripped off" by the settlement. It's hard to understand his interest in the matter, unless it has something to do with VUSD's recent refusal to sponsor a Vista branch of his home-schooling charter school.

Was the local FOX channel's oversimplified expose of a complicated legal case a fair and balanced report?

You decide.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/riehl/article_630519bb-1e12-58ea-a4ea-342f7f19f1a4.html#ixzz1QrIYJ6f6