It still has its place in molding pop-culture trends, but contrary to the efforts by many in the edicational field, most people don't want their kids' educations to be put on the same level as the latest buzzwords, hand signals or fashion statements radiating off of the Pacific Coast.

Funding is an objective measure of school quality?

Really? Which state does the future of America look like? I think it might be a little early to write off California, though certainly Red America can purposefully destroy CA which represents about 1/7 of the economy.

Bret,

Florida is America's future or perhaps Nevada.

California is destroying itself quite nicely.

Naturally, OJ is right. America's future lies not in California, but in Texas. That's the horror of it. California is still a long, long way from having an education system as dysfunctional as that of Texas. Or Mississippi. Or Arizona. Or any number of Republican strongholds.

As for California "destroying itself," it has had a great deal of help. For example, from certain Texas-based energy companies just a few years ago.

Enron ran the school system?

Based on results, I believe that they do, in Texas. Was Paige an Enron executive?

And stop being willfully obtuse, already. Your original post seemed to imply a more generalized conclusion.

Yes, the problem is California, not Enron.

California's self-destruction preceded Enron by two decades. High taxes and over-regulation have done more to wreck the economy than a dozen Kenny Boys ever could. Why does California pay so much more per gallon for fuel than anyone else? Because of your stupid environmental regulations. Look at the high cost of housing which is entirely the product of the difficulty in getting anything built. Look at how many people have fled California in the last two decades. In 1990, California had numerically more Whites than it has today. That should tell you something.

The California failure to confront crime is no better. The LAPD is a national joke and has been for decades. When Rudy Giuliani was introducing community based policing in NYC, LAPD cops were still tooling around in squad cars behaving like an occupying army rather than like part of the community. And then they wonder why there are riots. Maybe Bratton can do something.

"High taxes and over-regulation have done more to wreck the economy..."

I'm not sure you have any idea what you're talking about. High taxes in California have done nothing to wreck the economy. In point of fact, California's economy is chugging along quite well. The state government faces a huge budget shortfall, but this stems both from a free spending legislature and referendum-enforced _limits_ on property tax increases.

"Because of your stupid environmental regulations."

Mine? I don't live in California. Leave me out of this. As for environmental regulations, well, they've managed to make LA's (admittedly still dirty) skies cleaner than those of Houston, or Dallas, or Denver, etc.

"Look at the high cost of housing which is entirely the product of the difficulty in getting anything built."

And the fact that great hordes of people want to live in California has less to do with high housing costs? Are you serious? "Getting things built" is no easier, from a regulatory standpoint, in upstate New York, but housing is perfectly affordable there. I'll let you guess why.

"Look at how many people have fled California in the last two decades. In 1990, California had numerically more Whites than it has today."

A real phenomenon. A lot of people don't like all those new, brown faces, so they retreat to Idaho and Montana.

What's your point? Whites don't like over-regulation, high taxes, and a high cost of living, but blacks and latinos do?

OJ:

You're almost right, I think.

Enron was California's problem.

Not their only one, perhaps, but they could have done without that extra $50 billion spent lining the pockets of energy executives.

Considering that much of Upstate New York is the Adirondack National Forest where it is illegal to construct any housing, you might want to pick a better example. Upstate NY is emptying out because of NYs high taxes, and an archaic state regulation.

Compare California with the states that are growing rapidly, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina. All of California's population growth is result of an influx of low-skill, high service people, who have bankrupted the health and education systems of the state. The property tax issue is irrelevant to the health care system and nothing has stopped the State Legislature from raising taxes to cover any perceived shortfall in property taxes for education. The Legislature could even (gasp!) fold up the local school districts and consoldiate them into perhaps one for the entire state. It works in Hawaii. Moreover, it is inconceivable for a state to have a budgetary disaster of California's level with a strong economy. The revenues should cover a myriad of problems.

But if it's easier to blame racism than economic logic and a failure of state governance, who am I to argue?

M:

Their problem is thinking things like $50 billion will solve their woes.

Wreck the economy?

California's GSP increased 32.5% 1998 - 2003, compared to 25.7% for the US as a whole. For the period 1980 - 2003, CA increased 346%, the U.S. 301%.

So no, California's economy is not quite wrecked yet.

Kenny Boy. Wow, that's a blast from the past.

Amyway, here's Rod Paige's job resume. Nothing about Enron or its Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth/InterTex predacessors anywhere in the listings. Update your files accordingly.

Bart:

"Upstate NY is emptying out because of NYs high taxes, and an archaic state regulation."

Which is probably partly true, but beside the point. Why would "NY's high taxes and an archaic state regulation" fail to inflate housing costs there, while CA's do not? Answer: as Bret points out, CA's economy is doing just fine, despite those high taxes, and hordes of people want to live there.

"The property tax issue is irrelevant to the health care system and nothing has stopped the State Legislature from raising taxes to cover any perceived shortfall in property taxes for education."

Not true. In CA, property taxes are nearly the exclusive source of education funding. I suppose the legislature could shuffle things around if they wanted, but their room to raise taxes is also limited, precisely because CA is already a high-tax state and they've just about hit the ceiling of what taxpayers will tolerate. Further increases, unlike the current rates, could have a negative impact on the state economy.

"Moreover, it is inconceivable for a state to have a budgetary disaster of California's level with a strong economy."

It's no worse than the federal budget deficits, and hardly inconceivable at the state level, either.

John:

"Amyway, here's Rod Paige's job resume. Nothing about Enron or its Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth/InterTex predacessors anywhere in the listings."

That was a joke. I already knew Paige was never an enron exec. He achieved comparable results with the Texas education system, though.

OJ:

"Their problem is thinking things like $50 billion will solve their woes."

Money can't buy happiness, but it can sure as hell rent it.

M --

Gov. Mark White and H. Ross Perot would get the lion's share of the blame for Texas' school paperwork glut from HB 72 in 1983, though "no pass, no play' was a good idea. Paige's positives or negatives can be debated, but the Houston ISD was never the basket case the Dallas school system has been over the past 15 years.

M,

You are contradicting yourself. If California were doing well, they could raise the needed funds. Their inability to do so reflects the weakness of their fiscal structure which will directly impact on any economic success.

Rent control in NYC has inflated real estate costs entirely out of proportion. There are studies on this since Truman was President. There are different constraints in California, mostly environmental. But they are no less constraints. San Francisco even has commercial rent control.

The natural advantages of California, weather, harbors,etc will always mitigate the negative impact of anti-growth policies but the movement out of California by millions of working class and lower middle class people is not a positive.

There is nothing written in stone that property taxes must be the only source of education funding. The legislature could just raise the money itself or produce some omnibus legislation which reduces the education bureaucracy there.

No comparison with the Federal government is apposite. California doesn't need an air force, a few carrier groups or a space program, unlike the Federal government. Also, California doesn't have a printing press.

The underlying reality is that Californians are refusing to pay for the government to do the things they want it to do. They are going to have to grow up and make some tough choices.

It doesn't? It's full of those immigrants you're counting on.

Yes, they're its future, not the folks who got the state into this shape.