Without Good Schools, Business Is Doomed
By Robert CruickshankThe San Francisco Chronicle's article on the Alameda parcel tax for schools vote posits a false choice. The article by Carolyn Jones makes it sound as if Alamedans have to decide between their schools and their businesses. In reality, the choice is between good schools and strong businesses on the one hand, and bad schools and declining business on the other:
"If it passes, many small business owners, already struggling with the recession, say they'll be forced to close, stripping Alameda of its mom-and-pop charm. If the measure fails, the district's superintendent warns that half the schools in town would close.read more
"If this doesn't pass, all bets are off in Alameda," said Encinal High School Principal Mike Cooper, a fifth-generation Alamedan."We're watching the collapse of public education. We've been trying to make this work, but something's got to give."
Are Obama, Democrats Really “Remaking Washington”?
By Randy ShawIn the May 21 New York Times, business writer Dave Leonhardt argued that “Congress and the White House have completed 16 months of activity that rival any other since the New Deal in scope or ambition.” Citing the stimulus bill, health care, education, and the pending regulation of Wall Street, Leonhardt concluded that Democrats are ushering in a “generation shift in how Washington operates,” and that Obama “looks more like the liberal answer to Ronald Reagan.” Leonhardt makes a persuasive case for a transformational Obama presidency, which raises the question why so few progressives share this perspective.
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CARA Seniors Speak Out Against Lethal May Revise Cuts
By Nan BrasmerLast week, the lives of millions of California seniors were sold down the river when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his May revise budget, which included extraordinarily painful cuts targeting the very services that countless seniors depend on.
But not only does the Governor’s May revision fail to address any of the challenges currently facing our state, but it serves as a collective death sentence for our struggling seniors that now find themselves on the chopping block while corporate and other special interest groups are given billions in hand-outs and other “rewards” while the rest of California endures insecurity and hardship.
That’s why more than two dozen seniors from the California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA), California’s largest grassroots senior advocacy organization representing over 850,000 seniors and their families, traveled to the Capitol on Thursday (May 20th) to deliver more than 500 handwritten letters to State Assemblymembers and Senators.
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