CA-11: Teabagger John Harmer Wants to Abolish Public Schools
By Robert Cruickshank
Mother Jones has a very important article up regarding David Harmer's desire to, in his own words, "abolish public schools." Harmer is the teabagger candidate and Republican nominee in the 11th Congressional district against Democratic incumbent Jerry McNerney, and a new SurveyUSA poll found Harmer has a 48%-42% lead, making this race and this issue even more important.
The Mother Jones article is based on Harmer's own op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle published in 2000, titled "Abolish the public schools". In it, Harmer advocates for vouches, but says that's the best we can do until we eliminate the state constitutional requirement for free public education - and then proceeds to argue for exactly that:
Campaign 2010: The Big Things That Didn’t Get Debated
By Peter Schrag
Anyone looking for clues to the state’s future direction in this year’s gubernatorial debates – much less in the rest of the two major candidates’ campaigns – was more likely to find grim irony than signs of leadership.
Abetted by the media’s ubiquitous preference for flash over substance, Tuesday’s final debate spent more time parsing the nuances of the word “whore” than the intricacies of the economy or the ongoing Mississippification of California.
Just a few days after the legislature and governor approved a “budget” that accomplished nothing but transfer the state’s chronic fiscal problems to the next governor, the debate Tuesday saw the two candidates assiduously avoid anything that resembled a real confrontation with the state’s fundamental fiscal and governmental problems.
End Budget Gridlock -- Vote YES on Proposition 25
By Sara Flocks
California Labor Federation
Budgets reflect the priorities and values of a state. Public dollars dedicated to schools, safe communities, healthy kids and well-maintained infrastructure demonstrate that a state is committed to creating a high quality of life for residents. California’s budget tells a whole different story. Because California has a two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget, a small group of partisan legislators can withhold their votes to extract concessions from the majority. As a result, California’s budget process ends up full of corporate loopholes, special favors and worker takeaways—not exactly a reflection of the values of the majority of working people in California.
