Special Interests Call for Special Elections
By Theresa
Hulme
On May 25 in Pershing Square, an
organized protest attracted thousands of public employees who spoke out against
broken promises to schools and open attacks on the working classes of
California.
The dual protests occurred simultaneously
in both downtown Los Angeles and Sacramento. Attendees herded in from Santa
Barbara, Long Beach and everywhere in between. Bus drivers, SEIU members,
health-care workers, students, children, families and helicopters were heard
loud and clear on and above the streets of LA opposing a looming ‘special
election.’ (Republicans LOVE special elections!)
In a latest attack against the REAL
heroes in our culture, Schwarzenegger is unleashing another round of misogyny
described as ‘reforms’ onto our most important vocational resource.
The large and broad group is courageously confronting the corporate puppet,
known as the Governor, but better known for bad acting and ultra-violent movies
marketed to children.
''Teachers are
joining with parents, firefighters, nurses and many others who are fed up with
this governor's broken promises and his plans for a wasteful $80 million special
election that favors special interests,'' said Barbara E. Kerr, president of the
335,00 member California Teachers Association. ''These rallies in Sacramento and
Los Angeles are sending a message that the governor isn't fighting special
interests, he's fighting us.”
The
Governor recently described the public sector, including teachers and union
members, as being a ‘special interest group.’ Ironically, he has
received more contributions from ‘special interest groups’ (of the
corporate sort) than any Governor in state
history.
Proposed Reforms,
Schwarzenegger style:
The Special
Election: Schwarzenegger’s proposed $80 million ‘special
election’ is about initiatives that working people don’t need, want
or support. Insult to injury, his cronies at Enron and connections in Hollywood
aren’t footing the bill. We are. Me and you. We’ll pay for it, then
suffer the consequences.
Broken
Promises: Arnie is reneging on his promise to pay back the money he owes to
public education. In 2004-05, he borrowed $2 billion with the promise to repay
when the economy improved. California's revenues for 2004-2005 rose by more than
$6.4 billion dollars. Despite this fact, he refuses to honor his promise
to public education and to provide schools with their fair share of new state
revenues. He offers no excuses why the money has not been repaid. Incidentally,
the Gropenator’s kids attend private, not public schools in LA’s
wealthy Westside.
Pension Reforms:
This statewide scheme is similar to the Social Security scam Bush is peddling
nationwide. The motive being to send a lifeline to his buddies on Wall Street
and the flailing US stock market by re-allocating Cal-STRS and Cal-PERS into the
stock market. STRS & PERS are current retirement pensions that are
automatically invested in conservative guaranteed accounts. About 8% of public
employees’ gross salary goes into these accounts where it is matched and
grows slowly, safely, securely. These same adjectives also describe the reasons
people enter into these professions. Not to get rich quick or to play the stock
market, but to live modestly yet comfortably in retirement years. Most justify
the horrible pay of a school teacher by looking forward to a secure retirement.
(Although this is becoming a myth, as the years and Republicans go
by)
By yanking the pensions from a
stable environment and forcing their hard earned money into a risky, Las Vegas
style, no guarantees stock market is stirring outrage among the very people it
will affect. Cries of “No groping our public pensions!” could be
heard in the crowds.
Prop. 98: A
minimum funding guarantee, Prop 98 is threatened with being gutted while
allowing the administration to cut public education and state programs at least
twice in a given year. In addition to the $2 billion he borrowed and
hasn’t paid back, Schwarzenegger hopes to leave classrooms at well below
Prop 98’s current minimum funding levels. Teachers wages are also
threatened.
No Child Left Behind:
Though nationwide and not open to a democratic process, NCLB was pushed through
by Bush and drastically affects California’s schools. A sneaky, complex
Bill that forces public schools to report to the Pentagon the names of children
eligible for the US military, in exchange for desperately needed funding.
Schools must let military personnel onto campus to lure the young and
disadvantaged into the military as a means to pay for escalating college costs
that even middle class families can no longer afford.
The Bill also imposes near impossible
standards onto teachers where they must take endless multiple choice tests.
Critics of the Bill say the criteria are unrealistic, oppressive and nearly
impossible to meet. The ulterior motive of NCLB is to create a system of failure
where the government must come in, declare destruction and
‘privatize.’ Nicknamed ‘Leave no Academic Testing Company
Behind,’ the Legislation is looked upon as a joke, but it isn’t
really funny.
While California boasts
the fifth largest economy in the world, it ranks 46th, or closest to last, in
education. With Arnie’s proposed cuts, California is poised to ascend to
the heights of hypocrisy. Despite its enviable youth culture exported
internationally, the Golden State imprisons more of its youth than anywhere in
the world. Combined with a dying education system, Martin Luther King was eerily
correct when he said “A nation that continues year after year to spend
more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.”
Posted: Wed - June 1, 2005 at 09:42 AM