You get what you pay for

According to a recent Rand study, California's education system ranks among the lowest in the nation. This is quite a transformation for a state once considered to be in the forefront of public education. Unfortunately the system will receive no help from our governor. Schwarzenegger is determined not to raise any kind of taxes in order to deal with the huge deficit facing our state, so instead, like his predecessor Gray Davis, he has been shuffling around funds and borrowing from the future. Now he is adding a new component, cutting funds for the programs that most directly serve the people of this state, while condemning those who protest as "special interest" groups.

As reported by The Los Angeles Times yesterday:

"A boost in money for local schools would be put off — even as national reports suggest California's education system is in trouble. As commuters spend more time than ever sitting in traffic, more than $1 billion worth of payments for road projects would be canceled.

"The plan would cut welfare benefits, the pensions of teachers and other public employees, and the salaries of workers who provide home care to the frail elderly and disabled.

"University students would get hit with fee hikes, and tens of thousands of low-income Californians would have to begin paying premiums to get healthcare. Visits to the dentist for poor people would be limited. Thousands of low-income seniors would lose their renter's tax credit.

"The proposed budget is larger than the current year's spending plan of $105 billion. But that increase is not enough to avoid dramatic cuts in services."

Why can we not recognise that in order for California and our nation to be great, we have to pay for it? We ask young men and women to go over to Iraq and risk life and limb for a war we should have never entered, yet here in America we are led by Republican politicians who believe there should be no fiscal sacrifice -- especially from those who have the most money -- to maintain even the most basic services.