What do these two things have to do with one another? Unfortunately there is a fairly direct line between the politics played by our elected officials in Sacramento and how we decide to fund public education.
Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating electoral district or constituency boundaries for electoral advantage. In other words, draw the map so that any given district will consistently vote one way. Well, that is what has happened in California, and this has basically shielded incumbents from any challenge from the other political party. So, what this do? It rewards extremism by both parties — since you know you’re not going to get any serious opposition from the other party come election time, you tend to pander to your base. Competition only comes during the primaries, not the general election.
For example, the Republicans in the state legislature have all said they would never support new taxes, because even if a majority of Californians supported them, their “base” in their gerrymandered district would vote them out of office for another Republican.
Combine this problem with a need for a 2/3 majority in the legislature to pass a budget, and you have a recipe for disaster. No party makes up 2/3 of the legislature, so there are never any real compromises, just stonewalling and trick accounting (For example, the latest budget proposal includes raising money by actually changing payroll withholding, but not the actual tax! That’s just borrowing from next April to pay for something today…that’s shocking to me).
So, short of re-districting and/or removing the 2/3 supermajority required to pass a budget, I see no path in the medium-term where California can create a stable revenue base and have the money to truly fund public education to even a minimum level required.
Yet another reason why San Carlans need to take matters into their own hands and vote yes on Proposition S.
