A Reply to Govern4CA Dissembling
David, your argument seems to imply that greater financial solvency would help poor and minority students in Sacramento. Do you have any information on the quality of education for poor and minority students from before the layoffs? The demographic statistics show that the district is majority non-white and "Socioeconomically Disadvantaged" and it is of course reasonable to assume that if they had more money they could serve those students more effectively. However, if your concern was for those students I would expect to see some information specifically about how effectively they are served by the district. More pointedly, in a recent podcast, you stated “I do not share this notion of systemic racism. There are some bad cops and there are some good cops” and you repeatedly devalued Black Lives Matter protests and demeaned Black Lives Matter protesters as trivial and unintelligent(“a protest here and there and then back to your Instagram”). Given these statements, it seems your title "How to help poor and minority students in Sacramento" seems not just disingenuous but exploitative to me.
Additionally, do you have any information on the quality differences between the contractually obligated health care and Medicare / Covered California options? That would also seem to be highly relevant and not just relevant to the retired teachers to whom the obligation applies but also to future teachers who would value this benefit when making a decision to work there and, of course, teach poor and minority students in Sacramento.
Given your hyperbole around unions - "government employee unions have instilled a fear in lawmakers that has created an environment not unlike Soviet domination of Eastern European puppet regimes" - it seems reasonable to ask for you to more completely explain these things. Additionally, given your focus on “run it like a business” and the taxes that you and Govern4California don’t want to pay, it seems reasonable to question your motives.
Steve Wright
UC Berkeley Lecturer and Public School Teacher
