Richard Bennett

The California teachers’ union is seeking changes to state law that will allow them to negotiate curricula, text books, and school standards as part of their package with the state, not just salaries and benefits. Sac Bee columnist Dan Weintraub explains union head Wayne Johnson’s views:

Johnson says that public-school teachers, college graduates all and many with advanced degrees, deserve to be consulted as professionals about the work they are asked to do. He’s right. But that is not the same as giving their unions the ability to dictate education policy in contracts negotiated at the threat of a strike and set in stone for years so that future school boards cannot change them.

California has taken some important steps toward school accountability in the past five years, with new standards, curriculum and tests. The new system is not perfect, and it still needs some adjustments. But giving the unions control over how that accountability program plays out at the local level would be a huge step backward.

If they get their way, local school boards and parents will have no say in education policy, and with Democrats controlling huge majorities in both houses and the governorship, they very well might get their way. So just when it seemed that public education in California couldn’t get any worse, this nefarious scheme threatens to destroy it altogether.

See the comments of the illustrious Joanne Jacobs on this power-grab.

Bloomberg.com : Energy News

Washington, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Kenneth Lay, former chairman of Enron Corp., won’t appear at a House hearing this morning after his attorney refused to accept a subpoena compelling him to appear, CNN said.

Lay’s attorney, Earl Silbert, said there wasn’t enough time because Lay had returned to Houston and Silbert didn’t know where to find him, CNN said.

This is looking like about a 3 politician scandal, meaning it’s not going to be over until 3 politicians are hounded from office for their ties to Enron. My vote for the scapegoats is: Billy Tauzin, Chuck Schumer, and Gray Davis. What’s yours?

From Dan Walters: Legislature’s bipartisan gerrymander generates intraparty battles this story on the dynastic and identity-politics battles for legislative seats in California.

In the 80th Assembly District, which sprawls over the vast Southern California desert, meanwhile, Gregory Pettis, a gay Cathedral City councilman, and a once-close friend, construction supervisor Joey Acuna Jr., are locked in what has become a bitter tussle. Pettis entered the race first and former Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny recruited Acuna because she considered the 80th to be a designated Latino district.

This is what term-limits does for you, and nothing more: a slew of rookie politicians beholden to the machines that finance them, clueless in the face of lobbyists. It was a bad idea, and it needs to be repealed.

Wendy McElroy links this article from the Christian Science Monitor on child support: ‘Deadbeat’ dads – or just ‘dead broke’?

Most divorced or never-married fathers with an outstanding child-support understand the high cost of falling behind. Those who don’t pay up often face repercussions such as paycheck withholding, automobile-license suspension, even jail time.

Such aggressive pursuit of child-support dollars has not been without its problems – or critics. And perhaps surprisingly, the list of critics now includes more child-welfare advocates.

Organizations including the Washington-based Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) maintain that child-support policies need to recognize economic realities and be more flexible, particularly where low-income, noncustodial fathers are concerned.

“States are frequently not doing enough to help low-income fathers get employment so that they can pay child support,” says Deborah Weinstein, director of CDF’s Family Income Division.

“What we’ve found is that there’s a fundamental tension here between what the fathers can actually financially contribute to their children and the children’s needs,” says Paula Roberts, senior staff attorney at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington.

This is awfully funny. In 1998, the California Legislature invited a group of child support experts to provide them with advice on reforming the state’s child support system, including Paula Roberts and yours truly. I presented statistics showing that states with high child support guidelines (high percentage of income) have low rates of collection. Paula disagreed with my analysis, and said California merely needed to reorganize its system to track down deadbeats more effectively. The legislature took Paula’s advice, and collections are the same as before.

Maybe you can teach a old dog, or an old feminist, new tricks. The key seems to be to give them time.

Finally, somebody in Washington is “getting” the Enron deal: The Nando Times: Congressmen say Enron investigation points to ‘securities fraud’

WASHINGTON (February 3, 2002 1:28 p.m. EST) – Two lawmakers pointed to possible criminality in the Enron scandal Sunday, saying the company manufactured income out of its clandestine partnership deals that led to financial disaster.

“We’re finding what may clearly be securities fraud,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin.
Sen. Byron Dorgan said that in a failed deal for Blockbuster Video, an Enron partnership named Braveheart borrowed $110 million from a Canadian bank and the company booked the money as income.

The Enron scam wasn’t about the journalists and it wasn’t about the polticians: it was a scheme to defraud investors out of their money by pushing the stock price up through false reporting. The principal watchdogs who should have been on the case were all paid-off, of course, and that was primarily through investment banking fees and commissions.