Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/17719
JERRY BROWN governors (Edmund “Pat” Brown), organiz- er for California farm workers, college trust- ee, secretary of state, governor, mayor of Oakland, and attorney general, Brown has always been a public official who has put the needs of this state first. Just a few of the many advances that oc- curred during his two terms as governor are the creation of 1.9 million jobs, cleaner air quality in the state, the California Con- servation Corps — and, oh yes, he actu- ally balanced the state budget and managed to create a surplus doing it. Educators and other working peo- ple can also thank Brown for establish- ing the Public Employment Relations Board, signing laws to give teachers and school employees the right to bargain col- At a time when many other public officials have retired to write their memoirs or make it rich as lobbyists, Jerry Brown has decided to run for governor of California — even though his last term ended almost 30 years ago. Either he’s a glutton for punishment or he genuinely has California’s interest at heart. As the son of one of California’s great lectively, extending collective bargaining rights to state employees, and signing laws to prohibit the use of professional strike- breakers in labor disputes. He’s always been on the side of California working families and their children. Brown has spent his entire life in Califor- nia, and served at least one of his terms as governor during the “golden age” of educa- tion, when schools and colleges were ade- quately funded and the entire system — kindergarten through university — was Comparing the candidates School Funding • Will make funding of public schools and colleges a top priority. • Supports Prop. 98, the state’s minimum school funding law, as a floor and not a ceiling. FOR GOVERNOR deemed “world class.” Unfortunately, the pas- sage of Proposition 13 in 1978, which provid- ed tax relief for homeowners, also turned school financing on its head and ushered in what Brown called “an era of limits.” Still, in his time as governor, he had a hand in increas- ing the K-12 budget from $2.1 billion in 1974-75 to about $8.2 billion in 1982-83. Those were different times. California is now in a world of hurt. And we need a leader who can again help us make some serious strides forward. Jerry Brown 2.0 “Our state is in a real mess,” says Brown in a recent advertisement. “And I’m not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don’t go anywhere. We have to make some tough decisions.” In early September, while on a campaign stop at the Orange County Labor Federation (OCLF) Labor Day picnic in Santa Ana, Brown opened up his speech in a lighthearted manner, referring to his opponent’s barrage of television and radio ads against him. “Hello, I’m Jerry Brown,” he said, as though he hadn’t just spent the past 20 sec- onds receiving a roaring applause from the crowd before he even opened his mouth. “You’ve probably seen more of me in my op- Education Reform • Believes education reform must be done with collaboration among educa- tors, administrators and parents deciding how best to meet the needs for students in each neighborhood school. • Believes California needs a major overhaul of many components of the postsecondary system and the establishment of a representative group to create a new state Master Plan. • Opposes using punitive and wholesale takeover of troubled schools. • Supports using proven, meaningful reforms to help struggling schools, not simplistic formulas such as in No Child Left Behind. • Wants to immediately cut $15 billion from the state budget, which could mean taking anoth- er $7 billion from our schools and colleges, increasing class sizes by 33 percent, and laying off 100,000 teachers. • Supports merit pay for teachers using standardized test scores. • Wants to grade all public schools A to F based on standardized test scores. • Rather than helping to improve neighborhood public schools, sup- ports mandatory conversion of all struggling schools to charter schools. • Wants to remove the state’s cap on charter schools. Secure Retirement • Opposes converting CalSTRS and CalPERS retirement systems from secure defined-benefit plans to risky 401(k) contribution plans. • Supports a two-tier retirement sys- tem, converting the secure defined- benefit pension plans to 401(k)s for all new public employees. • Supports increasing minimum retire- ment age from 55 to 65 for most public employees. Whitman Brown