Senator Ted Gaines on Schools

California does not need to extend the onerous 2009 tax increases to improve education. We need to simplify our bureaucracy and get more money to our teachers where it can do the most good for our kids.
The Bee falsely equates my opposition to new taxes to an assault on schools. The real story of our schools is that only 60 percent of each education dollar makes its way to the classroom where the teachers teach and students learn. Layer after layer of bureaucracy with thousands of bureaucrats - the state Department of Education, county departments of education, district offices and more - all peel off education dollars and divert them from their best use.
Taxpayers and students alike deserve better than this 60 percent solution. In every area, they deserve an accountable, efficient government at a price they can afford. Cutting key chains and cellphones are nice gestures, but we need to attack the big areas of government, the major programs, to find the billions in savings that California needs.
What about prison costs? Why does it cost twice as much to house an inmate in California as it does in Texas?
What about public employee pensions that cost the taxpayer billions and where some estimates peg the shortfall at $500 billion?
What about the welfare system? Why were welfare recipients allowed to use their debit cards out of state to the tune of $69 million - including $12 million in Las Vegas?
Why would taxpayers want $1,000 taken from their wallets each year for the next five years when the state has such a shameful record of mismanagement, waste and fraud? It's an out-of-touch, entitled political class that would even dare to ask California families to pay more taxes in today's economic climate.
The pro-tax politicians have the equation backward: It's not higher taxes that lead to greater prosperity; it is greater prosperity that leads to higher tax revenues. With a growing economy, education funding will grow.
I've authored bills to spur new investment in California and create jobs. I would recommend that the governor and my colleagues across the aisle cut the tax burden on the citizens and businesses of the state and unleash the legendary California entrepreneurial spirit. Ultimately, it is growth - job creation in the private sector - that will fill the state treasury and make our state golden once again.