This is SJI’s open forum, where opinions on any matter—local, national or global—are welcome. What’s on your mind?

“More than 10 cents of every dollar in property tax collected in California last year—more than $4 billion—was intercepted and spent before reaching the school districts, fire departments, municipal general funds and other agencies.” So begins real estate developer and former school board trustee Doug Kaplan’s article, “Redevelopment Boondoggle,” recently published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Much of the news in recent days has been dominated by the issues surrounding the San Jose Police Department.   Last week, several colleagues and I sought greater transparency and disclosure of police reports, but by a 5-6 margin,we narrowly failed to persuade our colleagues to adopt the ordinance proposed by the “Sunshine” Task Force. On Sunday, the Mercury News released a video documenting the use of force by SJPD officers in the arrest of San Jose State University student Phoung Ho. Ash Kalra, Madison Nguyen, and I immediately called for a full investigation and—if any criminal charges of the officers are sought—a grand jury process open to public view.   
 

The monolithic structure of public education is resistant to change. As evidence the system continues to use an antiquated calendar from our agrarian past, and it organizes school districts in historic slices that make no logical sense.

I agree with SJI readers who believe the system of public education is poorly organized. This nonsensical structure causes redundant expenditures and weaker student outcomes than necessary. Reorganizing these districts with more wisdom and thought, I truly believe, would be beneficial to the goal of increasing student achievement

A variety of issues were discussed at last week’s council meeting that dealt with city finances. Jennifer Maguire, the Director of our Budget Office, shared that the ending fund balance this year is 1.3 percent. The city has always had an ending fund balance for as long as anyone can remember.

Following a brief hiatus, San Jose Inside’s free-for-all open forum is back in business. Comments on any topic are welcome.

Bottom-up-reform for improving education in Silicon Valley is more effective than top-down-reform efforts, however there is a paucity of examples of the former. In our climate of entrepreneurial know-how one would think there would be a bounty of examples of schools rearranging the apples on the proverbial cart to innovate and improve achievement for all. Yet, school the way we knew it back before the Apple II was introduced is still the norm.

The Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee, which I sit on, had a special meeting last Wednesday night. Usually, this committee meets during the day. This special meeting was being sponsored by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) and the City Council stemming from the alleged racial profiling arrests Downtown for pubic intoxication. This is one of two meetings to be held at night to elicit public opinion about our police force. The next one will be spring 2010

The Mercury News Editorial Board used the “R” word again. You know, “Republican.”

In their Oct. 11 editorial, the Mercury News expressed its concern that the Nobel Peace Prize committee may have provided fodder for Obama’s political opponents by awarding him this year’s prize. “The award unfortunately emphasizes one of the biggest criticisms of Obama: that he gives lovely speeches but has no record of accomplishment. The condemnation he faced Friday was swift and largely ungracious, much like a week earlier, when Republicans reacted with glee after the U.S. lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics.”

Before I get to the point of this column let me congratulate, Elinor Ostrom, who yesterday became the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Ms. Ostrom, a political scientist at Indiana University, was honored along with Oliver Williamson, an economist at UC Berkeley. This gets me to the topic of this week’s post. The economy and education are inextricably linked.

Last week, I toured the City of San Jose’s sanitary sewer system along with Public Works staff. For those of you who may not be aware, sewers in San Jose stretch out for 2,200 miles and range anywhere from 100 years old to brand new. The “sewer freeway” is at Zanker Road, where four large- diameter lines converge towards Alviso. They run side by side in different sizes and during the dry season we turn two of them off since the flow is slower without rainfall. This gives a rest to the other lines so they can be inspected and also helps move solid materials (grit) through the pipes.

This is SJI’s weekly open forum, where opinions on any matter are welcome. What’s on your mind?

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the smartest of them all?” That was the question posed by the Daily Beast this week, and San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area came in at an impressive 2nd place!

On March 16, 1964 in a special address to Congress, Pres. Lyndon Johnson said: “Because it is right, because it is wise and because for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty, I submit, for the consideration of Congress and the country, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.” Let me submit to the readers of San Jose Inside that the only means for us to eliminate poverty is to build a first class public education system for all America’s children.

At the Rules Committee last week, there was a proposal to amend the Graffiti Abatement Ordinance for juvenile offenders.

When someone gets arrested for doing graffiti in San Jose or other cities in Santa Clara county they are punished via the County court system. However cities do have a municipal code where offenders may pay a fine. State law does an adequate job of prosecuting adult graffiti offenders, however, some would say not such a good job of dealing with juveniles, since county probation does not want to spend the resources to supervise their community service work.

It’s the Oct. 3 edition of SJI’s Rants & Raves, an open forum where you set the agenda. It’s been a busy week in our city, state, nation and world. What’s on your mind?