After filing papers to run for a second four-year term for my County Board of Education Trustee seat, I learned on the Aug. 10 deadline that no one filed papers to run against me. Therefore, I am automatically re-elected. This is a great and unexpected result, but one that is not so good for providing me a campaign forum to raise some of the most critical issues of our time.
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Silicon Valley Money Lures Obama, Romney
Silicon Valley is home to tech behemoths such as Google, Adobe, Facebook, and HP. Being one of the biggest business hubs in the world, Silicon Valley has also become a fundraising battleground for President Obama and his likely opponent in November, Mitt Romney.
Education Increases Worth of Patent Office
U.S. Reps Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda, as well as a myriad of political and civic leaders, must be congratulated on securing the regional site for one of four patent offices in the country. This is a huge win for Silicon Valley. However, the accomplishment will be less meaningful if we don’t create a public education system that represents the ideals of the area and ranks first in the nation.
Yes on Measures C, E, G and H
These measures come down to how much people want to pay in property taxes, and what kind of education they want to provide future generations. There’s no denying that the state budget continues to cripple K-12, community colleges and California’s two public university systems with funding cuts. By approving Measure C, which would result in approving up to $350 million in bonds, voters will give students at the West Valley-Mission Community College District a first-rate, two-year education without the first-class price of the UC and Cal State systems. Measure E plans to bond $95 million in MIlpitas, and Measure G (Mountain View—Whisman School District) and Measure H (Cuprtino Union School District) would approve up to $198 million and $220 million in bonds, respectively. Considering siphoning of property taxes by Redevelopment Agencies is no longer allowed and tech titans Google and Apple are located in those last two cities, they should have no trouble paying off the bonds in the future.
The Long Decline of Political Parties
A couple weeks back, I received some troubling news from the California Moderate Party. After three years of toiling in the weeds of The Golden State’s political fringes, Ash Roughani finally decided to throw in the towel on his latest effort to establish a genuine, grassroots third party. As a Democratic activist, it would seem odd for me to lament the loss of what could only have amounted to another siphon of progressive votes at a time when the left is so fractured that we can’t capitalize on our own victories. But the failure of the Moderate Party is just another symptom of the slow death of the political party system as a whole.
S.O.S.: Save Our Schools
SOS (…- - -…) is the commonly known Morse code distress symbol, not an acronym. That said, many think of “save our ship” or “save our souls when the term is used. During my tenure as a principal, school board member and SJI columnist, I have a different distress signal. If I could, I would tap out the code “Save Our Schools” every single hour of every day in all cities across Silicon Valley.
San Jose Inside’s 2011 Year in Review
As the year winds down, you can almost hear the collective sigh coming from City Hall. Or maybe that’s an echoing whoosh from councilmembers, the mayor, city manager and their staffs, who hightailed it for the holidays. Either way, 2011 was a tumultuous year, fierce in the manner civic actors clashed over pension reform, public safety, pot, a potential ballpark, ballot measures, pay cuts, occupations of city property and other issues of varying degrees of importance.
Two More Interested in Supervisor Seat
Move over Google, it seems public service is one of the valley’s most desired jobs. Two Cupertino councilmembers, Kris Wang and Barry Chang, are supposedly interested in the race for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors.
Household Incomes Drop in San Jose
San Jose has been unseated as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, according to a slew of government data. The city relinquishes its throne to previously second-ranked Washington D.C., which had a typical household earning $84,523 in income. San Jose’s average household income dropped to $83,944 last year, according to Census Bureau figures.
Mosaic Charter an Example of Collaboration
Some communities get it, and some don’t get it at all. It is truly amazing how things work when there is a vision and people with the talents to carry it out. Right now, a brand new two-story school building, built in record time on one acre of land in a residential neighborhood of San Jose, houses hundreds of K-3 grade students who are eager to learn.
Class Warfare and the Gates Foundation
“It’s hard to improve public education—that’s clear,” Warren Buffet says. “If you’re picking stocks, you wouldn’t pick this one.” Even Bill and Melinda Gates must question whether their $5 billion multi-year investment in public school reform has been worth it.
Life Without the Governator?
The biggest story in the news Tuesday is word that action star and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had a child out of wedlock a decade ago. An interesting question is: What would California look like today if voters had known the truth about Schwarzenegger’s actions before he was elected governor in a 2003 recall election. Infidelity is generally a career-killer in politics, and Schwarzenegger had basically no experience before coming into office.
Homicides Already Surpass 2010 Total
A 51-year-old San Jose man died from his stab wound injuries late Thursday night, bringing the total of homicide victims in San Jose this year to 21. That total is one more homicide than San Jose had in all of 2010.
We Pay Twice for Affordable Housing
In past blogs I have expressed my concern about the cost to our city of too much housing. Specifically, housing that does not pay its own share of revenue. One example I have pointed out—and constantly been the lone vote against—is affordable housing.
Another Sputnik Moment
It was the threat of the Soviets leapfrogging us with their launch of Sputnik that spurred America to refocus on creating a generation of the best mathematicians and scientists. And Houston, we have a problem. The nation that put the first footprints on the moon in 1969 and built amazing vehicles that transport humans to orbit the earth—the Space Shuttle—is losing an important race in American education.
A Public Spanking
County Assessor Larry Stone visited the San Jose City Council study session last week and gave an extensive lecture on the role of the County Assessor and a critique of Spectrum Economics. His comments were blunt, sparing only profanity about the economist hired by the RDA for $15,000. I wrote about this topic three weeks ago.
This is the only time that another elected official has spoken to the City Council at length during my tenure.
