Alliance rallies against plans of governor
Group comes to town to decry special election and other proposals

The Bakersfield Californian
April 22, 2005

A group representing nurses, teachers and firefighters was in Bakersfield Thursday to rail against Gov. Schwarzenegger, his calls for a special election this November and some of the policies he'd like voters to approve.

If that election is held, members of Alliance for a Better California plugged its own proposed ballot measures that seek to offer people cheaper prescription drugs, curb car-selling fraud and repeal electricity deregulation.

Schwarzenegger's proposed measures would have judges -- instead of lawmakers -- draw legislative district boundaries; give teachers merit pay and make it easier to fire them; and automatically cap state spending. He's agreed to drop, for now, a proposal to make public pensions more like 401(k) plans.

Alliance members said Schwarzenegger should work with the Legislature on such issues rather than go to voters with "ill-thought-out" measures.

The $70 million an election would cost, it said, would be better spent hiring 1,500 new police officers, buying 3.7 million up-to-date textbooks or covering 2,000 teacher salaries.

Carol Reichert, president of the Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association, said Schwarzenegger's education proposals would make it more difficult to recruit good teachers.

She said he's already "broken promises to schoolchildren" by not repaying $2 billion taken from schools to balance the budget and failing to uphold Proposition 98, which sets minimum education-spending limits.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson dismissed the Alliance members as "a union group" and said the governor would prefer hashing these issues out with lawmakers, but they are "resistant to change."

Voters clearly wanted immediate reform when they recalled former Gov. Gray Davis in October 2003 and replaced him with Schwarzenegger, she said.

As for the education proposals, Thompson said children aren't excelling and guaranteeing teachers "lifetime employment" after just two years is "not fair to students."

More than 50 percent of the governor's budget goes to education, while Proposition 98 mandates spending 43 percent, Thompson said.