Solutions for a Dysfunctional State

Saving California Communities: Working to Create Solutions

Every morning I see new problems. My current beef is President Yudof’s new billion dollar endowment for UC students. It sounds noble, but really it just shifts the financing of the University of California, so the finest public university system in the world will be financed by the same people who finance private universities. Why is the wealthiest state in the nation giving up on the public part of public education?

Compounding that issue, in an op-ed in Saturday’s Sacramento Bee two UCLA professors wrote, “As a state, we must determine how committed we are to keeping the resource of world-class universities. Will our leaders allow the UC system to whither as they did our public schools, or let the strongest UC campuses become the privatized domain for the wealthy?”  The scariest part of that statement is the implied understanding that we’ve given up on K-12 education. When did we agree to that? How can higher education be successful if our elementary and secondary students are not?

And of course, the problems are not confined to education. Cities, counties and the state face challenges almost too numerous to count. Would that solutions were as easy to find.

Despite this, I see great work done every day by local and state workers. The school system in Davis produces high achieving students in every sense; the city of Davis works (of course there are problems, but the neighborhoods are safe, the roads good, the parks and greenbelt exceptional); the college where I work has budget challenges but we educate increasing numbers of students and those students go on to have great success in varied endeavors. My bias now, as always, is to look for solutions that will support these folks who do such good for us in our community.

Last December, I was invited by a friend, Jan Agee, to join a Davis group advocating for adequate funding for public education. This group focused on the underlying reasons for budget cuts affecting the students of the Davis Joint Unified School District. But when one budget crisis was followed by another, it became increasingly clear that the problem wasn’t defined by district boundaries.

Tapping into the tremendous strength of the Davis community, the original group broadened their focus, invited others to join, and rechristened themselves Saving California Communities. Though somewhat grand in aspiration, this name reflects the whole-community focus and the tried and true Davis sentiment that yes, we can help save the world, especially when we work in collaboration with our colleagues in other communities.

You’ll find SCC’s guiding principles at www.SavingCA.org. We hosted “Saving California Communities: Starting Here!”  last May in Davis and we’ve helped facilitate meetings in Winters and West Sacramento. We’ve offered a forum for statewide efforts such as California Forward and the Bay Area Council (working for a state constitution convention), and in return we’ve been asked for opinions, feedback, endorsements and support. Our founding membership includes active citizens from City of Davis circles, DJUSD and Yolo County. The group is open to everyone and involvement is steadily growing.

We meet this week, Tuesday, Nov 10th at 7:00 pm at the Davis Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second Street. Admission is free, and all members of the public are welcome to attend. Full details appear in the press release that follows.

Please consider this your invitation to join the effort to create solutions.

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The Davis-based government reform group, Saving California Communities (SCC), will host State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) as the featured speaker at its upcoming meeting next Tuesday, Nov 10th at 7pm at the Davis Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second Street. Admission is free, and all members of the public are welcome to attend.

Sen. DeSaulnier will be speaking in his role as Co-Chair of the California Senate Select Committee on Improving State Government. The committee will look at ways to make the Legislature more transparent and effective and make state government more efficient and customer friendly.

“Sacramento’s systemic problems predate today’s legislature, and will be around long after it if we don’t act now,” said DeSaulnier. “We weren’t sent to Sacramento to avoid the problems staring us in the face. This is the work we were elected to do.”

The Senate Select Committee on Improving State Government is tasked with:

• Giving Californians more value for their tax dollars by making government more efficient and accountable.
• Prioritizing key issues, so government makes the tough decisions and only turns to the voters when absolutely necessary.
• Cutting through the gridlock caused by outmoded rules and undue partisanship.
• Making government more transparent and accessible from around the state.
• Diminishing the influence of special interests.
• Making government more customer-friendly.
• Creating a process that encourages decisions that reflect long-term thinking, not short-term band-aids.

DeSaulnier is also the author of SCR 3, legislation which calls for the people of California to vote at the next statewide general election on the question of whether to call a Constitutional Convention.

Following the discussion, members of SCC will give a recap of the group’s recent activities as well as upcoming events.  For more information, email: info@SavingCA.org