Californians... So is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger doing a good job?

[acealive1]

Dude. What, have you had a slot reserved at an elite private prep school because of your dad's last name since birth or something? how about i went to public schools in south central los angeles and made do with what i had, lunch tickets and all.

[zombie04]

where are u from? North Carolina. As a Republican I can say Gov. Easley was a Democrat I supported because he was a supporter of education reform, but his 8 years in office have been rather disgraceful. He ran us from surplus to a hefty deficit, and it was recently discovered he had quite a vacation in Italy on the taxpayers dime. In addition to that my mom is a special education teacher with a masters degree and a good deal of work experience, and her pay has managed to go down while her assistants and funding has also been 'misplaced' by the school system. Overall it's just been a real disgrace.

[Dillinger]

North Carolina. As a Republican I can say Gov. Easley was a Democrat I supported because he was a supporter of education reform, but his 8 years in office have been rather disgraceful. He ran us from surplus to a hefty deficit, and it was recently discovered he had quite a vacation in Italy on the taxpayers dime. In addition to that my mom is a special education teacher with a masters degree and a good deal of work experience, and her pay has managed to go down while her assistants and funding has also been 'misplaced' by the school system. Overall it's just been a real disgrace. I read somewhere that a lot of software and video game developers are moving to North Carolina. It's called the Silicon Valley of the south or something like that. I wish we had more high tech jobs in Missouri. But then again, there are places here where indoor plumbing is considered "high tech."

[acealive1]

North Carolina. As a Republican I can say Gov. Easley was a Democrat I supported because he was a supporter of education reform, but his 8 years in office have been rather disgraceful. He ran us from surplus to a hefty deficit, and it was recently discovered he had quite a vacation in Italy on the taxpayers dime. In addition to that my mom is a special education teacher with a masters degree and a good deal of work experience, and her pay has managed to go down while her assistants and funding has also been 'misplaced' by the school system. Overall it's just been a real disgrace. my friend whos in the marines is stationed in NC

[AcesandEights]

my mom is a special education teacher with a masters degree and a good deal of work experience, and her pay has managed to go down while her assistants and funding has also been 'misplaced' by the school system. That's horrifying!

[DjfunkmasterG]

Well living in MD, Arnie seems like a cool Gov, but some of my Cali friends don't seem to care for his brand of politics. "EETZ NAWT A TOOOMOR!?!"

[Yojimbo]

Personally, I think that Arnold is doing a good job. Yes, he has had some misteps here, specifically I think that he made a mistake in calling a special election which was a waste of time. But as far as him being a school budget killer or health care system enemy, folks need to bear in mind that the people attacking Arnold on these issues are the teacher's union and the Nurse's Union. The teachers do not like him because he refused to bow down to their demands and likewise the Nursing union as well. Both of those unions, BTW, are largely self serving, and their demands were veiled as being in the interests of education and patient care respectively, but in actuality had more to do with money. It was mentioned, perhaps as proof that Schwarzenegger is lame, that the Los Angeles Unifed School District recently had an issue with their payroll system causing many teachers to not get paid for quite a while. This, of course, was not the fault of Schwarzenegger, but rather an example of how stupid the LAUSD administration is, and how inefficiently they operate. (For those of you who are on the west coast, it is possible to watch the Board of Education idiots meetings on television and I assure you that if you take the time to watch you will be surprised at how inane these folks are.) So on one hand the LAUSD is stupid and inefficient. On the other hand you have a teacher's union which uses it's power for the welfare of the Teachers rather than as a champion for education. Then you have the nursing union which made simply ridiculous demands on the administration, requesting that they lower patient to staff ratios when in fact a similar request had already been implemented and not enough time had passed to allow auditors to make evaluations of improvementor the lack thereof to patient health care in the wake of the initial change. IMO, Schwartenegger is doing exactly what he should do: protecting the citizens of his state from being dominated by special interest groups such as the aforementioned unions.

[zombie04]

my friend whos in the marines is stationed in NC that's kind of funny, because my brother in the marines is stationed in CA.

[Publius]

If anything, Schwartzenegger's problem is that he didn't crack down on the special interests hard enough and tries too hard to be "bipartisan." So he let the legislature go hog-wild spending every cent of the unexpectedly large surplus the state had over the last few years, and now that the economic cylce is swinging the other way he's pushing the Republicans to agree with the Democrats to raise taxes. Given that California already has some of the highest sales taxes and income taxes in the country, it's hard to see how this will help the economic situation. that's kind of funny, because my brother in the marines is stationed in CA. Oh yeah? Where at? I lived a couple miles from Pendleton until just a few months ago. Now I'm about 25 miles farther away.

[acealive1]

that's kind of funny, because my brother in the marines is stationed in CA. weird. wouldnt be 29 palms,would it?

[Yojimbo]

Oh yeah? Where at? I lived a couple miles from Pendleton until just a few months ago. Now I'm about 25 miles farther away. Publius, my brother, I am also in Southern California. Nice to hear that there are other zombie freaks here and that I am not the only one.

[Publius]

Publius, my brother, I am also in Southern California. Nice to hear that there are other zombie freaks here and that I am not the only one. Noticed that. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, but now live in Temecula (after some time in Oceanside, and various other places before that).