California in Crisis

This month's American Prospect has a must read story about the state of California's finances. It helps dispel many of the commonly held myths peddled by a minority of extreme legislators.

Despite charges that California is anti-business, it is important to remember that we are the birthplace of Apple, Cisco, Disney, eBay, Facebook, the Gap, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, as Time magazine recently noted. We are a leader in entrepreneurship, technology, entertainment and culture.

California still attracts more venture capital than any other state. We lead the nation in business start ups.

How did we become an economic powerhouse? And why have we declined in recent years?

California became a leader in technology and innovation because we invested in a world class education system. But since the late 1970s, we began to neglect education as a direct result of the tax revolt.

California now ranks at or near the bottom in many state comparisons. In 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available, it ranked 46th among states in per-student spending for public schools. Not surprisingly, its eighth-graders came in next to last (just above Mississippi) in reading and ranked 45th (tied with West Virginia) in math. The state ranks 30th in the percentage of ninth-graders who graduate from high school.

Those who do graduate from high school now face shrinking opportunities. California's three-tiered higher education system--the 10 campuses of the University of California, the 23 California State University institutions, and the 109 two-year community colleges--was once a model of high quality and low fees. Now it is imploding--both hiking its fees and turning away tens of thousands of students.

Whether you're on the left, the right or the center, we can all agree that California&'s government is broken and we need to come together to find solutions.