Letter: A different priority

EDITOR,
I’ve never lived in New York, so I will take David deMilo’s word for it when he wrote about the budget issues there in his Feb. 19 commentary, “Priorities, not parcel tax.”
But I am a native Californian. I went to California public schools. My grandmother taught there, as did my mother, and now my son’s fiancé. I have seen the difference at every level from grade school to the University of California. In my experience, education in California has not improved as we have cut budgets.
DeMilo probably didn’t live in California when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor, with promises to cut government waste. The governor didn’t publicize the results of his cost-cutting commission, because he didn’t like its findings. The commission basically found about $25 million in possible cuts — an insignificant amount given California’s budget size and deficit. The Assembly has already cut far, far more than that.
The fact is that California now spends less per student than 48 other states. Other states that spend this little also suffer high rates of unemployment and poverty. I do not believe that is a coincidence.
Without a well-educated workforce, California will struggle to attract new businesses and investment. This will imperil our economic recovery. That, in turn, will give the state less money to maintain the infrastructure on which businesses and residents alike depend.
Perhaps DeMilo thinks avoiding a small parcel tax is more important than investing in the future of our state. I do not. That is my priority.