Orange County Register to publish school salaries, names, for 27 school districts
(Orange County Register © 11/04/2010)

In less than two weeks, the Orange County Register will publish the first in a series of stories about compensation paid to the nearly 72,000 employees of our 27 local school districts and the county Department of Education. The package, which has already generated much discussion among school employees, uses data obtained via a Public Records Act request from the county department and supplementa...

Jerry Brown to meet today with legislative leaders in Sacramento
(Los Angeles Times © 11/04/2010)

During his campaign for governor, Jerry Brown promised to bring politicians from both sides together to find solutions to the state's problems. That work begins Thursday, when Brown will meet with legislative leaders in Sacramento. He returns to the capital as governor-elect, 36 years after he first held that title. He faces a budget gap estimated at $20 billion and new budg...

Democrats gain more sway in Calif. Legislature
(Sacramento Bee © 11/04/2010)

LOS ANGELES -- Democrats retained control of both legislative chambers and won a major victory in this week's elections when voters approved Proposition 25, lowering the threshold to pass a state budget from a two-thirds vote to a simple majority. What that also means, though, is Democrats will have almost no one else to blame for the way the state's money is spent after Gov-elect Jerry Brown...

Jerry Brown prepares for 'austere government'
(San Francisco Chronicle © 11/04/2010)

OAKLAND -- California governor-elect Jerry Brown, warning that Californians sent a message in Tuesday's election that they are "in no mood to add to their burdens" with new taxes, said Wednesday he has begun laying the groundwork for cutting government costs and repairing the "broken process" of producing a state budget. Brown, at a news conference just hours after beating Rep...

Getting a state budget still may not be easy
(San Diego Union Tribune © 11/04/2010)

It may sound contradictory, but California voters made it both easier and tougher for lawmakers to pass an on-time -- and balanced -- state budget. Easier by passing an initiative long-sought by Democrats that permits the budget to be approved by a simple majority rather than the currently required two-thirds vote. Tougher by passing other measures to require a supermajority vote of lawmakers b...

Brown rolls up sleeves
(Contra Costa Times © 11/04/2010)

OAKLAND -- A day after celebrating a landslide victory, Gov.-elect Jerry Brown on Wednesday offered a sobering view of the harsh realities facing California as he prepares for a return to the office he last held 28 years ago. He said it will take an unprecedented willingness by lawmakers, voters and the new administration to work together to pull California from its economic abyss, where more tha...

Authenticity, instincts pushed Jerry Brown past well-funded Whitman
(Sacramento Bee © 11/04/2010)

After all the TV ads and scripted attacks that hit voters this year, Californians on Tuesday picked a governor who has made a 40-year career out of improvisation and shooting from the hip. Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown reveled in his historic win Wednesday by offering the kind of blunt talk that distinguished him throughout the campaign from his on-message Republican rival Meg Whitman. Stand...

Hispanics saved the Dems
(Politico.com © 11/04/2010)

Luis Gutierrez is pushing Harry Reid today to return to immigration legislation, on the grounds that Hispanic voters saved his hide.  Reid got an amazing 90% of the state's 12% Hispanic voters, according to exit polls; Sharron Angle got just 8%.  And as Democrats talk today of a "Western Firewall," the trend that stands out is the disastrous Republican collapse among Hispanic...

Latino Voters Act as Firewall, Save Democrats from Disaster
(Huffington Post © 11/04/2010)

As Democrats wake up to a huge wave of Republican victories, especially in the U.S. House of Representatives, we can be certain of one thing: without the massive turnout of Latinos who broke heavily for Democrats in key races, the disaster would have been even more severe. Case in point, Latinos turned out big for Sen. Harry Reid breaking almost 90 percent in his favor. Bottom line - they suppo...

Prop. 25 changes everything
(Los Angeles Times © 11/04/2010)

Were California voters especially wise Tuesday when they adopted both Proposition 25, which erases the Legislature's crippling two-thirds vote requirement for adopting a budget, and Proposition 26, which imposes a new two-thirds mandate for imposing or raising a fee? End the gridlock, perhaps they were saying, but not at the expense of taxpaying families or businesses. Or were they being espe...

Voters from San Leandro to Fremont willing to pay higher taxes
(Argus Online © 11/04/2010)

Fremont voters on Tuesday passed the city's first parcel tax to support local schools, and Newark leaders celebrated passage of the city's first voter-approved tax. Union City and San Leandro voters both supported sales-tax rate increases, while San Leandro and Tri-City voters approved facility bonds for the San Leandro Unified School District and the Ohlone Community College District. "It was a...

Teachers to lead Lodi schools
(Stockton Record © 11/04/2010)

LODI -- The Lodi Unified School District will operate under new teacher-backed leadership in 2011, and the new faces running the district could include more than the four newly elected board members who will take their seats in December. Voters on Tuesday elected board newcomers and former teachers George Neely, Michael Abdallah and Ruth Davis. Firefighter Ron Heberle, who is married to a retired t...

San Diego Unified Schools May Feel Effects Of Prop. J Failure
(Channel 10 - KGTV San Diego © 11/04/2010)

SAN DIEGO -- The rejection of Proposition J by local voters on Tuesday could spell doom for many San Diego schools. "Obviously, I'm disappointed," said Amanda Hammond-Williams, principal at Birney Elementary School, a Magnet school in University Heights. Hammond-Williams knows what could be coming now that Prop. J has been voted down. If approved, the parcel tax would have helped with a $141 mil...

West County schools board reconstituted, deep fiscal problems unchanged
(Contra Costa Times © 11/04/2010)

A new face on the school board and more tough budget decisions are ahead for the West Contra Costa school district. Incumbents Madeline Kronenberg and Charles Ramsey, both re-elected this week, said they are ready to tackle the challenges after a parcel tax for programs and smaller class sizes failed Tuesday. "It's disappointing, but we understand it's a difficult time for everyone in terms of t...

Daly City, Pacifica high schools face additional cuts after measure's defeat
(San Jose Mercury News © 11/04/2010)

DALY CITY -- Jefferson Union High School District leaders had hoped at least to restore some of the budget cuts made in recent months. Instead, the district now could face making deeper cuts because of the narrow defeat of a parcel-tax measure on Tuesday's ballot. Another ballot measure might be considered in the future, but for now "nothing is going to change," said district Superintendent Mike...

Duncan: Education can be bipartisan
(Politico.com © 11/04/2010)

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is upbeat Despite waking up to a political landscape now dominated by Republicans, Duncan - one of a handful of Obama administration cabinet members who actively campaigned for several Democrats - believes that education reform can be the great bipartisan issue, uniting the two feuding parties. "Am I hopeful? Absolutely," he told POLITICO...

Will new ed policy affect all districts equally?
(Washington Post © 11/04/2010)

Here's some interesting analysis on the fallout from the midterm elections by Anne Geiger, who writes as the Public Policy Blogger. You can see more of her analysis here. From Anne Geiger on the fallout from the midterm elections and the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives: The good news and the bad news. First, some important data... As this table and this table show, ther...