Finding That Cloud in the Silver Lining

Well poor Jerry Brown, rising tax revenues are complicating his plans to raise taxes. Headline from the Mercury News:

Higher tax revenue complicates Brown's tax pitch
California's tax revenue is running well ahead of projections, but the governor's office said Friday that has not simplified the challenge of closing the state's $15.4 billion deficit.

Of course it hasn't, because the Governor wants to raise your taxes, no matter what.

Meanwhile, teachers unions and their allies demonstrate the height of hypocrisy by holding a prayer vigil at a Catholic church?

About 300 teachers and other advocates, organized by the California Teachers Association, staged a religious-themed rally and prayer vigil Monday on the steps of Sacramento's historic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

This, from a group that opposes both prayer in schools and any form of private school? Oh well, I oppose prayer in public school also, but these people are absurd. They claim they are protesting "for the children."

As Roger Hedgecock pointed out today, if these teacher unionists really cared about the children, they wouldn't oppose vouchers. They would allow school choice, even within the public school system. They wouldn't cling to a seniority system that requires layoffs of the most recently trained teachers. They actually care only about their own power as union officials and the teachers that support the unions care only about their job security and children can go hang.

The public education system is less and less effective. It does nothing to engage parents in the teaching of children and thus fails utterly. It costs more than the equivalent Catholic systems which are similar in size. We need vouchers and choice, because if parents and children were consumers of education, innovation and improvement would follow.