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Serving as California governor cost Arnold Schwarzenegger at least $200 million, the bodybuilding star turned actor and politician told a newspaper in his native Austria, insisting 'it was more than worth it."

Counting expenses and lost income from acting in Hollywood films, "in all it is probably more than $200 million," he told Krone when asked how much his two terms in Sacramento had cost.

"But I'm not sorry. It was more than worth it," he said.

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HE stormed on to the stage as an action hero determined to save debt-ridden California from destruction in 2003.
But staunch Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was replaced as Governor yesterday by a Democrat, after the most expensive non-presidential race in US history.
Democrat Jerry Brown, who ran the state in the 1970s and 1980s, is back in the California Governor's office after surviving more than $160 million in campaign spending against him.

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In the most recent in a series of endless reports about Corporate gifts being given to our Governor and his associates – ostensibly in the “public interest”, the LA Times has reported that General Electric will be sponsoring a glitzy Governors Conference this August at Universal Studios in Hollywood. The event could cost more than $3 million between GE and other private sponsors.

“It’s a governmental conference, with governmental officials,” said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. “If GE is paying for it, the question is what does GE expect for their contribution? And they are certainly going to expect good will.” Schwarzenegger’s office has accepted millions of dollars in private gifts for things such as state dinners, international travel and ornaments on state Christmas trees..

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He vetoed two bills that could have helped employees who earn their money through hourly work, by making it a misdemeanor crime for employers that fail to pay all wages within 90 days after a worker leaves, and by increasing the maximum amount of damages that a worker could be awarded in a wage-related legal dispute or state enforcement action., making it even tougher now to be an hourly paid employee, and making him live up to his movie-star image of being a "Terminator."

Though both bills seem to reinforce the common-sense concept of getting paid for services rendered, Schwarzenegger said in his veto messages that the bills were not needed, because similar laws are already on the books.

The last thing we want to do is open the door to the possibility of employers not paying employees or not paying them minimum wages as required; but Schwarzenegger's veto sends the message that these concerns are not ones he thinks California needs to address.

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What lala land does your brain live in?

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In 1960, a committee of educators working under the leadership of the visionary University of California President Clark Kerr handed Pat Brown, an equally farsighted governor, something he'd long hoped for: a master plan for higher education in California.

Brown and Kerr shared a desire to create a system that would simultaneously encourage academic excellence and equality of opportunity for students of every class and background. They succeeded beyond even their expansive dreams and, in the process, created not simply a network of world-class academic institutions but also a great engine of social progress and prosperity for the California economy.

The plan guaranteed the top 12.5% of the state's high school graduates places in the UC system; the top one-third of graduates were assured places in the state colleges; and free community colleges were open to all. A graduate of the latter's two-year programs was guaranteed admission as a transfer student to a university or state college. Fees and books at those institutions amounted to a few hundred dollars a year. It served as a blueprint for public systems across the country

Within short order, slightly more than half of all California high school graduates were attending college -- in an era when less than a third of all Americans went on to higher education. The public universities' burgeoning web of affordable professional schools amplified the system's effect. Its contribution to the decades of unparalleled prosperity that followed can't be calculated.

Of all the damage that has been done in recent years by Sacramento's habitual flight from fiscal responsibility -- particularly during the disastrous Schwarzenegger years -- none has been more injurious or perverse than the budgetary mistreatment of the state's universities and community colleges. Starved for adequate funds, what was once California's greatest guarantor of social mobility based on merit has become, in fact, a force for the growing inequality that threatens this state's future.

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Due to chronic underfunding and inadequate governance, California’s once-premier education system now trails behind most of the nation. For more than 25 years, California has spent less per student than the national average. As a result, California’s children rank lowest on several key national measures of academic achievement. To make matters worse, California made painful and far-reaching budget cuts to its K-12 system in 2009, placing even more pressure on already underfunded schools, threatening the quality of children’s educational opportunities and undermining California’s chances for long-term economic growth.

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The proposed $4.8 billion cut from secondary education and $1.3 billion from higher education are the result of the governor’s proposed 10 percent across-the-board cuts in state social programs.

Many analysts have projected a sharp decline in property tax revenue, which would only intensify the current budget crisis and perhaps lead to even greater spending cuts. Schwarzenegger has adamantly refused to raise taxes of any kind, particularly on the state’s wealthiest residents, whom he cynically claims simply don’t have the ability to make any additional contributions to the state’s coffers.

Schwarzenegger’s proposals have already led to layoff notices for more than 20,000 teachers and school employees in the K-12 (kindergarten through high school) system alone. Should his current budget request be passed, another 87,000 K-12 teachers and staff will most likely lose their jobs.

The cuts will also have a dramatic impact on the state’s public university system, leading to further decreases in spending, increased tuition and student fess, along with possible staff layoffs. California students were once able to attend these institutions free of charge, but have now seen their tuitions grow by more than 100 percent within the past four years alone.

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California schools could eliminate a week of instruction and increase class sizes next year under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new plan for solving the state’s budget crisis. The proposal unveiled Wednesday also would allow districts to eliminate one of two science courses required for high school graduation

Schwarzenegger’s plan would provide no teacher salary increases, eliminate a program providing subsidies to overhaul low-performing schools, and suspend participation in a program encouraging teachers to obtain national certification.

Students could see dramatic impacts from the governor’s proposed $2.1 billion in education cuts this fiscal year and $3.1 billion from what schools anticipated in 2009-2010.

“We could lose up to $1.1 million out of our relatively small $3 million budget, so that’s a 35-percent cut,” said Deborah Merrifield, the Executive Director of the Joan A. Male Family Support Center.

This support center prevents child abuse and neglect through different programs and a parent helpline. But the programs are in jeopardy of cutbacks and closings. On New Year’s Eve, five people there were laid off.

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Schwarzenegger's reforms include:

--Adopting a merit pay system that would reward effective teachers and give them incentives to work at low-performing campuses;

--Requiring districts to consider student test data when evaluating teachers;

--Evaluating teachers and schools not just by students' achievement of specific goals but by their individual improvement year to year, referred to as "value-added" analysis.

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