Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

[Starving Steve]

Post this under the file: "Republicans Gone Crazy" .

First a little background info: I am substitute teacher who works daily in the schools in California as a fully-credentialed teacher, working full-time, but paid, nevertheless, as part-time employment and without a contract, without a union, and without benefits of any kind. So, for obvious reasons, I call myself, "Starving Steve".

So, I get home to-night and start my daily search for to-morrow's assignment using the job-finding system, www.aesoponline.com. But to-night is different: The system asks me to take a survey, and one of the questions asks, "In order that our system might serve you better, would you be willing to pay for this job-finding system?"

I earn $14 per hour as a credentialed teacher with years of experience, and this job-finding system employed by the school districts asks me as a teacher if I would be willing to pay for job assignments.

Let me get this neo-con Republican logic straight: $14 per hour, no benefits, no union, no contract, no security, no safeguards, no advocate of any kind, and now the suggestion, "pay-to-work" on the employer's job-finding machine.

As I said, "File this under, 'Republicans Gone Crazy'." With the out-sourcing and union-busting, the de-regulation, and the dollar devaluation, really, the whole neo-con era to-day can really be summed up in the U.S. as, "Republicans Gone Crazy".

[metalman]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

Post this under the file: "Republicans Gone Crazy" .

First a little background info: I am substitute teacher who works daily in the schools in California as a fully-credentialed teacher, working full-time, but paid, nevertheless, as part-time employment and without a contract, without a union, and without benefits of any kind. So, for obvious reasons, I call myself, "Starving Steve".

So, I get home to-night and start my daily search for to-morrow's assignment using the job-finding system, www.aesoponline.com. But to-night is different: The system asks me to take a survey, and one of the questions asks, "In order that our system might serve you better, would you be willing to pay for this job-finding system?"

I earn $14 per hour as a credentialed teacher with years of experience, and this job-finding system employed by the school districts asks me as a teacher if I would be willing to pay for job assignments.

Let me get this neo-con Republican logic straight: $14 per hour, no benefits, no union, no contract, no security, no safeguards, no advocate of any kind, and now the suggestion, "pay-to-work" on the employer's job-finding machine.

As I said, "File this under, 'Republicans Gone Crazy'." With the out-sourcing and union-busting, the de-regulation, and the dollar devaluation, really, the whole neo-con era to-day can really be summed up in the U.S. as, "Republicans Gone Crazy".

"Aesop, the flagship service from Frontline Placement Technologies..."

what's the biz model? monster is paid for by companies listing jobs. that's the usual model for job sites. either the employers pay for the service or the teachers do. or maybe they're trying to charge both parties. is there a competing service?

http://substitute.teacher.jobs.topusajobs.com/
http://www.simplyhired.com/job-searc...itute-Teacher/

not much competition. maybe that's the problem.

[c1ue]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

I would say that so long as the 'pay to work' is voluntary, the system will sort everything out.

Having job sourcers only pay for job advertising has led to a terrible racket in the job listing arena; even the initial impact of the Internet has faded as those job sites have been bought out by big companies.

In a very real way, job advertisements are also part and parcel of the general advertising oligopoly.

[Andreuccio]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

Post this under the file: "Republicans Gone Crazy" .

First a little background info: I am substitute teacher who works daily in the schools in California as a fully-credentialed teacher, working full-time, but paid, nevertheless, as part-time employment and without a contract, without a union, and without benefits of any kind. So, for obvious reasons, I call myself, "Starving Steve".

So, I get home to-night and start my daily search for to-morrow's assignment using the job-finding system, www.aesoponline.com. But to-night is different: The system asks me to take a survey, and one of the questions asks, "In order that our system might serve you better, would you be willing to pay for this job-finding system?"

I earn $14 per hour as a credentialed teacher with years of experience, and this job-finding system employed by the school districts asks me as a teacher if I would be willing to pay for job assignments.

Let me get this neo-con Republican logic straight: $14 per hour, no benefits, no union, no contract, no security, no safeguards, no advocate of any kind, and now the suggestion, "pay-to-work" on the employer's job-finding machine.

As I said, "File this under, 'Republicans Gone Crazy'." With the out-sourcing and union-busting, the de-regulation, and the dollar devaluation, really, the whole neo-con era to-day can really be summed up in the U.S. as, "Republicans Gone Crazy".

I don't know where you are in California, but if you're near L.A. you ought to look at LAUSD. Here's a link to their sub pay table:

http://www.teachinla.com/Research/do...s/subtable.pdf

As you can see, pay starts at about $29 per hour and goes up to about $39 for certain things. (I think this includes working in the same assignment for 21 days or more.) They also pay benefits if you work over 100 days.

Not bad pay at all. Of course, LAUSD has other problems. You might not get paid at all:

Since the new payroll project launched in January, technical glitches and human errors have wreaked havoc on the district, leaving tens of thousands of teachers and other employees with errors on their paychecks.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...ck=3&cset=true

(might be firewalled, but free registration)

[Starving Steve]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

While it is true that on the face of things ( in other words, on job postings) districts pay in the range of up to $42,000 per year for new teachers, the districts are quite slow--- SLOOOOOOOOOOOW--- to hire new staff, and they are more than eager to feed work to subs, like me.

And if you get hired, you soon get fired, especially if you have a multiple subject credential although less so if you have a science credential, a math credential, or a special education credential. However, I have seen even teachers in the latter group also sacked and rehired as subs.

Sacking teachers is soooooooooo easy to-day because the districts are slooooooooooooow to award employment contracts with union protection. Instead, districts hire credentialed teachers on a day-to-day contract because they can get away with it. And until this year, districts were even hiring non-credentialed teachers on emergency 30-day state teaching permits. ( They would do it because they could do it, and they did it en masse. )

Meanwhile, the career teachers, the lifers, get hired for the new jobs. And the lifers never leave the profession because the retirement benefits after 25 years in the classroom are so delicious.

Often, lifers in the teaching profession go from classroom teaching to school administration or back-and-forth between the district office and school classroom assignments. ( It is an amazing story that the public knows nothing about. )

So we never get change in the teaching profession, at least not in the USA. The lifers rule. Worse than that, under the Bush Administration, the teaching standards, the school curriculum, the textbooks, and even the tests have been set by the Department of Education in Washington and enforced through the state departments of education and the through the local school boards.

Teachers, especially the new-comers to the profession, are treated as serfs, or at best, clerks. They have nothing --- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING--- to say about the school curriculum, and they are muzzled in the classroom as if this were the old Soviet Union. In fact, they are even handed "teacher-proof" scripts on how lessons are to be taught.

The education system searches for imitators, not innovators. Successful teachers are selected on the basis of how quiet their classrooms are and on how well they have imitated their mentors.

Meanwhile, the test scores rise only to fall-back again a few years later. No measureable and sustainable progress is ever made in education because the school system has ignored the fundamental principles of progressive education, and more so now under the Bush Administration than ever before. But that is a subject for another blog, sometime in the future.

And meanwhile, the schools just keep asking for more money from the rate-payers to pay the lifetime teachers and their golden retirements.

Looking at what has come out of the US Department of Education, especially under the Bush Administration and under its No Child Left-Behind Act, nothing has changed in the schools in 150 years; nothing can or will ever change. Everything is still back to the basics of the 19th C, as if nothing has changed in America; the skills taught to children--- penmanship, cursive, phonics, English-only, cyphering, test-taking skills, rote-memorization skills, the weekly spelling tests, the obscure-vocabulary memorizations, etc.--- are all but useless in the modern world.

But no-one dares to say anything about the failure of the conservatives to reform public education, and the public is kept in the dark and fed a bunch of absurd slogans like "accountable education", "back-to-basics", "English-for-the-children", "no child left-behind", "hooked on phonics", etc.

And when someone speaks up, especially outside the profession, the educrats chant that the U.S. is the economic centre of the world and that the public schools are why the U.S. is the economic leader of the world. Of course, all of this economic leadership retort was once true, but not anymore.

America's economic decline in recent years may in part be a result of the failure of its public schools to teach a curriculum appropriate for the needs of our modern day. And the children forced to attend our public schools are being cheated by the education system out of an economic future for themselves. ( More on this in future blogs. )

[zoog]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

...America's economic decline in recent years may in part be a result of the failure of its public schools to teach a curriculum appropriate for the needs of our modern day. And the children forced to attend our public schools are being cheated by the education system out of an economic future for themselves.

I don't always share your views on other topics, but I definitely agree with this. Two things I would add, 1) this extends to college education, and 2) I also blame bad parenting. Bad enough that the kids are not receiving a worthwhile and stimulating education in school, but often the parents are not encouraging them to make the most of it. A first-rate school system must be combined with a home environment conducive to learning and nurturing. Many kids in America today have neither.

[Andreuccio]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

Nice rant. I even agree with some of it. There are also some areas where I believe your anger is misplaced, however.

While it is true that on the face of things ( in other words, on job postings) districts pay in the range of up to $42,000 per year for new teachers, the districts are quite slow--- SLOOOOOOOOOOOW--- to hire new staff, and they are more than eager to feed work to subs, like me.

The pay table I linked to is for substitute teachers, not full time teachers. Also, from what I can tell, the bar to entry for subs isn't too high. Getting repeat work at a school generally depends on your competence and your ability to network with teachers and office staff. Nothing sinister, just real world.

And if you get hired, you soon get fired, especially if you have a multiple subject credential although less so if you have a science credential, a math credential, or a special education credential. However, I have seen even teachers in the latter group also sacked and rehired as subs.

This has not been my experience at all. Perhaps different districts work differently, but I see, for the most part, quite a bit of support for new teachers. And the majority of new teachers I've seen make it through their first year and continue teaching. YMMV.

Sacking teachers is soooooooooo easy to-day because the districts are slooooooooooooow to award employment contracts with union protection.

I can't say I blame them. Trying to get rid of an incompetent teacher with union protection is very difficult. Better to try to weed bad teachers out before they're untouchable. On the other hand, you need to give new teachers a chance. They need at least a couple of years before you can really see how they will do.

Instead, districts hire credentialed teachers on a day-to-day contract because they can get away with it. And until this year, districts were even hiring non-credentialed teachers on emergency 30-day state teaching permits. ( They would do it because they could do it, and they did it en masse. )

I don't know about 30 day permits. I never saw those. What I did see was teachers on renewable annual emergency permits. There was definitely some abuse of that system, but it was mostly teachers slipping through for a few years without finishing they're credentials.

Meanwhile, the career teachers, the lifers, get hired for the new jobs. And the lifers never leave the profession because the retirement benefits after 25 years in the classroom are so delicious.

You know, you seem to have a lot of resentment towards those that have made a profession out of the profession you yourself have chosen to pursue. Not to get too Freudian, but maybe you want to rethink your career choice.

I mean, let's say you actually get hired, get a tenure track spot, are successful, work for 25 to 30 years, and retire. You'll just hate yourself. Why put yourself through that?

I also don't get what you expect "lifers" to do. Put in 24 years and then leave one year before retirement to create a spot for you?

In reality, there's not a shortage of positions, at least in my experience. Schools are struggling to find qualified applicants. I don't know why you're having difficulty finding work, but if you've applied to LAUSD and not gotten in, your problems are not due to other teachers in your way.

Finally, if a "lifer" did get hired for a new job, wouldn't that create an opening from wherever they left? That seems like zero-sum, which shouldn't hurt new teachers' chances at all.

Often, lifers in the teaching profession go from classroom teaching to school administration or back-and-forth between the district office and school classroom assignments. ( It is an amazing story that the public knows nothing about. )

Well, yes. The basic career path if you want to advance from teaching is into school administration and then to the district office. I'm not sure what's so bad about this. You generally want people with a knowledge of curriculum administering schools, don't you. Where you sometimes run into some trouble is in the business aspects of school administration. I would agree that running a classroom doesn't really qualify you to run a building. On the other hand, it doesn't disqualify you either.

I've seen very few administrators return to the classroom, and then for very unique reasons. I wouldn't characterize it as back-and-forth at all. Again, maybe your experience at other districts is different. But really, why would they want too?

So we never get change in the teaching profession, at least not in the USA. The lifers rule.

Again with the "lifers". My experience is that most teachers are just doing their best trying to keep their classrooms running and their students learning. They don't spend a lot of time plotting ways to gum up the wheels of progress. If anything, they are as much at the mercy of the system as you are.

Worse than that, under the Bush Administration, the teaching standards, the school curriculum, the textbooks, and even the tests have been set by the Department of Education in Washington and enforced through the state departments of education and the through the local school boards.

I agree the Bush administration's education policy is not good. I'm not sure about the specifics of your argument, (I believe the state sets curriculum and everything that comes from that: texts, etc.)

Teachers, especially the new-comers to the profession, are treated as serfs, or at best, clerks. They have nothing --- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING--- to say about the school curriculum, and they are muzzled in the classroom as if this were the old Soviet Union. In fact, they are even handed "teacher-proof" scripts on how lessons are to be taught.

This is true. I'm not a big fan of scripted lessons. And while I was at first put off by your likening it to the old Soviet Union, I must admit upon reflection that I have characterized them as being similar to the evil planet in the book, "A Wrinkle in Time", which is probably worse. On the other hand, students do seem to be reading better since their implementation. My impression is that they are actually great for new teachers, as they give you a solid guide, but not so good for "lifers", as they do stifle your creativity once you have things under control.

The education system searches for imitators, not innovators. Successful teachers are selected on the basis of how quiet their classrooms are and on how well they have imitated their mentors.

Classroom control is the basis for good teaching. It's impossible to teach if you don't have control of the classroom. I don't believe teachers are judged on how quite their classroom is, though, but on whether the students are on task or not. They can be noisy but working hard, and you'll be fine. But just noisy is not good.

As to imitators vs. innovators, you're probably right, especially at the elementary level. The scripted lessons have taken all the innovation out or teaching. On the plus side, it brings all the instruction in classrooms up to a stronger baseline. Every student is assured of the basics. On the downside, it eliminates the possibility of exceptional teaching. There is no room for an "innovator", so you won't get truly great teachers or truly great classroom experiences for children.

Meanwhile, the test scores rise only to fall-back again a few years later. No measureable and sustainable progress is ever made in education because the school system has ignored the fundamental principles of progressive education, and more so now under the Bush Administration than ever before. But that is a subject for another blog, sometime in the future.

I'm looking forward to that discussion.

One reason scores might rise only to fall again is that the tests are norm referenced and are re-normed every ten years. No matter how well students do, half of them will always be below average, by definition. Politicians can make a lot of hay by exploiting people's lack of understanding of that basic concept.

That's not to say that there aren't many students that are underperforming. But I've heard some politicians here state as their goal that all students will be above the 50th percentile. Am I being defeatist when I suggest that that's mathematically impossible?

And meanwhile, the schools just keep asking for more money from the rate-payers to pay the lifetime teachers and their golden retirements.

Um, okay. I don't see a lot of teachers getting rich. If you position yourself right and work hard at a lot of extras (night school, summer school/intersession, Saturday school), you can do okay. And if you live below your means and invest, you can actually prosper. But it isn't easy.

Looking at what has come out of the US Department of Education, especially under the Bush Administration and under its No Child Left-Behind Act, nothing has changed in the schools in 150 years; nothing can or will ever change. Everything is still back to the basics of the 19th C, as if nothing has changed in America; the skills taught to children--- penmanship, cursive, phonics, English-only, cyphering, test-taking skills, rote-memorization skills, the weekly spelling tests, the obscure-vocabulary memorizations, etc.--- are all but useless in the modern world.

But no-one dares to say anything about the failure of the conservatives to reform public education, and the public is kept in the dark and fed a bunch of absurd slogans like "accountable education", "back-to-basics", "English-for-the-children", "no child left-behind", "hooked on phonics", etc.

Agreed, NCLB isn't great.

And when someone speaks up, especially outside the profession, the educrats chant that the U.S. is the economic centre of the world and that the public schools are why the U.S. is the economic leader of the world. Of course, all of this economic leadership retort was once true, but not anymore.

I haven't heard that particular chant from the "educrats".

America's economic decline in recent years may in part be a result of the failure of its public schools to teach a curriculum appropriate for the needs of our modern day. And the children forced to attend our public schools are being cheated by the education system out of an economic future for themselves. ( More on this in future blogs. )

Again, looking forward to future discussions.

[c1ue]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

Starving Steve,

How would you characterize the Teacher's Union, nationwide and in California? Republican or Democrat?

Not taking particular sides here, just wanted to understand your background on the politics of education.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

Starving Steve,

How would you characterize the Teacher's Union, nationwide and in California? Republican or Democrat?

Not taking particular sides here, just wanted to understand your background on the politics of education.

Dear C1ue:

Sad to say that the Teachers' Union is majority Democrat from what I can tell. Most teachers are Demos, but most veteran teachers are Republicans or conservative Demos from what I can tell. ( I am just guessing. )

The politics of education in the U.S. has been set by the conservatives since at least the First World War--- when public education, prodded by the military, adopted standardized timed-testing and the basic skills approach to teaching. Progressive education was thrown-out at this time.

By the way, in the Soviet Union, Stalin stayed with progressive education in public education until the 1930s when he threw progressive education out and instituted a U.S.-style basic skills and national standards approach.

As far the public education philosophy of the Demos in the US is concerned, sadly, it appears to-day to be very similar to that of the Republicans. Both parties supported Bush's No Child Left-Behind Act. Both parties in California have supported English-only. Neither party has opposed standardized timed-testing, nor national standards set by Washington. Neither party has spoken-out about the school curriculum; in fact, the archaic and worthless school curriculum is not even an issue.

[Sic,] "A pox on both their houses."

[Rajiv]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

The sub teacher pay depends upon the school district -- The LA school district is probably the highest paying district in the state -- the daily rate is $173 -- that is for a maximum of 180 days - which is the school year -- You would be lucky to get half of those days. The rest of your time you will be scrambling to get other short term jobs -- hardly a strategy for living well -- or even surviving in LA

In other districts in California pay far less

from Substitute teaching: Salary

The rate in California currently seems to be in the range of $80-$150 per day.
.
.
You will be hard pressed to make a career of substitute teaching without alternate sources of income. There are, realistically, only 180 working days in a year. If it was possible to work every possible working day, your yearly income would amount to about $18k/year. Most substitute teachers average about half that amount.

The Clovis Unified pays

Substitute Teachers are paid on a daily rate of $90 per day. Long-term substitute positions are paid at $105 per day starting on the eleventh (11th) consecutive day.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

I don't always share your views on other topics, but I definitely agree with this. Two things I would add, 1) this extends to college education, and 2) I also blame bad parenting. Bad enough that the kids are not receiving a worthwhile and stimulating education in school, but often the parents are not encouraging them to make the most of it. A first-rate school system must be combined with a home environment conducive to learning and nurturing. Many kids in America today have neither.

Dear Zoog:

Higher education in the U.S. is in desperate need of reform, just as the K-12 programme is. No-one outside of this self-serving education system is happy with it--- not the corporations, not the students, not the parents, not very many new teachers, not the teaching colleges, not the media, and not very many of the taxpayers anymore, either.

But this archaic education system has its supporters: the educrats in government, the teachers' union, the standardized-testers, the textbook publishers, the education consultants, the school administrators, and the lifers in the teaching profession. And that is part of the reason why nothing has changed with public education in 150 years in the U.S.

And I also agree with your comment about the home-life of students being partly responsible for the mess in public education; i.e, kids never reading anything at home; kids never watching the news; kids never doing research on the Internet; kids never doing homework, etc.

Further to this remark, I have found middle school kids this fall who had no knowledge that a major bridge collapsed in Minneapolis-St.Paul during the summer. Even more frightening, fifth graders that I had this fall had little or no knowledge of 9/11, what the numbers, 9/11 stood for, and what exactly happened on that day.

And when you think about this, where in the school curriculum to-day do we teach anything about 9/11 until we break-out of the phonics curriulum and back-to-basics skilling curriculum and really begin TO TEACH.... And that means sitting-down with kids and explaining the world and its history to them, as best we can.

[Andreuccio]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

The sub teacher pay depends upon the school district -- The LA school district is probably the highest paying district in the state -- the daily rate is $173 -- that is for a maximum of 180 days - which is the school year -- You would be lucky to get half of those days. The rest of your time you will be scrambling to get other short term jobs -- hardly a strategy for living well -- or even surviving in LA

In other districts in California pay far less

from Substitute teaching: Salary


The Clovis Unified pays

Not quite accurate. The base rate of pay in LA is $173 per day. But get an extended assignment, (over 20 days) and it jumps to $233. Granted, some schools will cut you off on day 19 to screw you, but it can be done. Also, the school year in LAUSD really is close to 240 days. There are still h many year-round schools. And a good sub can find work every day if they want it. Good subs are in high demand. The key is to 1) do a good job, and 2) network with teachers and school office staff. Kind of like the real world.

Here's the link to the sub pay scale in LAUSD again:

http://www.teachinla.com/Research/do...s/subtable.pdf

and a link to the year-round school calendar:

http://www.lausd.net/announcements/M...07-20081-9.pdf

[Starving Steve]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

I get $125/day pay in my district, and in prior years the pay was even less. We just got a pay hike to $125/day. Other districts in my area pay less, as low as $90/day.

I have never gotten long-term assignments, but I usually get work every day of the week, every week of the school year.

Substitute teaching is a really fun job, something I look forward to doing while driving thru the orchards each morning to go to work. But the pay is really low for this day and age, and with the dollar being devalued, the suggestion that subs might pay-to-work is really obscene.

A suggestion like this one, pay-to-work, is what happens in a country when the conservatives have had everything their own way for decades.

[GRG55]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

I get $125/day pay in my district, and in prior years the pay was even less. We just got a pay hike to $125/day. Other districts in my area pay less, as low as $90/day.

I have never gotten long-term assignments, but I usually get work every day of the week, every week of the school year.

Substitute teaching is a really fun job, something I look forward to doing while driving thru the orchards each morning to go to work. But the pay is really low for this day and age, and with the dollar being devalued, the suggestion that subs might pay-to-work is really obscene.

A suggestion like this one, pay-to-work, is what happens in a country when the conservatives have had everything their own way for decades.

I thought that education is under the jurisdiction of the individual States?

I thought that California was the most liberal, left-leaning, granola crunching, eco-friendly, reliably Democrat voting jurisdiction in the union? How is it that conservatives have managed to exercise so much influence over the California education system?

You sound like a pretty dedicated teacher, and we have teachers in my family as well, so I understand a bit about how challenging that profession really is these days.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Pay to Work? ( Republicans Gone Crazy )

I thought that education is under the jurisdiction of the individual States?

I thought that California was the most liberal, left-leaning, granola crunching, eco-friendly, reliably Democrat voting jurisdiction in the union? How is it that conservatives have managed to exercise so much influence over the California education system?

You sound like a pretty dedicated teacher, and we have teachers in my family as well, so I understand a bit about how challenging that profession really is these days.

Hello again from Watsonville:

California is really not liberal in the sense of doing very much progressive these days, and California is not nearly as tolerant of lifestyle and diversity issues these days compared to the way it was back in the 1960s. And as far as the K-12 public schools are concerned, California has always been conservative, and that conservatism is getting even more extreme now.

Some examples of the rightwing running California: the wall on the Mexican border, the war on Spanish in the public schools, the discarding of Spanish books in school libraries, the discarding of books on the histories and cultures of other nations, the threatening of teachers and students who speak Spanish in the classroom, the over-use of timed-standardized testing (including state tests in addition to federal mandated testing), the climate of fear in the public schools, the vast prison gulag in California, the return of the death penalty to California, the unwillingness of newspapers to do investigative reporting, drug war and drug hysteria even in California now, nationalism taught by the public schools, etc.

Here and there in California, a few vestages (sp?) of the old liberalism in this state do remain: sanctuary cities for immigrants, bilingualism in the business community, bilingualism in government, the relaxation of state marijuana laws, a resentment for authority, casual dress, a terrific state system of community colleges with almost-free tuition, a resentment for Washington and their version of federalism, anti-war activists, pacifists, etc.

As far as the granola-munchers are concerned, there is no shortage of this breed in California. Sad to say, this bunch has destroyed the nuclear power industry and done great harm to the standard of living of working people in this state.

Speaking of these eco-nazis, we have people sleeping in cars at night here on the Central Coast thanks to the environmentalists having blocked housing projects such as the construction of affordable housing on the former Fort Ord federal site near Monterey. And in Southern California, eco-nazis have blocked housing construction projects in the LA Basin to preserve the Delhi Sand-fly, a so-called endangered specie on the EPA's list of endangered species.

We have a water shortage in California thanks to eco-nuts blocking the use of atomic power for desalinisation of sea water.

Our highways are full of holes, over-crowded, and decades behind the times in design because the eco-nazis have blocked all public measures for highway improvement. Some of our roads (for example, portions of State Hwy 17 in Santa Cruz County and US Hwy 101 in Monterey County) have become death-traps because they were never designed for to-day's demands and for to-day's speeds.

Sadly, this is California nowadays--- nutty as ever, but now a back-water, overwhelmed with problems, and anything but liberal.