Special-Interest School Tax

Voters will soon be approached by petition gatherers promising better schools or “free” preschools or better teachers, or all of the above. As in the cases of most petition slogans, the problems are in what they don’t tell you. The California Teachers Assn. and its partner, director/activist Rob Reiner, have written a flawed ballot initiative called the Improving Classroom Education Act that -- despite nobly stated goals -- would raise business property taxes by $4.5 billion a year amid a struggling economy. The hike would cover many residential rentals, eventually causing higher rents. The money could be used only for tightly defined purposes, most of which would benefit teachers union members.

The measure earmarks $3 billion for kindergarten through high school. But its uses are constricted to teacher salaries and benefits, teacher training, smaller class sizes and classroom supplies. The money could not be used for less-expensive instructional aides or school nurses or to recruit top-notch principals, who are in short supply. Whether schools improve or not, the money would keep going to the same programs.

The remaining money would create a year of free, voluntary preschool statewide and raise pay and training requirements for the teachers. Valuable ideas, but undercut by worrisome provisions. Districts could contract with private preschools for pre-kindergarten -- most would have to, since they have no space or after-school care for 4-year-olds -- but all the teachers would have to become union employees of the public schools, another benefit to the teachers union. Fumbled wording allows only publicly funded schools to participate, something sponsors say they didn’t intend. And there’s no funding for oversight.

Reiner, author of the 1998 ballot initiative that instituted a tobacco tax to be used for early childhood education, describes the new initiative as an attempt to “remake the educational system.” An idea this big -- and a tax this big -- should not be put on the ballot, take it or leave it, without a shred of public discussion or legislative debate.