Prop. 165

I am a lifelong advocate of better educational, social and health services for children. It is precisely because of these views that I support Prop. 165.

Unless comprehensive reforms are made to California’s welfare system to bring its spiraling costs under control, we will not be able to sustain--much less expand--our current level of investment in public education and other children’s services.

If taxes are not increased, welfare costs will squeeze our ability to make the kind of investment in children’s services--including schools--in order to ensure the long-term prosperity of all Californians.

Prop. 165 is the one reform proposal on the ballot that will help ease the school-funding crunch by putting a lid on spiraling health and welfare costs--the chief competitor of schools for scarce state funds.

The measure’s budget-balancing provisions specifically exempt school funding from any reductions made by a governor under Prop. 165. That means that even during a fiscal emergency, schools would be protected. Most important, Prop. 165 tackles welfare dependency by replacing handouts with real help. It changes our welfare system so people who work while receiving aid are rewarded instead of penalized.

Without Prop. 165’s critical reforms, our children will inherit a state where more people depend on taxes than pay them; a state that has seen schools decline in order to keep up with mandated welfare spending; a state where the cost of public higher education is beyond the reach of many middle-class families.

MAUREEN DiMARCO, Secretary of Child Development and Education, Sacramento