Sowing the Ground for a Better California : In the last segment of their debate in The Times, the gubernatorial candidates tell what they’ve learned by listening to Californians this year.

The people of California constantly renew for me an unstinting faith in the future of our state. Californians have weathered tougher times than anyone should have to endure, but they’ve continued to fight for the changes that will restore health, hope and confidence in the state’s future.

That better future must begin with opportunity--the opportunity for our children to learn more and earn more than we have. That’s why creating jobs and investing in schools have long been top priorities for me. California’s economy is coming back, but to promote job creation, we need to get government out of the way by slashing red tape and unleashing the power of California’s job-creators. It was that type of reform after the Northridge earthquake that allowed us to rebuild the world’s busiest freeway in record time.

And just as we must free job-creators from needless bureaucratic rules and regulations, so too must we free our schools. Our teachers deserve a chance to be innovative, to make our schools better. But they can’t do that when they’re weighed down by 11 pounds of the California Education Code. And it’s time to give parents a greater voice in how their children’s schools are run.

Californians are justifiably fed up with those who break the law and ignore the rules that govern a civilized society. Californians want people held accountable for their actions again--whether it’s a career criminal, a deadbeat dad who ignores his obligation to his children or someone who violates immigration laws.

Californians aren’t simply waiting for government to solve these problems. They’ve started doing it themselves. I recently met with a group of neighbors in Chatsworth, for example, who--fed up with graffiti, drug trafficking and violence on their block--formed a Neighborhood Watch. As a result, they’ve seen crime drop 23% in the past year.

These community activists and cops on the beat tell me that they need tougher laws to put dangerous criminals behind bars for good. After years of gridlock, the Legislature finally responded to pressure from crime victims, police, sheriffs, prosecutors and other citizens concerned about violence on our streets. We won the most significant criminal-justice reform in the history of California. It started with our “three strikes, you’re out” law, which a RAND Corp. study predicted would cut adult violent crime statewide by nearly 30%. But our reforms also include a “one strike” law for rapists, child molesters and arsonists; a law to try dangerous juvenile thugs as adults, and a measure ending the absurd law that lets dangerous criminals cut their time in prison by as much as half for doing little more than folding shirts in the prison laundry.

Californians also want government to start encouraging the same values that we all share as individuals. Hard work and personal responsibility are time-honored values, but until recently, government programs like the welfare system actually punished these virtues. That’s why I fought for welfare reforms.

A former welfare mother working in Riverside told me that she was glad our welfare reforms had helped get her back into the work force, because it let her set a positive example of honest work and personal responsibility for her kids.

Just as individuals should be held responsible, so too should government. But the federal government is shirking its responsibility to enforce U.S. immigration laws. And its failure to enforce these laws is eroding the quality of life for every legal resident in our state.

When I visited White Memorial Hospital in East Los Angeles, the doctors and nurses told me that illegal immigration was undermining their ability to deliver adequate health care. It’s simply not fair that legal residents, including recent legal immigrants, should suffer because Washington forces us to reward people who violate our immigration laws.

Another thing I’ve learned is that Californians strongly disagree with Kathleen Brown’s observation that “illegal immigration is wrongly seen as a cause” of problems in California. Californians understand the problems that illegal immigration is causing in our schools, in our prisons and in our hospitals, and they want something done about it--now.

But most important, I’ve learned that no matter how great the challenge, Californians aren’t quitters. I’ve seen them bounce back from earthquakes and wildfires, from mudslides and floods. I believe in what I said after the Northridge earthquake even more strongly today: They can shake us, but they can’t break us. We are bringing the change needed to make California healthy again. And with the courage and determination of the people of California at work, our best days are yet to come.