...from the head down. It's still going on, and-- in my opinion-- still accelerating. One of the biggest dominoes of them all is about to fall. The California school systems, once among the best and most progressive in the world, have been under managerial and legislative assault for decades. I never thought I'd be teaching here while the California Master Plan for Education was systematically dismantled, but it is happening right before our eyes.

Part of the problem is that "fiscal conservatism" is too often linked with utter disdain for intellectualism and education-- conservatives and their lackeys fear an educated populace deep down in their bones, and they fundamentally distrust people who are better educated than themselves. In their hearts, they cannot stand the notion that poor people's children are getting a decent education at public expense. They hate the thought that minorities, and everyone else they look down upon, are given an honest shot to better themselves through education. That such betterment benefits everyone is utterly lost on them because they don't care about anyone other than themselves, and all they see is that everyone elses' betterment leaves them looking more and more archaic.

Masquerading behind mantras like "accountability" and "efficiency"-- the latest is "deliverology"-- they are systematically undermining one of the greatest experiments in public education ever-- and one of the most successful, in real terms. It was so successful that it has taken decades of constant assault and erosion to begin bringing it to its knees, but that day is coming. This academic year the California State University-- the people's university, founded upon a guarantee of affordable access to excellent education for all citizens-- the CSU began turning qualified Californian citizens away because the funding base has finally been undercut to the degree that the system can no longer serve it's primary target population. It is the largest university in the world, and it is now on life support. One can argue that this is because of the larger California budget crisis, but the fiscal crisis is only the final straw in a haystack full of bad management and outright hostility toward higher education-- in one of the U.S. states that has demonstrably reaped some of the best benefits of accessible, quality education.

The assault really began with Proposition 13, but the system was so good-- and so well defended by public service and educator's labor unions-- that it has taken this long, and the concerted efforts of legislators and corporate management junkies, to finally begin choking the life out of it.