California politics and education update

Genentech layoffs: A lesson on corporate tax breaks:

Dear California voters:

Are you feeling rooked yet?

The question arises in connection with a recent announcement by the parent of Genentech, the big Bay Area biotech company, that it will be laying off 840 employees in San Francisco and Vacaville, Calif.

Normally it would be routine to chalk up the announcement to California's supposedly hostile atmosphere for business, its unforgiving corporate tax system, etc., etc. What makes it a lesson of a different sort, however, is that it came two weeks after the state's voters went out of their way to preserve a handsome corporate tax break that Genentech insisted would save jobs.

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and his legislative colleagues should take this as a warning. There's nothing inherently wrong with handing out tax cuts to business to spur growth. But they should be tied to specific performance by the beneficiaries. You say corporate taxes hurt job growth? Fine — we'll give you a tax break for net new hires. After all, tax breaks aren't free — every dollar cut for one class of taxpayers increases the burden on everyone else. (California does offer a hiring tax credit, but the program is tiny.)

Getting an A in overcoming the odds:

Truth is, California's public schools never were all that great. And today, they're not nearly as crummy as critics claim.

In fact, they're pretty good, especially given all the problems of funding and diversity. They've always been pretty good — not exactly A-1, but not failures either.

With 1,000 districts, 9,900 schools and 6 million students — the largest K-12 system in the country — there is inescapably a scattering of winners and losers.

"We're not where we ought to be," acknowledges veteran education consultant John Mockler, a Capitol legend who wrote the complex school finance law, Proposition 98.

"But the 'California schools suck' industry is just full of it," he adds. "When these guys start talking about how California's schools used to be great and today they're going to hell in a hand basket, they're just wrong. Our students are making incredibly consistent academic progress."

Only 52% of LAUSD's High Schoolers Made it to Graduation:

More high school students attending LAUSD schools are dropping out before graduating, according to the Daily News. However, figures compiled by the LAUSD show there are more dropouts, but by a decreasing rate, as opposed to what's reported in figures released by the California Department of Education.

According to the state's DOE, "69.6 percent of LAUSD's students graduated high school in four years in 2008-09, compared to 72.4 percent in 2007-08." By contrast, and using a different method of calculation, the LAUSD says "52 percent of their high school students graduated in four years in 2008-09," which shows "a gain from 2007-08, when just 46 percent of high school students graduated in four years."

The LAUSD is disputing the figures from the DOE. The state uses a formula to calculate graduation and drop-out rates, whereas the LAUSD tracks individual students. Funding for the data collection program the state administers was cut last year by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, further hindering and delaying the process.