Thank You, Gray Davis - (you pathetic fuckwit!)

The BBQ Pit
1

Once upon a time, there was a state, known as California.

California was a happy place with water, electricity, and education for all. Pete Wilson, the governor may not have been well-liked by the liberal left of the state’s citizens, but he kept the power on and the schools funded.

Then one day, someone got the bright idea in their heads to oust the unpopular-but-efficient Wilson. They replaced him with an incompetent toady named Gray Davis. Gray was not as good at being governor as Pete Wilson was. California started having brown-outs (evil hours in which the citizens of parts of California were rendered powerless, and had to reset all their alarm clocks). Then the schools started seeing their funding cut. “My oh my,” thought the citizens, “I thought the democrats increased funding for things like this… they sure increased our taxes!”

Then, one day, a beautiful princess realized that she needed to take Italian III over the summer in order to graduate on time. She searched and searched, for California has a great many fine community colleges from which to choose. But alas, the princess could only find the class she needed in one place, Santa Monica. And that class was only offered once, from 3:30-6:30pm daily throughout the summer. “Golly,” thought the princess, “however will I be able to hold down a job and an internship with a class time like that?” So she searched some more. She searched every community college in Los Angeles County, and every community college in Orange County, and even some colleges in San Bernardino County, for she was desperate to get the magic class.

Then all of a sudden, her fairy godmother emerged from her browser window and said, “Behold, lovely princess… the CSU system offers a program known as Open University, by which you may get your class!”

So the princess, on the advice of her fairy god-browser, searched the local Cal State University websites, trying to find one that offered the course she needed over the summer. CSU Northridge? No, cancelled. CSU Fullerton? No. CSU Los Angeles? No summer courses at all… my my… Eureka! She found her course at CSU Long Beach, with class times listed as To Be Announced. “Oh dear,” she thought, “I hope they mean the same Italian class that’s listed on the regular course schedule for Tuesday and Thursday mornings.” But the answer was nowhere to be found.

“Some day, when I’m Queen of the fucking universe,” she said wistfully, “there will be enough funding for the colleges so that the loyal citizens of California do not have to drive 50 miles between their internship, school and job over the summer. In fact, they should be able to get every class they need at each school!”

But alas, poor princess… Gray Davis is still in charge, and more classes will be cut.

Will our princess finish school on time, become Queen of the fucking Universe and live happily ever after? We may never know…

2

From one Californian to another:

Welcome to the land of Three Strikes: Prison funding Uber Alles.

I’ve no love for Davis, but how do you rest this situation entirely at his doorstep? CA schools (although I speak from a knowledge of basic ed, not junior college) have been more than short changed for a great many years. What are we, 46th in education funding in the U.S.? This is not new or news.

Lastly: aren’t community colleges basically publicly funded buffer institutions for those who cannot afford tuition at a private school? If getting a subsidized education thanks to the tax pool has some disadvantages, doesn’t that go with the territory? Dad could have always ponied up for a non-taxpayer-funded education, no?

Perhaps you should examine your motives more carefully before feeding at the taxpayer trough and then bitching about Democrats. Oink.

3

There’s plenty of blame to go around - Pete Wilson was the one who masterminded this energy deregulation scheme. Davis just bungled and mismanaged the situation once the shit hit the fan, leading the budget disaster.

4

Don’t look at me, I didn’t vote for him. I didn’t vote for anyone: I left Governor blank. There simply wasn’t anyone worth voting for.

(Before anyone suggests that I could have voted Green/Libertarian/Independent, let me laugh heartily at that idea right now: BWA HA HA HA HA!)

5

I’m with squeegee and Baraqiyal here – blaming Davis is a cop-out response, since he’s just trying (and not entirely succeeding) at cleaning up the mess he’s inherited from others, particularly Pete Wilson, Enron’s energy-gouging mechanics, and the current Bush II recession (California lost a lot of revenue from the stock market drop, IIRC).

I’m not saying Davis is a fair-haired innocent, but any attempt to interpret the recent history of California as “everything was great until Davis fucked it up” is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off.

6

Please note the style of the OP - fairy tale. I just really needed an “evil fairy” to blame for the fact that in 3 counties I’ve found exactly two instances of the class I desperately need to finish my PRIVATE UNIVERSITY education on time. Yes, it’s probably offered at my school this summer, but at over $900/unit for 3 units, I hope you will pardon me if I think that taking an easier version at a junior college for less money is a better idea, making it more likely I’ll pass this semester of a language I haven’t studied in 7 years, and leaving me with slightly less debt when I graduate. And just who is the idiot that thinks the only time the class should be offered in junior college is 330-630pm, thus eliminating any possibility of gainful employment? If they’re only offering it once, I’d rather they put it at the unGodly hour of 8am than when they have it now. At least I could eat and put a roof over my head.

7

so you blame Grey Davis? What colour is the sky in your world?

8

Grey Davis passed Proposition 13? I had no idea!

(I was going to link to a Prop 13 information site but all of them seem to be maintained by rightist wingnuts who think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread)

9

Aren’t things like this in many, if not most, states? Even so, it shouln’t come as much of a surprise that, with our state’s Silicon Valley, the overall downturn in the tech sector would affect us dissproportionately.

10

And of course, Wilson wasn’t ousted. He couldn’t run again due to term limits.

And it was Wilson that gutted education in California.

11

Yes, Wilson was the one behind the education catastrophe. Just because a situation becomes shitty when someone’s in office doesn’t mean that that person is automatically at fault. :rolleyes:

And it doesn’t suprise me that a class like Italian III isn’t offered every hour, on the hour. Especially in summer session. In the CSU system, summer session is usually reserved mostly for G.E. classes. Other classes are offered, but not to the extent they are in regular session. Why don’t you just take it in the fall? It’s just one class, so your last semester will be heaver than expected, better that than not graduating on time (monetarily, time-wise, I’ve found that it doesn’t really matter). Or maybe one of the classes you were going to take next semester you can take in summer session instead, if it’s offered at a more convienent time.