II. The Problem

California On the Decline

• In early 2005 the RAND Corporation reported that student academic achievement in California schools ranked at the bottom end of the distribution of states, just above Louisiana and Mississippi. These low scores could not be "accounted for on the basis of the state's high percentage of minority students. California's low scores must be in some part a result of the schools, rather than simply a result of family characteristics in the state." The same report noted that per pupil spending in California's schools went from $400 above the national average in 1969-70 to more than $600 below the national average in 1999-2000.²
• The James Irvine Foundation reports: "One-third of California high school students are not graduating. More than one in five Californians lacks health coverage, and four out of five state residents cannot afford the median-priced home. The state's physical infrastructure-school facilities, roads, water systems-is under pressure from a growing population."³
• In February, 2005, the national Government Performance Project completed an evaluation of the management of all 50 state governments. This study evaluated each state's performance on criteria such as managing money, hiring and retaining well-qualified employees, planning and maintaining state infrastructure, and using information to budget and evaluate government performance. California and Alabama finished dead last among all of the states:
• People who work in California government love to talk about how their state dwarfs entire countries in both population and economy. Well, everybody needs something to be proud of. They certainly can't talk about how the state dwarfs anyone in the quality of its management."⁴
• In June 2005 the Public Policy Institute of California released a major report on "California 2025." PPIC stated: "...trends and forces are gathering that could seriously erode the quality of life in California in the next two decades...The reforms most critically needed are threatened by major obstacles in leadership and governance, finance and equity, influence and participation."⁵ PPIC forecast major challenges for the California economy including a rate of college participation and graduation too low to meet the future work force needs of our state.

What has gone wrong?

Californians have stopped talking about and thinking about the future and, most importantly, as a statewide community, we have stopped preparing for it. Not well understood is the cause of our inability to focus on the future: a deficit of foresight on the part of our elected leaders and a surplus of wishful thinking by California's voters. Our preeminent response has been to respond to the crisis of the moment ("emergency room government") but to defer consideration and action on many issues having longer-term significance.

In the face of this sobering reality, we look to our institutions, both public and private, to set us on the right path, and to anticipate and solve major problems. But now a profound lack of public trust and confidence in the capacity of governments and especially our state government, as reflected by strict term limits and the explosion of the initiative process, prevents the process of representative governance from working properly.

"The problem, in short, is not lack of knowledge. It's lack of will by elected politicians to act on this knowledge--and yes, if you like, the complicity of voters who allow them to look the other way. As in a gothic horror movie, we sense the truth but don't want to wake up and fully act on it."⁶ — Peter G. Peterson