Monday, September 24, 2012

Annotated Bibliography- Prop 30


ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY     

“Proposition 30: The Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of Fact Sheet. “
University of California, 27 August 2012. Web 5 Sept. 2012.
This fact sheet gives a brief summary of the Proposition 30 pros and cons, as well as a few website references to gather further information from.  There is background outlining the history of the initiative starting in 2011 by Gov. Jerry Brown.  The proposed sales tax and income tax increases will generate revenue to support Education K-14 and public safety programs in California, if the proposition passes by 50% of Californians voting for the initiative.  The article goes on to give an estimate of the revenue to be generated over the next seven years if Proposition 30 passes and the economic impact on UC colleges over the next seven years.   The article closes with a statement from the UC Board of Regents in support of Proposition 30.

      Brown, David. “The reactionary essence of California’s Proposition 30.” World Socialist              Website, 8 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.
               The author, David Brown starts by suggesting that Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed to increase taxes on the working class, giving the two main methods, sales tax and income tax.  He goes on to explain that Gov. Jerry Brown is, “holding California State school systems hostage.”  If Prop. 30 doesn’t pass California schools will immediately face $5 billion in cuts and with that the same budget will allow schools to decrease school days to 160 days per school year to accommodate the cuts.
               Mr. Brown points out the major cuts that have been made to the state’s General Fund by Jerry Brown since in office.  Yet he dodges the fact that California was in extreme economic trouble before Jerry Brown was elected.  He makes a valid point when describing the Democrats and Republicans as paying for the economic crisis by stealing programs from the working class and “safeguarding” the very wealthy financiers who caused the crisis.  Billions of dollars have been cut from Education, Medi-Cal, CalWORKS, other programs have been eliminated while corporate tax cuts have been “accelerated” to “stimulate growth.” I think Mr. Brown is right on target here.  The working class which pays the highest percentage of their wages to the government is being kicked down again by the government.

Buchmann, Wyatt. “Prop 30 Ads Confusing.”  San Francisco Chronicle. 3 Oct. 2012. Web 4 Oct. 2012.
                 Wyatt Buchmann wrote this article with a seemingly unbiased opinion.  He gives pro        and cons and talks about the Television advertisements launched against Prop 30.  He outlines the revenue that will be raised by the tax increases and the use of the EPA.   Then he goes into Gov. Jerry Brown’s previous tax increases and how proposition 98 will effect proposition 30 when it comes to the use of tax revenue from the General Fund, which is where most of the educational funding comes from currently.  Unfortunately, it sounds as though proposition 98 enables the legislatures to use the General Fund at their discretion when tax revenue increases in California.  And that is exactly what proposition 30 will do, increase the state tax revenue, freeing up billions of dollars for other uses.  I believe this is a huge concern that no one is talking about.  Yet the fact still remains that our schools need additional funding and Proposition 30 will help.

“CASTROL Position Statement on Proposition 30: Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act            2012.”  California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.  18 Sept. 2012.
           In this brief article, CASTROL states their position as pro Proposition 30 supporters and lists the                current state of our state public schools, the ranking nationally and the up and             coming cut                          backs if proposition 30 does not pass in November.  They also outline the sales and income taxes                that are included in the initiative and how the revenue will be spent.

No comments:

Post a Comment