I recently wrote my opinion about the exorbitant salaries of public school officials in California as well as the problem of unfunded liabilities of the retirement system.
Last week the California Courier made public that while Fresno Unified School District cut $2.2 million in elementary field-trip funding and nearly 384 positions, their superintendent, Mao Misty, received $513,725 in total pay and benefits, sparking questions from parents about the district’s spending priorities.
Superintendent Misty’s compensation included $386,045 in regular pay, $40,563 in other pay and $87,117 in benefits, according to Transparent California. The $513,725 figure represented total pay and benefits, not base salary.
I get that school officials such as her have great responsibility but they also have help for assistant superintendents who also pull massive salaries above $300,000. Fresno’s Chief Human Resources and Labor Officer David Chavez received $414,582 in total pay and benefits, while Chief Operations and Classified Labor Management Officer Paul Idsvoog received $401,783.Added up you can see why teachers have to buy their own supplies.
Why should a school superintendent make more than the governor of California or a member of the California State Supreme Court? It’s ridiculous. Then they skate into early retirement and pull six figures annually for the rest of their lives.
To quote the old saying, there’s something rotten in Denmark. Only it’s not Denmark this time. It’s in Sacramento.
It would be one thing to pay for high salaries if the public schools were actually turning out brilliant scholars but they are turning out educational failures. The system just passes them on and then we wonder why they turn to socialism since they can’t get a job because they are ill qualified.
* * * * *
I was especially impressed to hear the fresh ideas coming from Steve Hilton who wants to be our next governor. He really should be our next governor because what we’ll get with Xavier Becerra is Gavin Newsom 2.0 with zero changes to policy and more corruption.
It should sound like a no-brainer already but Hilton has a goal that “Every student reads by third grade” by use of phonics. He points to Mississippi, saying, “for one third of the amount that we spend on first in student education, they’ve gone from nearly the bottom to near the top in 10 years. How? Using phonics, but … they have a simple rule. If you don’t read by the end of third grade, give you some help over the summer, you still got to make it, then you don’t move on to fourth grade. That single change has been transformational in Mississippi. They call it the Mississippi Miracle and we’re going to do it here.”
Why anyone would care not to try Hilton’s ideas at the ballot box is confounding to me when so many say the state is headed in the wrong direction.
How does $71 car registration sound to you?
How does no state income tax until you reach $125,000 a year?
All things Hilton promises.
* * * * *
Another election is coming up and I have a rule: I vote against every measure that would float new bonds. It’s borrowing more money we don’t have and passing it onto you and me.
Looking past the November election, there is a movement underway to place a $7.8 BILLION research bond for California universities on the March 2028 ballot.
Senate Bill 895, which would place the bond on the March 2028 ballot, was approved last week by the state Legislature and now heads to Newsom’s desk.
They say the $7.5 billion bond would fund grants and loans supporting research on cancer, heart disease, climate change and more. The research funding would be available to the University of California, California State University and private universities, as well as to research institutes and private companies.
The labor unions are all for it because they benefit. What we will get from it is more environmental control and regulations.
A piece by Michael Burke in EdSource quotes union president Rafael Jaime as saying: “As a Californian, I’m done with Donald Trump’s political appointees deciding what research our tax dollars fund. Climate research and crucial clinical trials have been cancelled by people who don’t believe in vaccines, don’t believe in climate change and don’t believe in democracy. Today we’re taking our power back.”
Newsom most certainly will sign the bill because there isn’t a bond measure he doesn’t love. He also lays all of California’s ills fall on Trump and climate change, not his own incompetence.
* * * * *
Can you all see what a scam is going on in these blue states who have declared war on oil and gas – the very substances that make us prosperous as a people?
Trump may have reversed some Biden administration bans in drilling for oil. But climate activists and Democrats have found a new way to force us to pay more.
Blue New York is now fining oil companies $75 billion for carbon emissions from legal operations dating back to 2000 which produced oil which we all use.
Travis Fisher of the Cato Institute said these blue states are setting a precedent of taxing anyone for anything going back as far as they want. He points out these laws are a big expansion of government power, but still won’t reduce climate change. If New York stopped using ALL fossil fuels the impact on global climate would be virtually nil. The entire U.S., let alone New York, emits just a fraction of the world’s carbon.
Some California Democrats now want the oil industry to pay for natural disasters as a way of suing them into oblivion and making them go away.
Ever notice how Newsom blames EVERY natural disaster as the product of climate change? Every forest fire is because of climate change, he claims, yet it’s his state that is failing to adequately clean the forests of fire fuels.
Need an example? The practice of creating fire breaks in Southern California vegetation because of concerns about wildlife habitat helped contribute to the Pacific Palisades inferno in January 2025.
The New York legislation also brands oil company profits as “obscene and unconscionable” and thus progressives see them as a cash cow to fund their agenda while driving oil companies into the ground.
Oil companies are providing us with our way of life that allows us to work, produce and play. There is no airliner that can fly you to a vacation in Hawaii on solar. The products you buy at the store are delivered by diesel trains and trucks.
If we all quit fossil fuels, the world grinds to a halt. That’s because more than 80 percent of our energy still comes from coal, oil and natural gas.
* * * * *
How do feel about Gavin Newsom and his legislative cohorts siphoning $20 million from the Caltrans budget so he and other state officials get security costs covered once they leave office?
That’s exactly what was hidden away in a 300-page spending bill which the state Legislature approved last week filed at the last minute last week.
The same fund is forecast to be bankrupt in two to three years, according to State Senate’s Republican Vice Chairman of the Budget Committee, Roger Niello. He also notes that the Legislature already passed a bill allowing campaign funds to be used for security purposes and noted Newsom has a sizeable account that he can tap into. But he doesn’t care since he save his funds and bilk the taxpayers.
Aside from that, Newsom is said to have a net worth of $20 million to $30 million so he can pay for his own security.
If I were Newsom I would fear my security too given his dismal record and his Trump smack talk. But he need not worry as it’s not folks on the right who resort to political violence. (I refer you to Tyler Robinson who murdered Charlie Kirk, James T. Hodgkinson who shot Republican Steve Scalise, Nicholas Roske who came close to killing conservative Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, liberal loon Ryan Wesley Routh who tried to kill Trump on his golf course; and weirdo Thomas Matthew Crooks who murdered a Trump supporter and nearly killed former President Trump in Butler.
* * * * *
California voters need to be aware of the Democrat Speaker Pro Tempore Josh Lowenthal of Long Beach shutting down free speech of Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego. It’s is abhorrent fascist behavior.
The latest examples are when Lowenthal shut down DeMaio when he was stating reasons to oppose a bill that would allow cities to raise sales taxes above 10 percent; and his opposition to the so-called “Stop Nick Shirley Act” which shuts down citizen video journalists for exposing fraud in so-called migrant services organizations.
See for yourself. Go to Carl DeMaio’s YouTube channel and search for “MORE CENSORSHIP!” and “CA Democrats Pass the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act’ After Censoring Debate on the Bill!” and watch Lowenthal’s reprehensible behavior.
A recall is in order.
This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com
