Inland Empire Progressive

Source: San Bernardino Unified School District Annual Financial Report This was a very hard decision for me to make. But as I dug through the documents, it became more apprent to me that $230M dollars and the interest service payments required was just too step a price a pay for San Bernardino residents. A $140M+ bond measure was approved by in 2004 and the voters are still servicing that debt. The 2004 bond was used to build schools and remove asbestos. That is the very same thing that Measure N would do in addition to providing additional security measures and equipment upgrades. This is why it was hard for me to vote no on Measure N. SBUSD kids need help: Our Math Skill Proficiency is at 60% 37%, our API is dropping, and more cuts are coming if Prop. 30 doesn't pass. This is trifecta of trouble! However,  I point to the chart above which is pulled from SBUSD financial statements. The total debt owed is $403,803,838 dollars! If...

I despise ballot box budgeting, however since I will be personally affected (Cal State Student) if this prop fails I am compelled to vote for it. I was 49% in favor of not voting for it. The primary reason is becasue they cut funding for the Ralph M. Brown Act. I am afraid local governments will use the cut as an excuse to reduce transparency even though we live in the digital age and costs for posting agendas, budgets, etc. online are minimal. However, this gives them some political cover. The bulk of the reductions will be from schools, which would make sense on its face education make up the majority of the General Fund budget. But Prop. 30 still feels like a hostage negotiation that if doesn't pass we will cut funding to children and young adults. If Prop. 30 does pass, Democrats in the legislature need to seriously gather the intestinal fortitude necessary to bring about a stablized and ...

Above is a tabular break down of revenues and expenditures of the San Bernardino Unified School District. On his last day as chief financial officer, Mohammad Islam laid this budget out before the school board. He said that their was a $23M budget deficit for FY (Fiscal Year) 12-13 and that it was structural. As I understand it, this is separate from the short falls if Prop. 30 fails. In addition the board addressed this on September of this year . I happened to catch this meeting accidently while going through the public access channels (ATT cable allows you to view various cities’ govt. channels). I was concerned enough to email the secretary for the school board for this document because on T.V. the screen the numbers are barely legible. The two line items that stand out for me are on the expenditures side of the ledger. About $24M is spent on school supplies for the district. I wonder what is the breakdown per school. It just seems high. Another is Services, Other Operating Exp...

Just looking at government budgets in San Bernardino here are the numbers: Department Budget San Bernardino Unified $437 Million Cal State San Bernardino $169 Million City of San Bernardino $120 Million San Bernardino Community College District $110 Million Omnitrans $89 Million San Bernardino Municipal Water District $40 Million Total $965 Million People costs (Operating and Maintenance) account for about 60-80% of the budget, which is around $579-772 Million dollars. This is not even including our share of the $4 Billion dollars of County budget! It is a staggering amount of money, but why is our city of San Bernardino still impoverished? We should have the most economic growth in the region just on government spending alone. While I will discuss these points in future posts, I want to point out that it is not crime, or business atmosphere, or housing that are explicit in our problems. They are symptoms of a larger failure: Our school system. The ranking ...

I don’t know much about the education policy or the education industry itself. But as I have been looking around the web for some general information about how San Bernardino schools are doing and funded, I found that the education system itself is complex bordering on the byzantine. On the local level, I have had trouble understanding the scope of our city’s school district education budget and where our tax dollars are being applied to. Don’t even get me started on test scores their meaning and relevance. Progressives need to take local education seriously and try to streamline this process. A holistic approach needs to be taken that involves the parents as well as the teacher. Teacher bashing and/or Union blaming are relatively simplistic actions but provide no absolute cure.  One such cure, promoted by some on the left and the right are charter schools. San Bernardino has 12 charter schools. One is run by a former elected official (Esther Estrada) and the another is named ...

Excited about the upcoming elections this year. With less than 60 days to go I am fired up and ready to work hard and win!