State of the State. Governor
Brown. Jan. 24, 2013.
Constantly expanding the
coercive power of government by adding each year so many minute prescriptions
to our already detailed and turgid legal system overshadows other aspects of
public service. Individual creativity and direct leadership must also play a
part. We do this, not by commanding thou shalt or thou shalt not through a new
law but by tapping into the persuasive power that can inspire and organize
people. Lay the Ten Commandments next to the California Education code and you
will see how far we have diverged in approach and in content from that which
forms the basis of our legal system.
Education
In the right order of things,
education—the early fashioning of character and the formation of
conscience—comes before legislation. Nothing is more determinative of our
future than how we teach our children. If we fail at this, we will sow growing
social chaos and inequality that no law can rectify.
In California’s public schools,
there are six million students, 300,000 teachers—all subject to tens of thousands
of laws and regulations. In addition to the teacher in the classroom, we have a
principal in every school, a superintendent and governing board for each school
district. Then we have the State Superintendent and the State Board of
Education, which makes rules and approves endless waivers—often of laws which
you just passed. Then there is the Congress which passes laws like “No Child
Left Behind,” and finally the Federal Department of Education, whose rules,
audits and fines reach into every classroom in America, where sixty million
children study, not six million.
