Experts Expound

What are the political implications of Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger’s decision to repay some $3 billion to education that he borrowed earlier?
Does it appear that the governor simply bought off the teachers in hopes of
getting their support this year? Does this hurt him with the Republican
political base?

Let me go out on a limb: CTA will not be endorsing Arnold for governor.
Last year Arnold attacked everyone. This year he’s buying off his political
enemies one by one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him donning a purple
T-shirt any day now. It just reinforces that the governor has no core values
and is just another politician.

I don’t think teachers are going to support Arnold. The fact of the matter
is they beat him last fall in a fair fight. He doesn’t want to go through
that again. What he’s hoping is that voters may be convinced he’s actually
trying to do something about improving our schools.

Yes, it is an attempt to buy off the teachers. Sadly, they are not that
cheap. No, it does not hurt the governor with the Republican base.

Republicans usually like the public school that their kids are in and
support increased education spending. There is no political downside to
funding education.

Only insiders see it as a buy off. Most Californians see more money for
schools, a strong economy and previous debts being paid, all of which are
good news for the governor and bad news for the Dems.

The teachers will never support Arnold, but there’s less incentive for them
to go after him like last year. And the GOP base may not love this, but it’s
mostly one-time spending and he’s paying down the debt. Besides, they’ll
turn out if Tom McClintock tells them to.

It doesn’t matter how much the governor gives to education, they will always
say its not enough.

Apparently, there is so much money floating around that he can afford to
mend fences. It’s also smart election-year politics to get your name on the
dance card of an important Democratic ally.

It’s for the children, you can’t go wrong throwing money at education. With
so many billions in bonds on the ballot, the GOP base will barely notice the
brown bag to the CTA.

Reappointing the CTA’s top political operative to the State Board of
Education, and then announcing this deal with the education unions, makes it
that much tougher to motivate the GOP donors and volunteers.

It appears correctly and nope it doesn’t hurt him. Takes out a huge
potential ad-buy against him. I actually think it was the right thing to do
and the things they are funding are good.

Repaying the schools was a shrewd move. It’s not likely to win him the
teachers’ support, but it may neutralize or significantly reduce their
opposition. I don’t see it hurting him with the GOP base. They have nowhere
else to go, except for possibly staying home in November.

Voters will simply see it as more money for schools and (belatedly) living
up to a commitment to repay the schools for money taken two years ago. Last
time I checked, Republicans have kids in public schools, too, so the only
people who won’t like the play are Democrats that want it as an
election-year issue and the ever-shrinking “vouchers-or-bust” crowd.

The people from whom we sought opinions: Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Don
Wilcox, Jon Fleischman, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Dan Schnur, Jason
Kinney, Ken Gibson, Karen Hanretty, Kevin Spillane, Michael Houston, Adam
Mendelsohn, Matt Ross, Sam Delson, Mike Madrid, Morgan Crinklaw, Dave
Lesher, Richard Zeiger, Ralph Simoni, Bob Hertzberg, Scott Baugh, Steve
Maviglio, Tony Quinn, Peter DeMarco, Adam Probolsky, Barbara O’Connor, Jack
Pitney.