The Riehl World

Local legislators wrong on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

2010-12-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

For San Diego's North County Times

Our three San Diego County Republican congressmen voted against repealing "don't ask, don't tell" on a bill passing the House Wednesday. Last month, Representatives Bilbray and Hunter told this newspaper ("Marines lead opposition to 'don't ask, don't tell,'" Nov. 30) the Defense Department's survey of service members didn't change their minds.

"Making any changes to current policy during wartime must be done with extreme caution," Bilbray said, apparently unaware of Secretary of Defense Bob Gates' promise that nothing will change without extensive training.

Hunter conceded that DADT will probably end someday, but not with his support. He claimed repeal would endanger unit cohesiveness and "won't make the military any better."

Although the 52nd District's congressman is a combat veteran, his views are not shared by a large majority of those serving on the front lines. Seventy-two percent of those surveyed said repeal would have either a positive effect or no effect on their unit's cohesion, rising to 73 percent of those who've served with someone they believed to be gay or lesbian. Even though Marines, who compose 16 percent of enlisted personnel, have been least supportive of repeal, 60 percent of them agreed unit cohesion would not be harmed by it.

As for repeal not making the military any better, Hunter is apparently unconcerned by a Pentagon report that 11,000 service members have been discharged because of "don't ask, don't tell" since 1997, including nearly 1,000 with special skills, like Arab linguists.

The Department of Defense reports that two out of three recruits come from the small towns and rural areas of Southern and Midwestern states and are predominantly male. Their acceptance of gays and lesbians serving openly with them, given their conservative backgrounds, is remarkable. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 35 to 40 percent of Southerners and Midwesterners believe same-sex marriage should be legal, while 53 percent of those living elsewhere think so.

A national poll conducted by Quinnipiac University shows 51 percent of men favor repeal of DADT, while 62 percent of women do. Maybe that explains why Marines, 93 percent male, are least supportive of gays and lesbians serving openly. The other branches of the service range from 79 to 85 percent male.

The practice of an earlier version of "don't ask, don't tell" during the Civil War caused women who were banned from enlisting in either the Union or Confederate armies to disguise themselves as men to join the fight. They had to remain as invisible as today's gay and lesbian service members must be.

Our local Republican congressmen want to keep it that way, shortchanging our military while depriving thousands of Americans of their civil rights.

Music instruction no frill

2010-12-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

For San Diego's North County Times

When my high school basketball coach wasn't putting us through our paces on the court, he was in the classroom teaching math to 10th-graders. He told those struggling with algebra the brain was a muscle that needed exercise. That didn't persuade those of us who thought of our brains as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge and reasoned that some students had larger containers than others. And if our brains are muscles, we asked, couldn't they be exercised in less boring ways?

Today's California teachers can tell their students they need to master math so they can solve those eighth-grade algebra problems on the high school exit exam. They can appeal to their school spirit by explaining how low test scores categorize schools as losers.

Math and English are understandably the two untouchable subject areas when it comes to budget cuts. The most vulnerable are the arts, for which student proficiency goes unmeasured, and schools neglecting them go unpunished.

The latest example of our academic pecking order can be found in the Vista school district's plan to eliminate music education for 10,000 students in the district's 16 elementary schools next year. The seven music teachers facing layoffs have added fundraising to their teaching duties to try to raise the $400,000 required to keep the program alive.

The teachers have been praised on this newspaper's editorial page for seeking private funding ("Teachers who don't wait," Nov. 23), acknowledging the merits of music education, but tacitly relegating it to an academic frill by not questioning the need to depend on the generosity of individual donors to save it.

It's hard to imagine English and math teachers having to go hat in hand to save their jobs. But a recent report on brain research by Northwestern University neuroscientist Nina Kraus ("Music Training Helps Learning and Memory," Psychology Today, William Klemm, July 31, 2010) shows music instruction may be equally as important in a child's education.

Kraus's study focused on the ability of the brain to change chemically and physically as the result of learning experiences. Music training, her research shows, can improve learning skills, language learning and listening ability. It's akin to physical exercise for body fitness, toning the brain for auditory fitness. In other words, there's evidence music education could help students improve their test scores in math and English.

Depriving economically disadvantaged kids of music in school is especially troubling. Sixty-one percent of Vista's elementary school students are from low-income families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. The Northwestern study suggests they will face one more obstacle to their success in school next fall if the music teachers' fundraising campaign fails.

Public employees not overpaid

2010-11-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

For San Diego's North County Times

Ever since a handful of elected officials in a small town in Los Angeles County were caught helping themselves to astronomical salaries at taxpayer expense, the press has declared open season on public employees.

A recent example is an article appearing in this newspaper a couple of weeks ago ("Salaries up for county employees," Nov. 7). The lead-in claimed, "Base pay for some increased by 31 percent from 2007 to '09." This may have been an eye-catching introduction to a front page story, but it fell well short of the truth.

The increase was not in base pay. It was in the share of county employees earning more than $100,000 after nearly 600 temporary and student jobs had been eliminated. With 18,700 employees, a more accurate headline would be, "Ninety-five percent of county employees make less than $100K."

Here's a comparison of the county's public employee pay with the wages of workers in the total work force, as reported by the California Employment Development Department.

The average salary of the county's 2,700 chief executive officers is $201,000. That's .2 percent of the total work force. The 25 public employees who earn more than $200,000 a year represent .1 percent of the taxpayer-funded work force.

The county's chief administrative officer's base pay is $296,000. He's the CEO of an organization with a $5 billion budget that serves 3 million residents, exceeding the population of 20 states.

In comparison, the San Diego Business Journal reports the highest-paid banking executive in the county, PacWest CEO Matt Wagner, earned a base pay last year of $750,000, with a bonus of $562,000, for total compensation amounting to $1.5 million. The bank's total assets are $5.2 billion. By that measure, I'd say we're getting a bargain for our county's top leadership.

What about those other public employees earning at least $100,000?

The average salary of the county's 2,000 physicians and surgeons is $219,000. The highest-paid medical practitioner on the public payroll is a psychiatrist earning $216,000.

San Diego County's 6,000 attorneys earn an average of $145,000. Public defender attorneys have salaries ranging from $120,000 to $137,000.

This small sample, comparing the pay of jobs requiring specialized skills, education and training, suggests public employees are paid somewhat less than their private-sector counterparts.

There are 128,000 waiters, waitresses, janitors, maids, housekeepers, cashiers and retail salespersons in the private sector who earn annual pay ranging on average from $21,000 to $26,000. That's why the $37,000 median wage of the county's work force is well below the $60,000 average of the more highly skilled, trained and educated workers on the county payroll.

It's time to cool the rhetoric about overpaid public employees.

Tea Party has little influence in California

2010-11-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times, San Diego

From the looks of Tuesday's election results, it appears the steadily dwindling attendance at Oceanside tea party events over the last year was a pretty good indicator of the movement's lack of influence on local politics.

The 2009 Tax Day rally, featuring a march to the pier from the city center to toss bags of sand disguised as tea into the surf, attracted some 3,000 participants, according to police reports. This year's rally attracted less than half that number. And the number of empty seats seen in photos of last month's get-out-the-vote, four-hour speech fest revealed no more than about 300 to 400 in attendance throughout the afternoon.

While national tea partiers celebrated their role in helping Republicans take over the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening, the signs carried by Oceanside tea party members, promising an extreme make-over of California politics Nov. 2, resulted in the re-election of Sen. Barbara Boxer and the resurrection of Gov. Jerry Brown. The self-proclaimed tea party candidate for governor, Chelene Nightingale, whose campaign was promoted by a huge sign on a truck circling the amphitheater and a fellow in a grim reaper costume wandering through the crowd, attracted less than 2 percent of the vote.

Election results for local candidates were remarkably unsurprising, given the promises of change made by tea party leaders. County Supervisor Bill Horn was re-elected, but that may have had more to do with the $340,000 he spent on his campaign, compared to Steve Gronke's $39,000 investment, than his high-profile courting of tea partiers, who did not reciprocate by endorsing him. All local state legislator incumbents were re-elected. So much for the promise of change in Sacramento. And from their attack-mode campaign rhetoric, we're unlikely to hear how our two re-elected Congressmen will play well with others from across the aisle in Washington.

The results on the propositions were equally unsurprising. Fear of unions continues to run rampant with the passing of propositions A and G. Tea party fears of taxes and fees led to the defeat of Prop 21, and a general fear of politicians to the defeat of Prop. 27, which would have returned redistricting to the Legislature. Despite the tea party joining with big oil to urge passage of Prop. 23 to suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act, Californians showed their true color is green and handily defeated it. Voters expressed their desire to have state budgets passed on time by approving Prop 25.

Today's tea partiers, unlike those of yore, live in a democracy that gives them the right to vote and encourages the political activism on display at anti-tax rallies at facilities built with their tax dollars, like the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater. Tuesday's election results show they have far more influence east of Nevada.

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at fogcutter1@yahoo.com.

Political incivility has long history

2010-10-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

Local Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss took his act to Solana Beach last month in observance of the day the Constitution was signed in 1787. He told eighth graders at Earl Warren Middle School that "civility is the oxygen for democracy for any democracy in the world. Without simple civility, he explained, "we will die because we demonize our opponents rather than sharing political views.

Dreyfuss has attracted national attention for his Dreyfuss Initiative to promote the teaching of civics in public schools. While he seems unaware of the civics lessons already imbedded in the California school curriculum, his crusade for a more civil political discourse is a noble quest. This year's election campaign is in dire need of adult supervision.

But does knowledge of civics necessarily lead to civility? If that were the case you'd have to assume the half-truths and outright lies parading before us endlessly in today's campaign ads come from people who don't know any better.

Dirty politics is as old as the republic itself. A few of the most egregious examples: John Adams was called a "repulsive pedant" and a "hideous hermaphroditical character" by a writer secretly paid by Thomas Jefferson. Adams supporters, in turn, accused Jefferson of favoring the "teaching of murder, rape, adultery and incest."

In the 1828 election, John Quincy Adams was called "the Pimp" by Andrew Jackson's campaign. Adams fired back with a pamphlet calling Jackson's mother a "common prostitute" brought to this country by British soldiers. James Buchanan, who had a congenital condition causing his head to tilt to the left, was accused of having failed in an attempt to hang himself.

So when tea partiers carry signs with pictures of President Barack Obams sporting a Hitler moustache and allegations that he's a Marxist, a socialist and a Muslim born in Kenya, they're simply carrying on our nation's long tradition of dirty politics, beginning with a couple of signers of the Declaration of Independence.

That, of course, doesn't justify today's political incivility. If Drefuss wants to bring good manners to politics, he should focus on adult education.

He's on the right track with his announcement of a plan to link websites this fall "representing all political opinion to discuss the state of the country" in a "national conversation." With only a week and a half before election day it's a little late to deliver on that promise.

But it's not too late for the actor to speak out against the lies being spread by those who claim to honor the Constitution. It would also set a good example for those Earl Warren eighth graders.

Union pays for Horn's signs

2010-10-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

You can tell when politicians get desperate by the way they attack their opponents with half-truths or outright lies in the final days of a campaign. Spreading fear about a lesser-known candidate is a common strategy for an incumbent running scared.

Confident candidates avoid mentioning the names of their opponents. But incumbent Bill Horn's latest mailer is more about spreading fear of what a Supervisor Steve Gronke might do rather than what Supervisor Horn has done and will do. He makes a pandering promise to "stand up for taxpayers," but unless he thinks public employees don't pay taxes, it appears Horn lives in an Orwellian world where some taxpayers are more equal than others.

You'd think Horn would feel more confident after 16 years in office. He's been able to make a lot of friends by strategically doling out his annual $2 million share of the $10 million in slush funds that supervisors enjoyed during his tenure.

Maybe what worries Horn most is that his $111,000 investment in the June primary yielded only 47,000 votes, costing him $2.80 per vote, while Gronke spent a mere $25,000 to attract 21,000 voters at $1.19 a vote.

From July through September, Horn spent another $163,000, bringing his campaign's total investment, a month before the election, to $274,000. With fewer deep pockets to tap, Gronke spent only $12,000 on his campaign during the same period, for a total of $39,000.

Horn's attack piece claims, "Steve Gronke's campaign is bankrolled by special interest public employee unions."

But Gronke's campaign consultant, Cody Campbell, told me his campaign "has not accepted money from any union or affiliated labor organization and is unaware of any monetary expenditure from labor that will go to support the campaign." He said several labor organizations have included Gronke on their list of candidates they endorse. That should come as no surprise, given Horn's outspoken disdain for unions.

I e-mailed Horn's campaign for a response, but didn't receive a reply by this column's deadline.

Horn's accusation that Gronke's campaign is being bankrolled by unions arrived in the mail the same day a public employees union was busily planting a forest of signs along North County roadways. They carry Bill Horn's name in large, flaming orange letters. At the bottom, in print so small it can't be read from more than a few feet away, we learn the signs have been, "Paid for by the Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County Political Action Fund #862122."

It seems the only candidate being bankrolled by a union is a desperate incumbent, willing to mislead his constituents and spend more than a quarter of a million dollars to buy an election.

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at fogcutter1@yahoo.com.

Why I voted for Blackburn, Douglas and Wantz

2010-10-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

For Carlsbadistan.com

Supervisor Bill Horn’s second hit piece in two weeks landed in the mailbox the same day my absentee ballot arrived. The incumbent is using fear to keep his job for another eight years, when the new term limits law his scandal-plagued career inspired will prevent him from becoming supervisor for life. Horn’s desperate attack on his opponent, Steve Gronke, is a good example of why voters should disregard all negative campaigning in the weeks leading up to an election. It spurred me to cast my vote a month before the polls open.

In Carlsbad, North County’s Brigadoon, the campaign has been unusually civil up until now, with candidates touting their qualifications, rather than trumpeting the shortcomings of their opponents.

Mayoral candidate Matt Hall’s latest mailer refers to his opponent as “freshman councilman Keith Blackburn,” the “only council member to oppose (pension) reforms.” Well, that’s stretching the truth a bit. Blackburn is in his second year on the council, technically making him a sophomore, and he did not exactly oppose reforms.

He said he had no problem with reducing retirement benefits for new city employees, but he voted against singling out safety employees without considering the impact it might have in hiring and retaining them in a competitive local market. He is opposed to Proposition G that would give the council the power only to reduce benefits. Raising them could be done only by a vote of the people. That’s a win-win solution for incumbents who are elected to represent the people, but want to avoid hard decisions by turning them over to those who know the least about them. Blackburn’s right on both counts.

But Hall’s slight truth-stretching comes nowhere near the level of a smear campaign.

Since there’s still a month to go before the election and there’s ample time for the mudslinging to begin, here’s how I voted yesterday.

Blackburn is my clear choice for mayor. Yes, he’s been on the council for only two years, but that’s a good thing. I’ve been following the video-taped council meetings on the web during that time and Blackburn and Kulchin always seem to ask the smartest questions of staff and others who come before the council.

He and Kulchin were right about the swim complex. Had their view prevailed, Alga Norte would be under construction by now. Hall, Packard and Lewis kept that from happening. Do you suppose it’s just an election-year coincidence that the three of them joined Blackburn and Kulchin to vote to go ahead with plans for construction at the council’s September 28 meeting?

Yes, indeed, the good old boys have been good stewards of the city’s coffers, but leadership calls for more than simple stewardship.

Blackburn may be the rookie on the council, but his intelligence, educational background, service to the community, business experience, willingness to listen, and dedication to making a wealthy city even more responsive to the needs of its citizens, makes him the best candidate.

Farrah Douglas is my choice for one of the open council positions. Her unusually active experience in city government and the business community will enable her to be immediately aware of the issues facing the council. She, too, was right about Alga Norte. The money to build the swim complex was there two years ago. She was also the most articulate candidate at the forum I attended. Finally, she’ll bring gender and cultural diversity to a council badly in need of it.

My only reservation about her is her participation in the tea party events. She doesn’t strike me as someone who’s angry and believes government is the enemy. But that didn’t keep me from casting my vote for her.

Jon Wantz is my choice for the other seat on the council. He’s new to the city, but that, too is a good thing. He has the most ambitious and creative list of goals for the city with regard to attracting small business to Carlsbad, and his youth is an important element that’s been missing in a group of mostly good old boys. His service in the military required the development of leadership skills.

Wantz is far more articulate than Councilman Packard, whose questions at council meetings are remarkably shallow, and who, as a member of the North County Transit District board, cast the lone vote against installing a safety device for local railways required by the federal government. He claimed it was a symbolic vote against big government.

Take a good look at the websites and mailers of all the candidates and attend the voter forums. I think you’ll find that Hall and Packard are mostly about the past. Blackburn, Douglas and Wantz are about the future.

Want better test results? Try longer school hours

2010-09-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

Now that slightly more than half of California's students are proficient in grade level standards for English, not quite half in math, State Superintendent Jack O'Connell boasts that the state's latest school test scores have shown "steady academic progress" over the past eight years.

Scores have improved by an average of 2 percentage points each year. At this rate, it will take another 20 years for California to meet the No Child Left Behind goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

O'Connell laments the lack of progress in closing the achievement gap separating Latinos, African Americans and the economically disadvantaged from their white classmates. The 20 to 30 percentage point difference in English and math scores has barely budged in a decade.

O'Connell announced two initiatives targeted to close the gap: the newly adopted Common Core standards and a book on research-based approaches to teaching English Learners. He says his staff will help schools implement the book's recommendations.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-selling book, "Outliers: The Story of Success," suggests the solution to improving school performance may be simpler than we think ---- more instructional time. He points to KIPP charter schools (Knowledge Is Power Program) as a model. San Diego's KIPP Adelante, the only one in the county, has achieved impressive results with the very student population O'Connell wants to help.

A public charter school enrolling 360 students in grades 5 through 8, Adelante features an extended school day (7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), a longer school year, and monthly Saturday classes. All students are economically disadvantaged, 87 percent are Latino, 64 percent are English learners. Forty percent of their parents did not graduate from high school.

So how did they do on this year's California Standards Test? While just 28 percent of Adelante's first-year fifth-graders were proficient or above grade level in English, 75 percent of eighth-graders had attained that level. In math, 22 percent of fifth-graders were proficient, while 75 percent of eighth-graders were. The school's Academic Performance Indicator (API) places it in the top 10 percent of similar schools and top 20 percent of all schools in California.

In comparison, only 61 percent of Vista's eighth-graders scored at or above proficiency in English and only 49 percent in math, despite the district's multimillion-dollar investment over the past several years in an off-the-shelf, proprietary reading program designed to be a quick fix for low test scores.

Rather than placing his faith in revised school standards and another how-to book for teachers, maybe Superintendent O'Connell should spend more time helping California compete successfully in the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" school funding program.

It's intended to help states replicate the success of schools like KIPP Adelante.

Mayor Lewis' bedtime story

2010-09-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

For www.carlsbadistan.com

Every hundred years the slumbering residents of Brigadoon awaken for a day to celebrate their unchanging lives, united in the knowledge that if anybody leaves town, their enchanted village will disappear forever.

Last week at the Dove Library, Carlsbad’s 2010 state of the city video (embedded above) gave a hundred local residents their annual reassurance that all is well in their village, and they can keep it that way by not leaving town to shop.

Mayor Bud Lewis explained there’d be no questions allowed from the floor because he didn’t want the event to become an election forum. You could approach staff and council members individually with your questions after the show.

Mythical cities dislike public discord.

The mayor then introduced city council members and candidates for the November election. Since nobody but current office holders showed up, skeptics might ask if challengers had been told they’d be introduced, especially since the mayor has been a strong supporter of Matt Hall for mayor and Mark Packard to retain his seat on the council.

Despite Lewis’s promise to keep politics out of the evening’s presentation, he couldn’t resist putting a spin on how he wants folks to vote in November. He outlined what he considered to be the four most important issues facing the city next year. Only one of them, the sustainability of Carlsbad’s water supply, was non-political. The others: his successor’s vision for the city, a warning about union control of the council and public employee pensions were all about politics.

Lewis urged passage of Proposition G, on the ballot this fall, which would require a vote of the people for future increases in police and firefighter retirement benefits but only a majority vote of the council to reduce them. He didn’t explain why safety employees should be singled out. Nor did he say why our elected representatives can’t be trusted to take full responsibility for fair and competitive pay and benefits for all city employees.

Prop. G amounts to a no-lose strategy for office holders. Given today’s anti-government rhetoric, a politician’s future is more threatened by raising city worker benefits than by cutting them. It’s a familiar game: when you campaign for office boast of your knowledge, experience and wisdom to do the right thing; then, after you’re elected, turn over the tough decisions to voters—the same ones who voted for you because you claimed to be smarter than they were.

The 17-minute video was an overview of the city’s efforts to retain its natural beauty, quality of life and economic stability. It celebrated Carlsbad’s commitment to desalination, water recycling and energy conservation.

During a five-minute segment on financial planning, seven charts flashed across the screen at the rate of 8 seconds each, depicting the city’s expenses, taxes and revenues. The narrator’s brief commentary raised more questions than answers. It was a kind of shell game for viewers to guess what nuggets of information might be uncovered before a chart disappeared from the screen.

We learned, for example, that $10 million was slashed from the general fund and 25 employee positions were eliminated over the last two years. But we weren’t told what services were sacrificed, other than the delayed construction of a park, identified by name only, rather than as the site for a long-promised community swimming pool.

Viewers were left to conclude that having to wait for a new city park has been the city’s only hardship caused by the recession.

There was no mention of Carlsbad’s unemployment rate. Or whether anyone cares about how many jobs will be lost with Callaway Golf’s announcement of moving its operations to Mexico. Or how much longer taxpayers will be required to bail out the failing golf course. Or what’s become of Proposition C, the 2002 voter-approved plan for the city to purchase more open space.

This state of the city report was all about business-friendliness, infrastructure repairs, careful planning and prudent spending. Support for the arts, youth activities, the growing senior population, the community’s burgeoning ethnic diversity, and affordable housing went unmentioned.

The only challenge facing the city next year, according to this feel-good video, is to stop a power plant from being built near the beach so developers will be able to descend on Ponto, identified only as the “South Carlsbad Redevelopment Zone.”

Are North County’s Brigadoon villagers content with their yearly bedtime story? Stay tuned for November’s election results.

Carlsbad as our Brigadoon

2010-09-10T06:04:00.001-07:00

For the North County Times

Every hundred years the slumbering residents of Brigadoon awaken for a day to celebrate their unchanging lives, united in the knowledge that if anybody leaves town, their enchanted village will disappear forever.

Last week at the Dove Library, Carlsbad's 2010 state of the city video gave a hundred local residents their annual reassurance that all is well in their village, and they can keep it that way by not leaving town to shop.

Mayor Bud Lewis explained there'd be no questions allowed from the floor because he didn't want the event to become an election forum. You could approach staff and council members individually with your questions after the show.

Mythical cities dislike public discord.

The 17-minute video was an overview of the city's efforts to retain its natural beauty, quality of life and economic stability. It celebrated Carlsbad's commitment to desalination, water recycling and energy conservation.

During a five-minute segment on financial planning, seven charts flashed across the screen at the rate of 8 seconds each, depicting the city's expenses, taxes and revenues. The narrator's brief commentary raised more questions than answers. It was a kind of shell game for viewers to guess what nuggets of information might be uncovered before a chart disappeared from the screen.

We learned, for example, that $10 million was slashed from the general fund and 25 employee positions were eliminated over the last two years. But we weren't told what services were sacrificed, other than the delayed construction of a park, identified by name only, rather than the site for a long-promised community swimming pool.

Viewers were left to conclude that having to wait for a new city park has been the city's only hardship caused by the recession.

There was no mention of Carlsbad's unemployment rate. Or whether anyone cares about how many jobs will be lost with Callaway Golf's announcement of moving its operations to Mexico. Or how much longer taxpayers will be required to bail out the failing golf course. Or what's become of Proposition C, the 2002 voter-approved plan for the city to purchase more open space.

This state of the city report was all about business-friendliness, infrastructure repairs, careful planning and prudent spending. Support for the arts, youth activities, the growing senior population, the community's burgeoning ethnic diversity, and affordable housing went unmentioned.

Are North County's Brigadoon villagers content with their yearly bedtime story? Stay tuned for November's election results.

Bilbray seeks nanny state solutions

2010-08-27T06:08:00.001-07:00

For the North County Times

Nannies made the news in North County last week, on this page and in local theaters. An editorial suggested that state lawmakers, minions of a nanny state, may be plotting to take away our favorite toys, beginning with plastic grocery bags. Meanwhile, a nanny named McPhee tamed unruly kids on the area's big screens.

We're happy to see fictional caregivers like Nanny McPhee and Mary Poppins take firm control of our kids. They do the right thing in ways that are not always the most popular at the outset with either kids or parents. Kind of like nanny states.

A closer look reveals how nanny states vary according to the politics of those who complain about them. Nannies who want to regulate our behavior in the bedroom, for example, are not usually the ones who want to regulate it in the boardroom. It seems the definition of "nanny state" lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Take, for example, 50th District Representative and immigration nanny Brian Bilbray (R-Solana Beach). He wants to save us from immigrants. Not just the ones who sneak in. Bilbray chairs the Immigration Reform Caucus, which he calls "bipartisan" because the 96 member committee includes four Democrats, one of whom hails from north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

The caucus was established in 1999 to "address both the positive and negative consequences of immigration." But a search of its website reveals it's all about closing doors. A more accurate name for it would be the Anti-Immigration Caucus.

The only legislation proposed by the group that doesn't target illegal immigrants would keep legal immigrants away. Bilbray's committee boasts that H.R. 878, The Nuclear Family Priority Act, could reduce legal immigration by as much as 50 percent.

They don't say it would also put us at a disadvantage in competing for scientific and technical talent in a global marketplace. Fortunately, the bill was relegated to a subcommittee a year and a half ago, where it's dying a quiet death.

In a recent Fox News interview, Bilbray explained why he wants to redefine birthright citizenship. American Indians, he observed, weren't originally recognized as citizens by the 14th Amendment because they were not deemed "subject to" U.S. jurisdiction. It wasn't until 1920 that Congress made them citizens. In a breathtaking leap of logic, Bilbray asked why pregnant millionaires from other countries, residing here legally on temporary visas, should be allowed to give birth to instant citizens.

You'd think a flood of wealthy immigrant babies would be good news for the economy.

The congressman should be reminded of the lady holding a torch aloft in New York Harbor. That nanny has served us pretty well over the years.

The New vs. the Good Old Boys

2010-08-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

For Carlsbadistan.com

Why does mayoral candidate Matt Hall continue to mislead Carlsbad voters about a measure on the November ballot?

His website was revised a day after my July 30 Carlsbadistan column criticized him for wrongly claiming the city charter amendment up for a vote would create a two-tiered pension plan for city employees. He now says he “successfully persuaded” his fellow council members to adopt the plan last spring, continuing to imply it covered all new city employees. He failed to point out that only police and firefighter benefits were affected.

The charter amendment would require a vote of the people for future pension benefit increases for safety employees. The council would retain the right to reduce them. Hall says he supports “fair” and “balanced” public employee pensions. He doesn’t explain why he should only be trusted to cut them.
Retiring Carlsbad mayor Bud Lewis and council member Mark Packard are proud members of the Matt Hall for mayor fan club. If you like the troika of good old boys, Lewis, Packard and Hall, you’ll probably vote to keep two of them on the council.

But incumbents who boast of records of fiscal responsibility might be asked how that led to continued investment in a $60 million golf course that can’t attract enough golfers to stave off a million dollar taxpayer bailout each year, while putting the construction of a fully-funded community swimming pool on hold.

Two newcomers, Farrah Douglas and Jon Wantz, are running to replace Packard and fill the council occasioned by the Hall mayoral bid.

After opposing construction of the Alga Norte swim complex last year, Packard now says it’s his “ambition to see Alga Norte Park open for the citizens in 2013.” Voters must decide if a politician’s “ambition” equals a promise.

Last year Packard opposed a federally required safety device for local trains, which would have meant the end of local rail service by 2015. He was the only NCTD board member voting against it, putting political pandering ahead of civic responsibility by casting a vote that wouldn’t keep the board from doing the right thing.

Farrah Douglas, an immigrant with a fascinating life story of fleeing Iran after the fall of the Shah, is a successful businesswoman with an exceptional record of civic involvement. She pledges to spend the money set aside to acquire open space by the 2002 Prop C vote, complaining that after eight years it has remained unspent.

Her appearance as a speaker at Oceanside’s April tea party was puzzling, given the group’s disinterest in local politics. Nothing in her platform reflects the group’s single-minded focus on less government and lower taxes.

Jon Wantz, the most visionary of the candidates, offers a cornucopia of ideas, beginning with his list of initiatives to spur small business growth. He’s a strong proponent of the arts and culture, with an emphasis on youth, including support of the proposed skateboard museum and skate park.

He brings to his candidacy seven years in private business and military service in Iraq. He vows to hold regular office hours at City Hall every week and neighborhood meetings each month.

The median age of the current male-dominated council is 62, while nearly two thirds of Carlsbadians are under 50. More than half are female. The addition of Douglas and 28-year-old Wantz would make the council more representative in culture, age and gender.

With Kulchin’s 30-years of council experience and Douglas’s 20 years of civic involvement, voters could get the best of both worlds by dumping the incumbents.

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Read more at http://theriehlworld.blogspot.com/ or contact him at fogcutter1@yahoo.com

A peek at the Carlsbad mayoral race

2010-07-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

With the retirement of a mayor who has been in office for a quarter of a century and two City Council seats up for grabs, Carlsbad voters will have their first opportunity in decades to make a substantial change in city leadership.

The incumbents have a lot going for them. The city's in better financial shape than its neighbors, and public opinion surveys show three out of four Carlsbadians have faith in their city government.

Here's a peek at the candidacies of two council members who say they want to be Carlsbad's next mayor, Matt Hall and Keith Blackburn.

Hall's website carries misinformation about a measure on the November ballot.

The 16-year council veteran urges passage of an "initiative calling for a two-tiered pension system for city employees." Unless he's busily gathering petition signatures, no such initiative exists.

The two-tiered system is already a done deal for police and firefighters, imposed on them in May at the same time council members voted to place a city charter amendment on the ballot. Replying to my request for clarification, the Hall campaign supplied me with the amendment's language. It would give the council the right to reduce pension benefits while requiring a vote of the people to increase them. It applies to public safety personnel only, not all city employees, as Hall's website claims.

Whether it was intentionally deceptive or not, the misinformation shows how politicians lose their credibility.

In April 2009, Hall voted against starting construction on the Alga Norte swim complex, despite an $11 million surplus in the construction budget.

As it turns out, the city wound up with a $5 million surplus, another $1 million bailout for the failing golf course, and a vacant lot waiting for a pool. Hall says he can't wait to build the pool now that a $1 million surplus has been forecast for next year's budget.

Blackburn voted with Ann Kulchin to begin construction of Alga Norte last year.

The council's rookie and the lady were the visionaries. Had their view prevailed, the city's return on its investment in Carlsbad's recreational health and safety would be a lot closer today to paying dividends.

When it comes to city employee benefits, Blackburn's primary concern is to keep them competitive with surrounding cities. He's not opposed to reductions in pension formulas. But lower benefits, he points out, could hinder the city's ability to compete for and retain the best employees, increasing training costs caused by higher employee turnover.

Those who claim Carlsbad's enviable quality of life will always attract the best people have apparently not heard about commuting.

Tune in next time for my take on other council contenders.

Teaching by skill level worth a try

2010-07-16T06:13:00.001-07:00

For the North County Times

Mark Twain once complained that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. The same could be said today of school reform.

This newspaper's call for a dialogue on how to improve schools has so far produced only a handful of editorials suggesting the key to better schools is to free them from obstacles created by unions and state regulations.

The community's response has been a collective yawn. Maybe that's because the call for reform has been mostly about cutting costs for what schools are already doing. Except for upgrades in technology and classroom furniture, students continue to trudge from one grade to the next in much the same way they have since the days of one-room schoolhouses.

Herded by age group through 12 years of schooling, all are expected to learn the same things in the same way at the same rate. Those who can't or won't conform to the norm lose interest. Accelerated and remedial classes are designed to individualize instruction, but the dominant one-size-fits-all culture causes students on both ends of the spectrum to either drop out or seek the path of least resistance through social promotion each year.

An example of actual reform can be found in the Kansas City, Mo., schools, where this fall 17,000 students will transition from being grouped by age to being grouped by competence in each subject. School districts in Maine and Alaska have already begun to move away from a system where students move ahead based on how much time they warm seats in a classroom.

A competency-based approach allows students of varying ages, assisted individually or in small groups by their teachers, to work at their own pace on projects matching their skill levels. The stigma of not fitting in with peers will be reduced, since students will see that learning depends more on varying skills and interest in subject matter than age.

Math and science whizzes may take longer to master the English and arts courses that are easily aced by those struggling with math. While some students may complete all the requirements necessary to graduate early from high school, those who need more time may take an extra year.

Meanwhile, here in North County, each time test scores are released, we're reminded that a school's academic ranking reflects the average family income of its students.

In districts where failing schools face state sanctions, board members, rather than tackling school reform, wrangle with teacher unions, seek off-the-shelf quick fixes for low test scores and decide whether to honor a former student for voicing her opinion about gay marriage as a contestant in a beauty pageant.

Dreyfuss an actor, not a school reformer

2010-07-02T06:10:00.001-07:00

For the North County Times

Oscar-winning actor and Encinitas resident Richard Dreyfuss warns that if America's public schools do not adopt a national civics curriculum, our democratic republic is doomed. If kids aren't taught how to run the country, his Dreyfuss Initiative website proclaims in a burst of overblown rhetoric, "government by, for and of the people will have failed."

His proposed curriculum would include "the telling of glory tales and myths to the very young" and, "as the brain develops," include the teaching of reason, logic, clarity of thought and critical analysis. The final two years would focus on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Dreyfuss should check out the current standards for the history and social science curriculums of California schools. He'd discover that kindergartners learn about personal responsibility and patriotism from stories and folklore.

Fifth-graders gain an understanding of how a representative democracy works and the role and responsibilities of its citizens.

In the 11th grade, they learn about the significant events in the founding of our nation. They analyze the Declaration of Independence and the debates involved in drafting and ratifying the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Seniors are expected to evaluate and take positions on the scope and limits of their rights and responsibilities in a free and civil society.

That sounds like civics to me.

Dreyfuss's plea for a more reasoned and responsible political discourse is understandable, given the constant stream of angry invective erupting from the mouths of cable-TV talking heads. But implying that the absence of civics courses has caused the nasty discord shows an ignorance of what schools are teaching today, as well as the misguided notion that knowledge of civics assures civility.

The commendable skills Dreyfuss espouses ---- reason, logic, clarity of thought and critical analysis ---- are best taught by good teachers exemplifying them in the classroom, regardless of subject matter.

While a national civics curriculum is not the answer, Dreyfuss proposes several other public education projects more in keeping with the actor's considerable dramatic talents.

One is the production of a television special that brings together historians, comics, thinkers, artists and stars in a narrative of the life of our democracy as a Dickensian tale. Another is a multi-part series titled "Miracle at Philadelphia," a political thriller about the Founders. The most ambitious is experiential learning conducted on a train running from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., via Gettysburg, carrying students and luminaries of the political left and right engaged in spirited discussions of the Civil War.

Richard Dreyfuss is a fine actor, but in this case it seems he's miscast himself as a school reformer.

Vote pits David vs. Goliath

2010-06-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

For those who take tea partiers seriously, the most surprising thing about last week's election results was the lack of surprises. It was pretty much business as usual at the polls.

The 36 percent turnout of San Diego County's 1.4 million registered voters fell short of the 37 percent turnout for the 2006 gubernatorial primary. All incumbents came out on top. The three candidates endorsed by local tea party sponsors, Stop Taxing Us, lost by large margins, despite the organization's frequent opinion pieces in this newspaper, regular interviews of its leaders on the local Fox News channel and the group's endorsements touted on its website.

The only real surprise came in the county Board of Supervisors' two races, where incumbents face November runoffs for the first time in more than a decade.

You have to wonder why Stop Taxing Us did not endorse Bill Horn, given his shameless pandering to its demands for lower taxes and smaller government.

In his spring newsletter, Horn boasted of attending a local tax day tea party.

He bashed legislators in Sacramento and Washington for "bailing out entire industries, damaging our free enterprise system, threatening to undermine the best health care system in the world, and worshiping at the altar of environmental extremism." Sound familiar? You'd think he'd borrowed the script from Oceanside's latest tea party rally.

On his county website, Horn sang the praises of San Diego Design Center's President Robert J. Basso, who wrote to the 5th District supervisor to explain why this country's manufacturers are rapidly disappearing. Basso recalls the good old days, specifically 1955, when he opened his small manufacturing business at a time when "burdensome and obstructive restrictions and regulations were mostly non-existent." Horn proudly posted Basso's letter on the 5th District website at http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cnty/bos/sup5/news/letter20100319.pdf.

After reading this business owner's long list of government restrictions, condemning regulations covering discrimination, sexual harassment, the disabled, worksite safety, hazardous materials, funded vacations, retirement plans and unions, it became apparent Horn's hero believes these regulations destroyed a business climate ideal for sweatshops managed by able-bodied white males.

Horn told this newspaper he's confident he'll defeat Steve Gronke in the runoff, calling him a stooge for the unions. Political pundits say the odds are heavily stacked against Gronke growing his 20 percent primary vote into a majority.

But with Horn seen as the stooge for wealthy developers, his "let 'em eat cake" eagerness to slash social services budgets to preserve the county's $707 million reserve, the 70 percent of San Diegans voting for supervisor term limits, and his failed courtship of kindred-spirit conservatives, many are rooting for David to slay Goliath at the polls in November.

Carlsbad burns firefighters

2010-06-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

At the close of the Carlsbad City Council's May 18 meeting, Councilman Matt Hall observed, "History keeps repeating itself. When this issue first came before us in 2001, the mayor and I both voted against it."

He was referring to an increase in retirement benefits approved nine years ago on a 3-2 vote. This time he joined the mayor on the winning side of a 4-1 vote to roll back those benefits.

Hall's parting shot was self-serving and unnecessary, unless, of course, you're running for mayor as the incumbent's clone.

The new contract reduces benefits for new hires, requires current employees to increase their contribution to the state's pension fund from 1 percent to 9 percent of annual salary and rejects a request for a 5 percent salary increase to partially offset that pay cut.

The council has been praised for saving the city from bankruptcy and showing leadership for other cities to emulate. But a closer look suggests city officials were motivated more by payback than prudence.

The city's negotiator claimed costs would continue to be driven up by guaranteed benefits, the stock market crash causing dwindling returns on state retirement system investments and longer retiree life spans.

A case can be made for raising the retirement age for future employees. But CalPERS and the Legislature are addressing the recent spike in costs for the state's pension program, and Wall Street has begun its recovery from the recession. Given those developments and the city's enviable financial position, there was no need for Carlsbad to take urgent action.

Are firefighters overpaid? The city says the average gross salary of paramedic/firefighters exceeds $97,000. But $20,000 of that is in overtime pay not included in pension calculations. The base salary ranges from $63,000 to $77,000.

Mayor Bud Lewis claimed the average salary of the city's "male breadwinners" ranges from $75,000 to $80,000, although city staff in attendance had no idea where those numbers came from. SANDAG reports the city's median household income exceeds $101,000.

Regardless of his antiquated view of the primacy of male breadwinners, you have to wonder if the mayor really believes those we entrust with saving our lives and property should be paid no more than the average adult male Carlsbad resident.

One week after the council stiffed the firefighters, the mayor announced a tentative contract with the police union: 2 percent pay hikes this year and next and a phased-in increase in the amount they must pay into the pension system.

In contrast, firefighters agreed to reduced pensions for new employees and an immediate increase in their retirement contribution. In return, they got a one-year contract with no pay raise.

Looks questionable to me.

Arizona law claims and facts

2010-05-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times

Before Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer issued her executive order requiring law enforcement officers to be trained to avoid racial profiling, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, explained in a nationally televised interview how police could enforce Arizona's new immigration law without such training.

"They will look at the kind of dress you wear," he told Chris Mathews, "There's different type of attire, right down to the shoes."

North County Times political cartoon freelancer John Webster depicted our 50th District representative in oversized clown shoes, asking a cop writing him a ticket how he could tell he was a congressman.

Bilbray has yet to disavow shoe-style profiling, but in an apparent attempt to gain gravitas after his interview went viral on YouTube, Bilbray wrote an opinion piece for this newspaper ("Arizona law result of federal failures," May 9).

Here's a fact check:

Claim: Growing threats to its economic security and public safety forced Arizona to take action.

Fact: The year before the law was enacted Homeland Security and the FBI reported an 18 percent decline in the state's illegal immigrants, a 9 percent drop in violent crime and 6 percent fewer burglaries. That suggests the new law is more about politics than public well-being.

Claim: Arizona is simply enforcing federal law.

Fact: A half-truth. Section 287g of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes Homeland Security to sign agreements with state law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws only if designated officers are trained and supervised by federal immigration and customs officers.

Placing training and supervision in the hands of local law enforcement agencies gives the green light to rogue sheriffs such as Maricopa County's Joe Arpaio, who has come under federal investigation for alleged civil rights violations.

Claim: Requiring employers to use E-verify will stop the hiring of illegal workers.

Fact: A recent study by a research company hired by Homeland Security to evaluate the program showed E-verify failed to catch more than half of the unauthorized workers it checks.

Claim: Immigration reform has been hindered by "radical, pro-amnesty partisan lawmakers."

Fact: Requiring illegal immigrants to pay a fine, undergo criminal background checks, learn English and go to the back of the line to apply for permanent residency is not amnesty. The only president favoring amnesty in the last 25 years was Ronald Reagan, signing the 1986 law that allowed border crashers who had lived in the U.S. continuously up until 1982 to be legal residents with no financial penalty and few questions asked.

Our previous 50th District representative is in prison. The incumbent's bizarre national interview, attracting more than 44,000 YouTube views and counting, may have his constituents wondering if, as Webster's cartoon suggests, they've exchanged a crook for a clown.

California's "broken" public schools

2010-05-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

For the North County Times: May 7, 2010

There's no shortage of complaints about our "broken" public schools or suggestions about how to fix them. But if success is measured by student test scores alone, only a handful of schools in North County are in urgent need of repair.

Each time test results are released, we're reminded that schools with the best scores are attended by students from the wealthiest families. That doesn't necessarily mean those schools have the best teachers. Students from affluent families don't have to lean so heavily on teachers to succeed. In fact, a case could be made that teachers with the greatest influence on student learning can be found in schools with the lowest test scores.

So how do you mend a broken school? For starters, we could fix a school financing system that punishes the poor while rewarding the wealthy.

Here's how it works in North County. The test score gap between Vista schools and San Dieguito schools in Encinitas, Del Mar and Solana Beach matches the $45,000 difference in median family income separating the two districts. While Vista faces sanctions for low academic performance, the award-winning San Dieguito district boasts on its website of being "one of the nation's finest."

In her March 25 budget message, Vista Superintendent Joyce Bales noted enrollment had plunged by 3,000 students during the last decade. Since funding is based on daily attendance, budget cuts have resulted in "more than a $50 million decrease for three consecutive years." That means fewer teachers and larger classes, hardly a recipe for fixing broken schools.

Meanwhile, San Dieguito Superintendent Ken Noah announced his district is now getting more revenue from property taxes than from state funding. Unlike Vista, when enrollment falls, San Dieguito schools prosper. As a result, the district faces a manageable $8 million cut in state funding for special programs during the next two years. That will require belt tightening and turning away transfer students from other districts. But there's no talk of larger classes or teacher layoffs in North County's wealthiest school district.

Some say unions are to blame for our broken schools. But if that is so, why don't they have the same effect everywhere? The district and faculty union collaborate for the good of their students in San Dieguito.

But in Vista, where a multimillion-dollar commercial reading program, imposed by a divisive superintendent, has shown questionable evidence of success, and where the primary concerns of two recent school board members have been to oppose unions and gay marriage, the teachers aren't happy.

This tale of two districts suggests irrational school funding, combined with dysfunctional leadership, are more to blame for our broken schools.

Has the tea gone cold?

2010-04-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

By RICHARD RIEHL -- For the North County Times | April 23, 2010

Has the local tea party movement reached its peak? Comparing this year's Oceanside event with last year's led me to that conclusion.

Last year's crowd, after being revved up by speakers at the Civic Center, marched to the pier to dump sandbags marked "tea" into the sea. It was a family affair, with lots of kids, a few of them in strollers. As they marched along, the angry crowd chanted "USA! USA! It was a festive affair, but the signs claiming our elected leaders were traitors were unnerving.

Organizers said there were at least 5,000 in attendance.

This year's event attracted only about 1,500 true believers to the pier amphitheater, according to police estimates, and produced a more sedate, sit-and-listen crowd. Promoted as a family-friendly affair with face-painting for the kids, I was struck by the shortage of children. On average, this year's partiers appeared to be about 10 years older than last year's.

The scheduled headliner, San Diego's favorite conservative radio talk jock Rick Roberts, failed to show up. A lesser known media personality, feeling the need to fire up his audience, repeatedly begged, "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?" The tepid response indicated many were not familiar with that kind of rocking.

Despite the crowd's indifference to matters of municipal politics, a few City Council hopefuls showed up. When Oceanside recall survivor Jerry Kern breathlessly boasted of his victory over labor union attacks, the response was underwhelming.

Organized labor was not among the day's favorite targets.

Pandering reached its peak, though, with the arrival onstage of gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner. Dramatically declaring, "I don't like to pay taxes, do you?" he promised to cut taxes, put a stop to illegal immigration "once and for all," and sue the feds "all the way to the Supreme Court" to eliminate California's "man-made water shortage."

He failed to mention his Web site promises to make a "massive" investment in education and to build environmentally friendly water-supply infrastructure projects.

Less government spending, not more, was the red meat this crowd hungered for.

Here's what we learned about this year's tea party supporters from the recent New York Times/CBS News Poll:

-- 58 percent think our best years are behind us when it comes to good jobs.

-- 75 percent are over 45, including 29 percent seniors.

-- 89 percent are white.

-- 59 percent are men.

-- While 84 percent of tea party supporters believe their views represent most Americans, only 25 percent of Americans think they do.

Only time will tell, but I'd say a collection of cranky old white guys vowing to bring back the good old days is unlikely to have much of a political future in this country.

Union influence on teacher pay

2010-04-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

Published in San Diego's North County Times, April 9, 2010

This newspaper's editorial board has issued an invitation for the community to engage in a discussion of how to improve our schools, narrowing the topic to five areas: teacher tenure, class size, school finance, union influence and leveraging technology. My thoughts about teacher tenure and union influence were shaped by five years of teaching high school English, followed by a 30-year career in public university administration.

Recent studies show that as many as half of all beginning teachers leave the profession in five years. I was a member of that group. When I left teaching it wasn't because of the pay, or that I didn't like working with students, or that I was a failure in the classroom. My principal offered me a pay raise to persuade me to stay.

I quit because I saw no career advancement as a classroom teacher and had no interest in being a school counselor or principal. Had there been a career track leading to a "master teacher" status, with a modified teaching load and responsibilities for mentoring beginning teachers, I might have happily remained in teaching.

Instead, I took a pay cut and an extension of my work year from nine to 12 months to accept a job working with students as a college admissions counselor.

I wonder if other former teachers have left the classroom for similar reasons.

My brief teaching career began in a small rural school in Washington in 1965, at an annual salary of $4,800. An online inflation calculator tells me that would equal the buying power of $33,000 today. If there was a teachers union at the time, nobody told me about it. But there is one today. This year's union-negotiated salary schedule in my old school district shows a first-year teacher's pay has risen to $34,000. Union influence over the years had boosted a novice teacher's buying power by a whopping $83 a month.

The Vista Unified School District's 2009-10 salary schedule lists a beginning teacher's pay at $38,771. That would be the equivalent of $5,450 in 1965 buying power. I'd say the ghosts of Sam Gompers and Jimmy Hoffa are not exactly exchanging high fives about union clout over teacher pay in those two school districts.

While most would agree today's teachers are not overpaid, some say unions are to be blamed for making it hard to get rid of bad teachers and impossible to reward the best. In a future column I'll have more to say about why I think blaming unions is often used as a smokescreen to hide administrative incompetence and a lack of financial commitment to school reform.

Hail to the Chief: A Survivor's Guide to Presidential Egos

2010-04-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

By Richard Riehl, in College and University, the

Winter 2010 edition of the journal for the American

Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers

I once was a student in a graduate seminar taught by the

president of the university where I was a mid-level administrator.

The course focused on what it takes to be the chief executive

of a university. He was the only one of the ten presidents under

whom I served who embraced the role of a college administrator;

the only one with formal training in educational leadership;

and the only one to have risen to his position from the ranks

of student affairs. He believed that presidents must possess

unusually strong egos, since their power begins to wane upon

their second day in office. A new president has to have an

ego strong enough to withstand the criticism that grows

incrementally with each executive decision.

Although I never had the pleasure of reporting directly

to a president, I came to know over the years the size and

shape of their egos and how they affected my daily work.

Those of us in the trenches are well aware of how executive

effluent flows downhill.

You may recognize your own chief executive among the

four types of campus leaders described below, but you’re

more likely to find your president to be a hybrid. I regret

that I was unable to observe a more diverse group. All ten

were white males. (That explains my exclusive use of the

male pronoun.) I suspect that executive egos transcend

race, ethnicity, and gender, but the narrowness of my

experience necessarily limits the validity of my conclusions.

THE RELUCTANT ADMINISTRATOR

Reluctant Administrators (RA) consider themselves, first

and foremost, members of the faculty — displaced scholars

thrust into the most powerful position in the campus bureaucracy.

They long for the day they can return to their first love:

scholarly work. Whatever presidential miscues they make

can be blamed on the bungling of bureaucratic underlings or

on being distracted by the daily burden of administrivia.

I had three RA presidents in my career. The first rose

to his position after having been a scholar respected by

faculty colleagues and a teacher beloved by his students.

He ran into trouble when he hired a provost from a distant

state and charged him with combining academic departments

into “areas of inquiry” more “relevant” to the issues of the day.

It was the 1970s — the age of Aquarius, Woodstock, and waffle

stompers. What he didn’t realize was that dismantling academic

fiefdoms is as hard as moving graveyards.

His next mistake was to oppose the creation of a college

of ethnic studies. He asked his new provost to run inter-

ference on both issues, but that didn’t protect him from the

wrath of both tenured faculty and bell-bottomed undergraduates.

I had very little direct exposure to this president. So I panicked

the day the registrar, my boss’s boss, summoned me to his office

to tell me the president was not pleased I had given a telephone

interview to Newsweek the day my boss was away from his office.

(It was heady stuff for this rookie administrator to be interviewed

by a national magazine!) But when I read the article about the

assistant director of admissions who explained that budget

cuts could cause the layoff of up to 30 faculty members, I figured

I’d soon be returning as a high school English teacher to my

first love. I was relieved the president didn’t fire me for that

rather significant indiscretion. Instead, he informed me through

the chain of command that interviews with the national media

are what presidents do, not first-year administrators.

My next RA president, a scientist drawn from the ranks of

the faculty, called me shortly after he was appointed interim

president. He wanted my opinion of what his presidential

priorities should be. A geologist trained in England, where

universities have neither general education requirements

nor athletic departments, he was comparatively clueless

about the hot issues facing most American college presidents.

At the time, I was director of admissions. Though flattered to

have been asked for my advice, I was wise enough by then

to limit my response to splendid generalities.

My least favorite RA president was a literary scholar who

loved to complain about his bureaucratic burdens. His way

of solving the financial challenges caused by an enrollment

downturn was to gather his vice presidents, call in the admissions

director, pound the table, and shout that he wanted more students

NOW! The next day he’d greet everyone with a smile and

inquire gently, “How’s recruitment going?” A thick skin and

a short memory are the best strategies for surviving this type of RA.

THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM

Presidents who regard themselves as the Smartest Guy

in the Room (SGIR) have the most tender of all presidential egos,

often requiring self-administered stroking.

I served under two SGIR presidents in my career. One liked

to tell me how ineffective my boss — the provost — was.

It was then that I practiced my half-smile, glazed-eyes look.

I knew his tirade was a no-winner for me: to nod in agreement

would be not only disloyal, but I also knew he’d tell my boss

about it; to defend my boss would be to dispute the president’s

status as the Smartest Guy in the Room. By maintaining my

zombie-like gaze, I only risked being thought of as not the

shiniest penny in the drawer — which is the safest place to be

in the company of an SGIR.

My other SGIR stroked his ego by arranging to land the leading

role in the school musical, “The Student Prince,” giving rise to

suspicion among the deans about the size of the theater

department’s future budget allocations. He turned out to be

passably good in the part, but the balding 40-year-old looked

a little strange on stage amid the cast of 20-year-olds playing

his fellow students.

This president also had the distinction of being the shortest

administrator on campus. I once met with him one on one in

his office. Knowing he was about three inches shorter than I,

I was puzzled to find myself looking up at him as we sat across

from each other. Assuming the customary eyes-lowered

posture of a supplicant, I noticed that his feet barely reached

the floor: His lofty ego had been boosted by the height adjustment

on his executive chair.

The SGIR is often the target of the hallway whisperings of

lower-level administrators and support staff that “the emperor

has no clothes.” And regardless of your place in the administrative

pecking order, the SGIR will keep you captive with stories

about his own achievements and the failures of previous

presidents and other administrators. But do feel free to send

irate students to the SGIR. Those with whom I worked were

unlikely to give such a student the time of day.

THE GOOD OLD BOY

The Good Old Boy (GOB) is comfortable in his own skin,

often giving the impression of being dumb like a fox. His folksy

ways should not be mistaken for weakness, however: GOBs

take pleasure in being underestimated.

Some GOBs crave to be loved by all. They hate to say no,

often getting others to say no for them. Whenever possible,

avoid sending an irate student to a GOB—that is, unless you

don’t mind having your decisions overruled.

I served under three GOBs. The first was a very large man,

a Texan reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson. Once, during a

faculty Senate meeting, he became the target of a barrage of

criticism in response to his plan to create a school of technology.

He simply smiled and nodded through the entire attack.

After the smoke had cleared, he drawled that all the criticism

leveled at him might be valid, but he was the guy in charge

and his decision would stand.

Another of my GOBs was a president straight from central casting:

square-jawed, tall, and white-haired, with a perpetual smile

and a warm southern accent. His ego was fed by never turning

anybody down. When it came to competing interests among

faculty and staff, he believed in social Darwinism.

“The best will rise to the top,” he told me during my job interview.

He was fond of giving hugs to women — especially the support

staff he encountered in the halls and offices. He once

brought to my office a student to whom we’d denied admission.

With his arm around the student’s shoulder, he told me with a

broad smile, “I’ll bet Mr. Riehl can help you.”

My third GOB infuriated the faculty by siding with students

on every issue. He was a short-term interim president,

so the faculty held their collective breath until his appointment

ended. Not one to believe in written speeches, he’d wing it.

Literally. In his first speech to the community, he busted a

Charleston dance move, featuring the famous exchanging

hands-on-knees bit. It was a pretty weird sight. (“Dancing with

the Stars” had not yet made its television debut.)

Just don’t make the mistake of thinking the GOB is your pal.

Underneath all that surface warmth is an ego needing

constant attention.

THE COMPLEAT ADMINISTRATOR

I served under two Compleat Administrator (CA) presidents in

my 30-year career in enrollment services. My favorite was a

scholar of organizational leadership. He relied on data to

make decisions and was a careful planner. Best of all, he

knew how to handle people. He made his subordinates

want to work harder while not pressuring them with anything

but expectations for excellence. He openly admitted he had

a substantial ego, but it didn’t get in the way of his decision

making. He was never apologetic for being an administrator.

He believed the quality of administrative leadership could

either enhance or hinder teaching and learning.

He also understood that even the most skillful of campus

leaders cannot succeed without the support of their academic

communities. If they don’t make hard decisions soon after

being appointed to office, they’re unlikely to make them at all.

In his case, proud of firing an incompetent vice president

early in his presidency, he regretted not eliminating the football

program, a perennial loser on the field and in the budget office.

By the time he gained the courage to kill the program, he’d

lost the clout to pull it off.

The other CA was not so warm and fuzzy. The essence of his

plan to build a more diverse student body was to add a

minority recruiter to the admissions staff. I suggested to my

vice president that it would be better to bring in a higher-level

administrator responsible for helping to create a campus

climate that would both retain and attract more minority students.

When I got word that the president wanted to give me money

and wondered why I didn’t want it, I agreed it would be best

to add another recruiter to my staff.

Presidential egos come in all shapes and sizes.

Here are a few survival strategies:

· Never bend the truth, either to make your president happy

or to make yourself look good.

· In the company of a president, there’s room enough for

only one ego.

· Propose at least two alternatives in response to a crisis.

That way your president will be able both to take credit for

what works and to blame you for what doesn’t.

· Don’t make a habit of painting a bleaker picture than it is,

hoping that if things don’t turn out so badly everyone will

be happier. “Sky-is-falling” types soon lose their credibility

with ego-driven presidents.

· When enrollment is up, credit the faculty, not your nifty

new recruitment strategies.

· Be wary of becoming the president’s pal. (See above

regarding “space for egos.”)

· Make friends with a chief of staff who has the ear of the president.

Most important, keep your perspective. Do not attempt to

make yourself the indispensable administrator. Cemeteries

are filled with indispensable people.

About the author: Richard J. Riehl is a freelance op-ed columnist for San Diego’s

North County Times. Throughout his 33-year career in higher education administration,

he was an active AACRAO member, including service on the College and University

Editorial Board.

THE RIEHL WORLD: Politics differ in two cities

2010-03-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

First published in San Diego's North County Times, March 26, 2010

If you walk the seawall late at night along Carlsbad Boulevard, you may hear voices in the distance sounding the alarm: "To arms! To arms! The unions are coming! The unions are coming!"

The familiar warning cry began with a Feb. 20 headline in this newspaper: "City's unions expected to play active role in mayoral election."

From the day City Councilman Keith Blackburn declared his candidacy for mayor, tongues have been wagging about how police and firefighters unions have announced their intent to do whatever they can to put the former police officer in the seat that Bud Lewis occupied for a quarter of a century.

Unlike in Oceanside, labor unions have not played a major role in Carlsbad City Council politics. With more union involvement, will North County's model municipality of political civility be in danger of being sucked into the all-consuming black hole of partisanship that plagues its northern neighbor?

That brings up the question of whether unions alone can change the climate of city government. If the two cities were alike in other ways, adding union influence might have a similar impact. But a closer look at how the cities differ in the challenges facing their city officials suggests Carlsbad voters may have nothing to fear but fear itself.

For starters, take a look at the budget charts of taxing and spending on the Web sites of the two cities. Carlsbad's pie chart shows 57 percent of revenue coming from taxes and 18 percent of expenditures going to public safety. In Oceanside, taxes generate 69 percent of income, while 62 percent of expenses go to public safety.

The ingredients of the two slices of the pie may not be directly comparable, but in politics, public perceptions count most. Questions about where the money comes from and where it goes are the hot-button issues that can lead to dysfunctional politics in every city. Their budget charts alone suggest that Carlsbad and Oceanside officials face very different city finance issues.

An online respondent to the Feb. 20 newspaper article urged his fellow citizens not to vote for any candidate who gets a penny of union support. He should be reminded that the generous city employee retirement benefits that folks like him complain about were created by a council with nary a member beholden to union financial support. The seeds of Carlsbad's budget vulnerability were planted during the years of an economic boom that city officials apparently thought would never end.

Councilman Matt Hall, another candidate for mayor, was among those decision makers.

Maybe Carlsbad voters should be less afraid of labor unions and more interested in new leadership.

Rights and teachable moments

2010-03-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

By RICHARD RIEHL -- For the North County Times | Posted: March 12, 2010

Two opinion pieces about our constitutional rights appeared in this space recently, each providing a teachable moment.

On Feb. 28, a staff columnist, citing the First Amendment's protection of free speech, justified the right of UC San Diego students to hold an off-campus "Compton Cookout" party mocking Black History Month. He invited those who were offended to hold their own party to make fun of conservative white students.

The Compton Cookout was, indeed, an exercise of free speech, vile as it was for the hurtful racial stereotypes it promoted. The local office of the ACLU, that favorite whipping boy of social conservatives, urged that disciplinary action not be taken against the party's student organizers and praised the university for scheduling a teach-in to counter "offensive speech with more speech."

But suggesting that those offended by the Compton Cookout should hold a party making fun of conservative white students is a good example of what has been so damaging to our political discourse lately. If you're looking for shouting-match sound bites that reinforce political stereotypes, tune in to Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann any day of the week. You'll find lots of free speech there, but not much in the way of enlightenment about complex issues.

A few days after the free speech column appeared, a local pundit railed against those who challenge the legality of Proposition 8 on the grounds that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment's provision for equal protection under the law. He complained that churches opposed to same-sex marriage are even now being discriminated against for their religious beliefs, a violation of their First Amendment rights.

When it comes to legalizing same-sex marriage, are we forced to choose between the First and Fourteenth Amendments? Are the rights of freedom of religion and equal protection under the law mutually exclusive? I don't think so.

As evidence that churches have already lost their right to religious free expression, the columnist claimed that a Massachusetts Catholic Charities organization had to end its adoption work because the state discriminated against the group for its religious beliefs. But nobody was forced to abandon either their religious beliefs or practices. The adoption agency chose to end its service to the public because it refused to obey the state's anti-discrimination law.

The Catholic Church's right to free religious expression was protected, while same-sex couples retained their right to equal protection under the law. The losers here were children without parents.

During the recent federal court trial in San Francisco, a witness defending Proposition 8 was asked how same-sex marriage threatens traditional marriage.

After a long pause, he replied, "I don't know."

Now, that was a teachable moment.

Photo op illustrates confusion

2010-02-26T06:02:00.000-08:00

By RICHARD RIEHL -- For the North County Times | February 26, 2010

The picture in the newspaper last week of North County's Reps. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, and Darrell Issa, R-Vista, at a Carlsbad Toyota service center was a sad reflection of their leadership styles and legislative priorities. Bilbray appears confused, Issa skeptical, at the sight of a gas pedal in need of repair. I can relate, having stared at car parts myself. With no clue of what I'm looking for, I tend to agree with whatever the mechanic recommends.

The scene reminded me of Bilbray's confused proposals for reducing unemployment and Issa's skepticism of how the Obama administration is counting the numbers of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program. If you're out of solutions to this country's biggest problems in an anti-incumbency election year, your safest campaign strategy is to show your concern over the safety of Toyota drivers.

Bilbray's confusion can be found on his campaign Web site, where he declares, "The best way to encourage small business owners and entrepreneurs to start hiring again is not to increase taxes on them, but to offer them tax incentives to hire more people!" Apparently nobody told him about the president's plan, announced last March, to cut taxes for small businesses and provide a tax credit of $5,000 for every new employee they hire.

In a letter to the president in November, Bilbray suggested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should step up its worksite enforcement actions to deport illegal immigrant workers, making room for more jobs for legal workers. His letter arrived six months after an ICE crackdown on lawbreaking employers had resulted in 1,897 worksite enforcement actions, compared with 605 during the same period in 2008.

Our confused congressman appears to be neglecting his homework.

Issa mentions job creation twice on his Web site, questioning the Obama administration's method of tracking the success of the recovery act and offering his solution to unemployment: "stop the threat of policies like a national energy tax and a government health care take over that scare private sector employers away from expanding their businesses and hiring new employees." In Issa's America, the job market will bloom again if the government adopts Herbert Hoover's strategy of benign neglect.

Although the nation's unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent, it's less than 5 percent for those with a bachelor's degree and more than 15 percent for those without a high school diploma. With budget cuts decimating our schools and colleges, and while area unemployment remains above 10 percent, it was discouraging to find our local lawmakers posing for a photo op with a broken gas pedal.

Sears Horror Story: an open letter to CEO Bruce Johnson

2010-02-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Johnson:

The following is an account of our attempt to buy an appliance from Sears which may give you some insight into the reasons your sales have tanked and your shareholders are losing their shirts.

On January 26 we ordered a 27” Frigidaire stacked washer/dryer combo from the Carlsbad, California Sears store. A guy named Augie was the salesman. He did a fine job of explaining the terms of the sale and the delivery service. Since we were having our bathroom remodeled, where the unit would be installed in a closet in our tiny condo, we advance-ordered delivery for February 15.

When the remodeling job was completed a week earlier than expected, I called to move up the installation date, as Augie told me I could do. We were disappointed to learn it could only be moved up one day, to the 14^th, since our old washer no longer worked. But we accepted that when we were told that was the best Sears could do. Since the 14^th fell on a Sunday, I did ask to make sure they made deliveries on that day of the week. I was assured they do.

On February 12^th I called the delivery service number to confirm the new delivery on the 14^th and was alarmed when the automated voice system told me there was no record of our order based on our telephone number. After I was transferred to a human representative, I became even more alarmed when she informed me that they had our delivery day rightly scheduled for the 14^th, but the order was for the installation of a dryer only. When I told her that was not correct, she put me on hold to check with someone else. After waiting ten minutes, I gave up and called salesman Augie at the store. He assured me that the washer/dryer combo would be delivered as promised and that the sales slip only says “Electric Dryer Kit” to distinguish it from the gas model. The slip does not indicate it is half of a washer/dryer combo.

That seemed odd enough to me to ask to speak to Augie’s supervisor to register a complaint about the confusion. His supervisor Denise called me back promptly to explain further and agreed with me that the sales slip is confusing and that the customer service people should be better trained. She assured me the washer/dryer would be delivered as promised on the 14^th and to await a call from the delivery service the night before to confirm the time of installation.

The evening of the 13^th we received an automated call telling us the appliance would be delivered the following day between the hours of 3 and 5 and to prepare for the delivery. On the 14^th I spent my Sunday afternoon removing two doors from their hinges and pulling out the old appliance to make it easier for the delivery people to install in the small space.

After waiting until 5:30 on the day of the scheduled delivery, I called the delivery service again. This time the person I talked to told me she had no idea why it was not delivered on time, but she thought she’d seen a note that the appliance “could not be located in the warehouse.” I asked to speak to her supervisor, so she put me on hold.

After waiting ten minutes, I gave up and called the store again. The person who took my call said he’d check on it and call me back, which he did in about five minutes. He said the delivery had been rescheduled to February 16 and that we’d get a call on the 15^th to confirm the time. I told him if the machine were not installed and operating by the 16^th we’d cancel our order and ask for a refund. He readily accepted that.

Later that evening, I called the delivery service number once again, just to double check on the delivery date. Once again the automated voice system did not recognize an order with our telephone number. When Rocky, the representative came on the line he assured me that our electric dryer would be delivered as promised on the 16^th and to expect a call confirming the time of delivery on the 15^th. I didn’t bother to ask if we’d get both the dryer and the washer, since it was clear he had no idea it was a combo.

It’s now the morning of the 15^th and a Sears representative, who didn’t identify herself, called to tell me the manufacturer had not delivered the machine to the warehouse and that she had no idea when it would get there. She assured me I’d get a two-day notice before the installation.

At that point I simply said goodbye, canceled the order and bought a Maytag from the local Home Depot, who promised a free two-day delivery and installation, including the haul away of the old machine.

I realize that losing a mere $1,222 sale doesn’t amount to much for Sears, but if our experience is any indication, the future doesn’t look bright for you in this competitive economy. When I told Augie’s supervisor that your customer service is “killing you,” she just nodded and said, “I know.”

THE RIEHL WORLD: Group's off-target early hit

2010-02-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

By RICHARD RIEHL -- For the North County Times | February 12, 2010

From the urgency of its actions, you'd think the Friends of Aviara had just discovered a Super Walmart was about to open its doors on the shores of the Batiquitos Lagoon.

The La Costa neighborhood group is suing Carlsbad's City Council for approving a planning document that would bring affordable senior housing to their backyard. The lawsuit is a pre-emptive strike on a proposal the City Council has never discussed, much less approved.

What the council did approve at its Dec. 22 meeting was a revision of the city's general plan that references Pontebello, a proposed project that would add 76 low- and moderate-income units to its housing plan, helping the city meet the state's affordable housing law.

Senior Planner Scott Donnell explained that if the city failed to obtain state certification for its housing plan it could lose millions in future state and county government grants. Carlsbad would also be exposed to lawsuits halting development until the state steps in to mandate the number and locations of affordable housing units.

Donnell emphasized that the approved housing element does nothing more than guide future development. All rezoning requests are still subject to public hearings, during which time the Friends of Aviara may produce evidence supporting its opposition to the change. If the rezone is denied, the city must find another site for the project.

No new development project can be approved without a formal assessment of its environmental and architectural impacts and after another public hearing has been held.

A preamble to the petition being circulated by the Aviara group claims, "This rezoning of a low-density single family housing area to high density meets the definition of spot zoning" and "represents a taking of property value from established property owners and tax payers."

A review of Carlsbad's zoning map reveals the shakiness of those claims. Only 20 percent of the Pontebello project area is now zoned for single family residences. Seventy percent is zoned for either multiple-family dwellings or "Limited Control," which allows for mixed uses, ranging from family day care homes to pig farms. The Friends of Aviara should be careful what it wishes for.

It's quite a stretch to call the rezone of property proposed for the Pontebello project "spot zoning," since its purpose would be to support Carlsbad's stated land use policies and objectives, the area is surrounded by compatible multiple-family residence zoning, and there's no evidence it would reduce property values.

If Aviara Oaks Elementary School were to give Friends of Aviara a report card, it wouldn't surprise me to find "doesn't play well with others" under teacher comments.

Community College BA degrees no bargain

2010-01-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

For the North County Times | January 29, 2010

San Diego's 78thDistrict Assemblyman Marty Block claims more students would complete bachelor's degrees if two-year colleges became four-year colleges.

He's drafting legislation to allow California's community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees. In a recent interview, Block said he'd like to see money shifted out of the California State University system to community colleges to produce a "bigger bang for the taxpayer's buck" in higher education.

The problem Block wants to solve is that four-year degrees are becoming less accessible because of budget cuts forcing California's public universities to turn away thousands of students and raise fees on the students lucky enough to get in. A retired San Diego State University professor, Block sees a simple solution. Community colleges are more affordable, conveniently located and have an open-door admissions policy.

Seventeen states are already offering bachelor's degrees in their community colleges. But would it work here?

California community college full-time faculty salaries are, on average, higher than those in the California State University system. Three out of four community college instructors are lower-paid part-timers who teach classes at several colleges within driving range.

In 2008, the average salary of full-time faculty in California's community colleges was $85,000. MiraCosta College faculty, with an average salary of $116,000, were paid more than any other community college instructors in the state, while the average pay at Palomar College was $92,000. By contrast, the average salary of CSU tenure-track faculty was $78,000. Less than half of CSU instructors are part-timers.

In Washington State, where community colleges have begun offering bachelor's degrees, community college instructors earned an average salary of $51,000 in 2006, while their counterparts at four-year public colleges earned an average of $82,000. There's logic behind the argument that it would cost less to have students remain at a Washington community college for four years.

It will be interesting to see how Assemblyman Block can make the case that taxpayers will get a bigger bang for the buck if the higher-priced work force of California's community colleges is expanded. Unless, of course, the lower-paid part-timers are hired to teach upper division classes in the major, which would raise questions about the quality of the program.

Full disclosure: My 30-year career as a university administrator included eight years in Indiana, where the only community college at the time was improbably named Vincennes University. Both two and four-year degree programs were offered at the state's 14 public university campuses.

Not surprisingly, the state had one of the lowest college participation rates in the nation and one of the highest costs per student in public funding for higher education.

RICHARD J. RIEHL writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at RiehlWorld2@yahoo.com

Courage, tolerance and kids

2010-01-18T09:21:00.000-08:00

North County Times | Friday, January 15, 2010

The same folks who claimed California schools would teach kids to turn gay if Proposition 8 failed at the polls wanted to stop a time-delayed Webcast of the federal court challenge to the new law. It seems some opponents of gay marriage would rather remain in the closet than be outed on YouTube.

The battle over gay marriage continues to rage in this newspaper's opinion pages. In letters to the editor you can find disagreements over Biblical quotations, gay penguins and the proper connections of nuts, bolts and screws.

Some misguided pundits see a conspiracy of secular humanists, liberals and gays advancing a hidden "agenda" to corrupt the young.

As adults wrangle over who should be allowed to hook up with whom, what's been going on in our schools?

Conservative syndicated columnist George Will opines that gay marriage won't be an issue in this country's future because today's school children find being gay about as interesting as being left-handed. But even though children are more open-minded than their parents about such things, left-handers do not face the same threat of being bullied by their peers that gay students do.

According to a 2004 report by the California Safe Schools Coalition and 4H Center for Youth Development at UC Davis, more than 200,000 California students are harassed each year based on either perceived or actual sexual orientation.

Compared with those who are not harassed, gay students who are bullied are three times more likely to bring a weapon to school and twice as likely to seriously consider committing suicide.

Ninety-one percent of students reported they had overheard other students making negative comments about sexual orientation. Forty-four percent overheard teachers making similar comments.

Last year the Alameda school board planned to institute a program called Lesson 9 to address the problem of anti-gay school bullying. But, bowing to pressure brought by parents with religious views that do not condone homosexuality, the school district voted to change the program to general lessons against bias.

Here in North County, students themselves are leading the fight against anti-gay bullying. California's Gay-Straight Alliance Network lists affiliated clubs at seven North County high schools: Carlsbad, La Costa Canyon, Poway, Rancho Buena Vista, San Dieguito Academy, Torrey Pines and Vista. Founded in 1998, the GSA Network is a youth leadership organization that connects school-based GSA clubs that fight discrimination, harassment and violence in schools.

Maybe the adults who fear the Webcast of federal court testimony on the constitutionality of Prop. 8 could learn something about courage and tolerance from the kids they say they want to protect from going gay.

Richard J. Riehl writes from Carlsbad, CA.

Confessions of an Ex-Boss: What I Learned from my Staff

2010-01-18T09:10:00.000-08:00

This article first appeared in the Summer 2010 edition of College and University, the journal of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers

My name is Richard, and I’m a recovering university administrator.
I’ve been administration-free for six years, but
I continue to have flashbacks to a career that led to this
battle with PASD: Post-Administrative Stress Disorder.
Sharing with you what I learned from my staff during my
30-year career will allow me to confront the ghosts of decisions
past — ghosts that haunt me for the mistakes I made
sitting behind a big desk in a large office, out of earshot of
the buzz arising from the tiny desks in Cubicle Land.
In my past life I worked at three different universities,
all mid-size public institutions. I was responsible, at
various times, for supervising staffs that recruited and admitted
students, evaluated their transfer credit, awarded
them financial aid, registered them, checked them out for
graduation, and organized their commencement ceremonies.
My preparation for this career consisted of a couple
of liberal arts degrees and five years of high school teaching
and coaching.

Western Washington University enrolled 9,000 students
when I was appointed director of admissions. I
was 29 years old, with three whole years as an admissions
counselor under my belt. I had never supervised anyone
over the age of eighteen. I suddenly found myself responsible
for a staff of eight women, all older, wiser, and more
experienced than I, and a male associate director ten years
my senior who had been the other finalist for the job I had
just landed. I remember well the day my new boss, an oldschool
kind of guy, summoned me to his office to tell me I
had the job. I was no longer to be “Dick Riehl, everybody’s
buddy,” he explained; rather, I was “Richard Riehl, Director
of University Admissions.” I understood him to mean
that my new responsibilities would force me to make enemies
because of the difficult decisions I’d have to make.
In hindsight, I think he also meant I had to grow up.
Upon returning to my new, more spacious office, my
first two thoughts were, “Now what do I do?” followed by
the solemn vow, “Never let ’em see you sweat.” I was lucky
to have on my staff a competent, experienced, and wellrespected
office manager who already ran the office. She
told me what to do and how and when to do it, all while
allowing me to think that I was the one in charge. That
represented the beginning of my education by those who
called me “boss.”

I was especially fortunate to have two talented associate
directors, including the one who had competed against
me for the director’s job but who was extraordinarily gracious
in defeat, invariably loyal, and possessed a great sense
of humor. I learned that he also had never met a rule or a
policy that shouldn’t or couldn’t be bent or broken. My
other associate was likewise a respected professional with
a wonderful sense of humor. But unlike the other, he believed that rules were rules and rarely — if ever — should they be bent or broken. The three of us had some spirited conversations during the years we worked together.

What I learned was that both of them could make persuasive arguments. I found myself searching for decisions that, like the porridge of the three bears, were neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for the circumstances.

What I didn’t learn early enough in my career was that sometimes, in the interest of avoiding conflict, I was not as open and honest as I should have been in my decision making. I wanted to be loved by all. I learned, however, that in the long run, avoiding uncomfortable confrontations often led to more trouble for both my staff and me.

After sixteen years of figuring out how to be a good director of admissions at Western, I headed to the Midwest, where “Assistant Vice President” was added to my job title at Indiana State University. I inherited an easy-going boss whose feathers never seemed to get ruffled. Whenever he was warned that morale was low, he’d just smile and say, “Yes, morale always seems to be bad and getting worse, doesn’t it?” He accepted the grumbling of faculty and staff as part of the territory for administrators.

Experience taught me that some unhappy staff members are happiest when those around them are unhappy and can be persuaded that the boss is the source of all their unhappiness. Happy staff members, on the other hand, tend to take responsibility for — and create — their own happiness.

Except for news shows, I don’t watch much TV. But I’m addicted to “The Office,” with Steve Carell as Michael Scott, the boss at a branch office of Dunder-Mifflin Office Paper. In a recent episode, Michael cheerfully declared, “An office is a place where dreams come true.” He was blithely unaware that his overblown ego and self-pity made him the office’s chief dream-crusher. In one of his lower moments, Michael reflected that he had become a boss because the word had once meant something good, like, “Wow, that’s a boss sweater you’re wearing today!” It was sad for him to learn that the word had come to mean “the jerk in charge.”

I must admit that I recognize a little of Michael Scott in myself. Bosses love to be loved, and sometimes they do the stupidest things to try to gain that love from their staff. If the worker bees are unhappy, it becomes time for a party or a Wear-Your-Pajamas-to-Work Day. Some people love office parties and silly games; others find them annoying. Some believe it’s important for everyone to feel he is part of one big, happy family; others prefer to be left alone to do their work.

Now that I am entering my “golden years,” I understand that big, happy families that get along without occasional falling outs engendered by too much togetherness and too few compatible personalities are mostly the creation of fiction writers. Expecting a collection of individuals hired for their technical expertise to perform a variety of different jobs and working together in a confined space to love one another unconditionally is a fantasy. No amount of partying and game playing can make it reality.

Team building, however, is a different matter. I wish I had been more honest in explaining to each staff member what unique qualities she brought to the team. For example, some people flourish in groups; others are hermits. Some can’t see the forest for the trees; some can’t see the trees for the forest. Some are confrontationally honest; others are fragile flowers whose self-esteem needs constant tending. Some are well-organized; others are scatterbrained creative geniuses. It is the boss’s job to help each staff member understand how her unique qualities can enhance the team. That can be a challenge when so many egos are involved.

It was as a high school basketball coach that I learned the meaning of “role players.” One team member spent more time on the bench than on the court because he was somewhat athletically challenged. But Dennis could do one thing better than anybody else on the team: He could keep our opponents guessing. Because Dennis was slightly cross-eyed, it was impossible for the defense to know where he might pass the ball next. So whenever our team was challenged by a full court press, I sent Denny into the game to save us. On those occasions, our bench warmer became our star player. Unfortunately, I didn’t always apply as an administrator what I had learned as a coach about role players.

In my later days as a boss, I began to realize the power staff members have to make their boss a success or a failure. A boss can make his staff better by telling them the truth rather than what he thinks they want to hear. As a rookie boss, I had the advantage of having a staff who knew more than I did; who knew that they knew; and who took pity on me. They prevented me from making serious blunders by telling me when they thought I was wrong.

In my second administrative position, I was the oldest and most experienced in the office. My staff tried hard to find out what I wanted them to say so they could show me how smart they were. It felt good to be so highly respected, but it didn’t feel so good when things went wrong and I realized nobody had been brave enough to tell me what I didn’t want to hear.

Shortly after my arrival at Indiana State, my new, young staff told me that recruitment information nights were held at motels throughout the state. When I learned how expensive it was to rent conference rooms, I suggested that we could save money and promote community spirit by holding the events in public libraries. I did so with such enthusiasm that nobody warned me about the drawbacks. I didn’t know it would be so hard for families to find their local public libraries. I didn’t know that some libraries closed their doors as early as 8 pm, which meant that our guests sometimes had to leave before we could answer all their questions. Despite the poor turnouts and inconveniences, we marched on until one evening, when our dean of housing, five academic advisors, and two admissions counselors accompanied me to an information night event where we were greeted only by a lone prospective student, his parents, and his little sister. Our next recruitment event was held at a Holiday Inn.

Another lesson I learned from my staff is that a boss can make erroneous assumptions based on one unhappy staff member, subjecting the rest to desperate attempts to make that one person happy. I should have learned better from an experience I had had as a high school English teacher: A student teacher I was supervising was quite bright and articulate and had the attention of all but one of her students. Unfortunately, he was the brightest and most arrogant student in the class. His sarcastic wit made her feel like a failure. I saw 29 attentive students who liked her; she saw the one who didn’t and thought the rest hated her. As a boss, I sometimes found myself spending more time worrying about one disgruntled staff member than about the productivity of the rest of the staff.

One of my favorite authors is Malcolm Gladwell, an economist and staff writer for the New Yorker. In his latest bestseller, Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell researched the cause of airplane crashes and discovered that many of them were caused not by catastrophic technical failures, violent weather, or incompetent pilots; rather, they were caused by “mitigated speech” in the cockpit — that is, speech used by a lower-level co-pilot who doesn’t want to appear to be questioning the pilot’s judgment. Rather than warning “This is an emergency. We have to land now,” the first officer might observe, “Captain, we seem to be running out of fuel.” It made me wonder how many times my own “co-pilots” told this “pilot” what I wanted to hear rather than what I needed to hear in order to avoid crashing and burning.

You can improve your boss’s performance as a supervisor and make your own office life happier if, when evaluation time comes around, you tell your boss what you consider to be your own special talents and how they can contribute to the office’s success. Ask if your boss agrees with your self-assessment. There is no need to confess your shortcomings! Ask, instead, how you can leverage your skills to improve your own job performance. This is also your opportunity to tell your boss what he can do to help bring out the best in you.

I wish I had given my superiors more honest feedback about their job performance. Had my staff done that for me, their work lives might have been happier, and these confessions of an ex-boss might have been unnecessary. Indeed, the ghosts of decisions past might not be haunting me today.

About the Author
Richard J. Riehl is a freelance op-ed columnist for San Diego’s North County Times. Throughout his 33-year career in higher education administration he was an active member of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, including service on the College and University Journal's Editorial Board.

Obama and McCain on Education

2008-09-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Each of the last three residents of the White House vowed to be known as the "education president." Today, after twenty years of broken promises, we seem to be left with little more than a debate over whether public schools are worth saving. Given the economy's flirtation with disaster, it's unlikely either presidential candidate will win votes with the slogan, "It's the education system, stupid."

The candidates agree that education in America is in dire need of improvement. They also agree on the basics for reform: early childhood education is vital, parents play a central role, the No Child Left Behind Act hasn't lived up to its promises, more accountability for results is needed, and more must be done to attract and retain good teachers.

John McCain thinks all of those goals can be met by re-allocating current federal funds and encouraging states to pick up more of the costs of reforming education. Obama says his comprehensive plan will cost $18 billion in federal funds when it is completely phased in. To pay for it, according to his campaign web site, he would delay a NASA project for five years, auction surplus federal property, close tax loopholes for executives, and use some of the savings associated with winding down the war in Iraq, among other sources.

Here's how the candidates compare on the major issues:

No Child Left Behind and School Reform
According to John McCain NCLB has been primarily a wake-up call that public schools are failing. According to his campaign website, "While NCLB has been invaluable in providing a clear picture of which schools and students are struggling, it is only the beginning of education reform." McCain believes the program is adequately funded as it is and that "all federal financial support" should provide parents "the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools" to "schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes." Assessment shouldn't be on "group averages" but on encouraging every child to reach their potential.

Obama believes NCLB had the right goal, but has failed to make a difference because the program has been underfunded, poorly designed and inadequately implemented by the Department of Education. His catch phrase is "No Child Left Behind left the money behind." He says the law can be fixed by improving the assessments to track student progress "in a timely, individualized manner." He says, "Teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests." He also vows to improve NCLB's accountability system by supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them. Obama supports charter schools to give parents choices and to encourage innovation in public schools. Unlike McCain, Obama doesn't believe parents should be able to use vouchers for public school money to be used for private schools.

Early Childhood Education
McCain recognizes that early childhood education can make the difference in whether a student succeeds in school. In an interview with the online magazine, education.com, McCain's domestic policy advisor, Doug Holtz-Eakin, explained, "Research has shown that the best return on investment of our education dollar is in early childhood development." According to McCain, these don't have to be new federal dollars. His plan claims there's no shortage of federal programs for early child care and preschool, pointing to the $25 billion a year spent on them by state and federal governments. McCain calls for leveraging and coordinating these programs. He points to estimates that 70-85 percent of children from low-income families already have access to early care and/or preschool. Whoever still needs access, he says, can be covered simply by streamlining programs that are already there and reallocating funds accordingly.

McCain would create a program for Centers for Excellence in Head Start that would provide grants of at least $200,000 per year to exemplary pre-K and early learning programs nominated by state governors. The grants would be funded through the Department of Health and Human Services, depending on availability of funding.

Obama's early learning plan, titled "Zero to Five," will provide early care and education for infants to prepare children for kindergarten. He'll create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school. He will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve the quality of both. His plan would also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families.

Attracting and retaining better teachers
McCain strongly supports merit pay for teachers. Salary incentives would be provided for those who teach in the most challenging educational settings and to those whose students show demonstrated improvement. Merit pay decisions would be made by principals.
McCain also believes in de-regulating teacher credentialing. "You could be a Nobel Laureate and not qualify to teach in most public schools today," he said in his speech to the NAACP, scoffing that, "They don't have the proper credits in educational 'theory' or 'methodology.' McCain will devote five percent of Title II funding to states to recruit teachers who graduate in the top 25 percent of their class.

Obama points out that 30 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years. His plan for ensuring effective teachers and school leaders, which includes a career ladder, is his version of merit pay. Teachers would be rewarded for mentoring first year teachers, curriculum development, professional development and exceptional classroom teaching.

Parental involvement
McCain wants to empower parents to move their children from failing schools. He would ensure that pre-school programs teach parents to prepare their children for school readiness. He would encourage parents to read to their children.

Obama would provide a parent report card to support individual learning plans for achieving grade level mastery and readiness for high school graduation and post-high school education. In support of these plans schools will be encouraged to develop school-family contracts that outline expectations for attendance, behavior and homework. It will include information about tutoring services and public school choice options for parents. States would be required to provide their plans for individual learning plans to the Department of Education together with their annual accountability plans.

More accountability
McCain calls for meaningful and measurable standards for all pre-school programs, including Headstart. He would continue the kind of testing being used for NCLB.
Obama wants to broaden the way student learning is assessed, to test "inquiry and higher order thinking skills including inference, logic, data analysis and interpretation, forming questions, and communication," rather than just facts. Obama would require annual reports to the public and Congress at least once a year of the results of performance-based federal education programs, using student achievement, college and high school graduation rates and school report cards, to evaluate discretionary federal education spending programs.
What it all means
John McCain devotes about 3,000 words on his web site to his plan for reforming education. Obama's plan takes up nearly 9,000 words. That's because Obama goes into great detail about how to improve schools. McCain's message is much simpler. Public schools should be just one option of many, including home schooling. Competition in a free market will result in better results. That argument doesn't sound quite so convincing as our free market economy verges on collapse.

2008-09-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Dylan concert was a big disappointment, which shouldn't have been a great surprise in retrospect. His voice is pretty much gone to a staccato growl, interrupted by LOUD electric guitars and a drummer that bashes your brains in. He didn't touch a guitar--just stood there wacking away at a keyboard. When he played his harmonica the crowd roared its approval--the only thing recognizable from the sixties. Of the entire set we recognized about two songs. The rest were blues riffs with unrecognizable words. I do think I heard the phrase, "and there were seven left for dead in South Dakota" in one song. That was about it. I think he sang "The Times They are a Changin'", but I can't be sure with all the racket of the instruments.

Not exactly the kind of poetry I recall from the early Dylan. Worst of all, there were no chairs, everybody stood on the grass for the entire two hours. We thought we had reserved seats and that the concert had been sold out. Fortunately, we found a section corded off for the infirm. Dave asked if he could have his aging parents sequestered there with folding chairs, so we got to ride out the two hours staring at the butts of the fans standing in front of us.

Pageant

2008-08-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

We got back from the Southern California National American Miss Pageant last night at midnight, after crowning the queens of the Princess division (4 through 6), the Junior Pre-Teen (7 through 9), the Pre-Teen (10 through 12), the Junior Teen (13 through 15) and the Teen (16 through 19). It was an adventure we will definitely avoid for the rest of our lives.

It was organized by a group of self-described "values oriented" folks, who were proud to say the competition was all about inner beauty, which meant no swimsuit event and a pledge (which we immediately broke the first evening in our room) that we wouldn't touch alcohol or drugs for the entire weekend. We kept half of that pledge and got smashed on cabaret and chardonnay in the privacy of our room. Karen dropped all pretense of compliance and announced to our fellow judges that she badly needed a drink, before retreating to our room with me each evening. Our judging colleagues looked envious. We didn't get to serve on the same judging panel, so we didn't see much of each other.

Yes, the girls came in all sizes and shapes, but the winner of each division was invariably gorgeous.

There were about 400 "lovely young ladies" competing, each of whom had to pony up $400 for the privilege. The top prize for each division was $1,000. A pretty risky investment with a pretty small return, wouldn't you say? Especially since they probably spend at least another several hundred dollars on their formal wear competition, the hotel room at $119 a night, parking at $9 a day.

I felt like I needed a shower after each final pageant when the winner was chosen. It worked like this. We gave a score of 1 to 7 for each of the three events judged--the personal intro on stage with a mic, a 40-second interview with each judge, and a formal-wear-with-escort competition. A computer averaged the scores, then puked forth the five finalists, from which we chose our individual picks for the queen and her court, while the whole group--numbering from 70 to 103 for each division--paraded before us on stage with high hopes.

We already knew who the five finalist were, but the girls didn't know we knew, so they kept smiling pleadingly at us. We didn't know how our individual scores for the five would add up, but to see the faces of the 15 "semi-finalists" (based on their computer generated scores) and to know that ten of them weren't even in the running anymore made us bilious and sad.

Immediately after the queen was crowned we were told to go up on stage to have our picture taken with the new queen. Which meant we had to wade through the vale of tears backstage, trying not to make eye contact with the losers.

Who were our fellow judges? A motley collection, to say the least, but we got the feeling they were all churchgoers except for us. One's bio said he was a film actor who served on the creative team at Saddleback Church, the famous Evangelical corporation run by Rick Warren, where McCain and Obama made an appearance Saturday night. So I googled up this judge to see what other achievements he had. What caught my eye was his acting experience two years ago in a film called "Hotel Erotica Cabo," described as a place where folks could drown their sorrows in waves of sex and fun. He didn't list that unique experience among the film credits in his bio. I wonder if pageant parents would feel blessed (all weekend we heard we were blessed) to have a porn star ogling their toddler.

Karen's top funny/sad experience was the little princess (5 years old), who was standing center stage with a frown on her face and her hand plunged into her crotch. She later learned the little girl had to go to the bathroom so bad that when she walked off the stage she raced for relief and failed, wetting her pants along the way. One of the pageant organizers assured Karen it wasn't too embarrassing for her because the child appeared to be "challenged." Needless to say, this "lovely young lady" wasn't among the finalists. Beautiful on the inside, but not exactly American Miss material.

My saddest moment came when I interviewed a cute little 8 year-old, asking her the one question we were limited to in our 40-second interview. We could choose our own question. I asked her "Would you want to be famous? Why or why not?" She just stared at me for the longest time, so I tried again, re-phrasing the question to give her some help. She just looked up at me, on the verge of tears, and asked, "Do you speak Spanish?"

Just before we left the hotel last night Karen made a rest stop and heard sobbing coming from one of the stalls in the restroom

An interesting adventure, but one we don't want to repeat.