My ballot meme is "start with a 'no', end with a 'no', straight 'yes' in the interior."
73: (Abortion) Waiting Period and Parental Notification. No (see post below this one).
74: Public School Teachers: Waiting Period for Permanent Status. Yes. One major problem public schools face is that it's all but impossible to fire bad teachers.
75: Public employee union dues shouldn't be used as campaign contributions without the consent of the employees actually paying the dues. Yes. Duh. C.f. Communication Workers vs. Beck (1988 Supreme Court case).
76: State spending and school funding limits. Yes? Changed my mind about this a couple times. Structurally it's a lot like the debate over a Congressional "balanced budget amendment" 15-20 years ago. A balanced budget is obviously the right thing to do but a special set of regulations to enforce that will have unintended consequences.
77: Redistricting. The crown jewel of Arnold's initiatives. Yes, this should be in the hands of a non-partisan commission rather than a bunch of glad-handers who will scratch each other's backs and draw weird shapes to protect incumbents.
78 & 79: Discounts on prescription drugs. Yes and yes (why not?) unless/until it becomes clear that one or both of them is a trick.
UPDATE: After reading some source material (including this op-ed), I think I have to vote yes on 78 and no on 79, with some mild sheepishness about even supporting 78 (purely to minimize the chances of 79 becoming law, since I don't like the coercive element to it).
80: Regulate electric service providers. No. It's not obvious what end this meets, though the means seem restrictive and coercive.
Posted by Matt Bruce at October 31, 2005 11:40 AMI actually would be all for Prop 74, which, of course, would get me in so much trouble with the CTA. But it's simple. Good teachers hate bad teachers because they make the rest of us look like idiots.
Michigan's tenure period is four years, I can't believe California's was only 2.
Posted by: Craig D. Barker at October 31, 2005 01:16 PM