Why we ough to keep our eye on Arnold:

I am going to talk about Arnold Schwarzneger today because I think he is proposing a lot of really great things in California that I have argued vehemently for with anyone that would listen. The two moves that look best to me are merit pay for teachers and independent redistricting. Of course everyone is going ape-shit in California and this will be a very interesting test for Arnold as well as for the rest of the country.

First, redistricting: Gerrymandering is no old topic, it has been around for centuries, the only problem is that it has become much easier. See there is a set of programs called Geographic Imaging Systems (or GIS, I did a lot of Geologic mapping using this type of program) and they are incredibly powerful, and essentially allow any well funded political party to pay a teenage computer geek to mess around with one of these programs and "optimize" the congressional districts. This is why redistricting has become such a prominent issue, because a computer and a nerd can do what prior took thousands of hours, tape, glue, maps, imperfect statistics, etc. This is why there are districts in Florida that jump across bodies of water or are never wider than 4 miles and do not even get me started on the horror that is Texas' congressional districts (not that Democrats were the innocent ones in that crazy situation, seeing as they had been gerrymandering for decades, LBJ style).

So what is the harm of gerrymandered districts? Well chief among them is that Congressman no longer have to run for their position seeing as their district doubles as their own party. This in turn creates a polarized legislature, representing extreme interests, not the overwhelming Middle American (or ever-expanding number of voters registered as "Independent). David Broder likened Congress to the US version of the House of Lords. Oddly enough the Senate is the legislative body that more effectively represents the feelings of the United States and where incumbents actually lose. Of course this was not the purpose of the Senate, but luckily the political parties have not figured out how to redistrict States.

Second on Arnold's agenda is teacher's unions and merit pay. I think this is a fabulous idea. It only takes a basic knowledge of a market to understand why this is necessary. Obviously people who have a MA in Physics or Chemistry have no incentive to give up tons of pay to teach, whereas the tradeoff for people with expertise in English is not nearly the same. This is why I always had fabulous English and Social Studies teachers throughout High School and why I never once had a good science teacher. My opinion is that the teacher's unions can go shove it. The US is seriously lacking adequate science teachers and there is no excuse for this. I am especially bitter about this (and I came from a town whose per capita income rivals Lichtenstein). Many are luckily if they just get that one great science teacher and Arnold is doing a service to the students of California's public schools by attempting to teacher's get paid what they are worth.

This matters because these are two desperately required reforms that could sweep across the country if California successfully implements them (just like the tax revolution started there in 1978, not necessarily for better in California, but nonetheless). Two very important reforms that, in my opinion Arnold is very brave to propose (seeing as how they are not really popular in anyway). This situation also makes me think how California's crazy system of democracy might have some advantages (in the face of all historical parallels though).

-Mr. Alec