What Others Are Saying

A
 roundup of what other California newspapers are saying from the Associated Press.


Los Angeles Times

“CSU pay plan doesn’t add up”

Maybe the trustees of California State University need to take a remedial music class. Their tone-deafness is disturbing.

A few months ago, CSU drew widespread criticism for setting the salary for the new president of San Diego State at $400,000 — an increase of $100,000 over what his predecessor had received. Now, the trustees are expected to approve a new compensation policy that, if it had been in place at the time, could have paid him close to $460,000. Salaries for new presidents at other campuses also could increase under the policy.

Some aspects of the proposal make sense. Instead of lumping together all CSU campuses, it divides them into categories depending on how big they are and the size of their research budgets. To help set salary levels for the campuses in each category, it looks at similar universities nationwide.

The problem, as state Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor noted, is that the proposal groups some CSU campuses with universities elsewhere that have more than twice the research funding even though Cal State’s primary function doesn’t include research. “These institutions appear to unduly raise the corresponding average executive salary,” Taylor wrote. The proposal also puts some campuses in the same category as universities with law and medical schools or with much larger endowments.

The trustees should delay the vote — especially after board Chairman Herb Carter on Tuesday suggested an alternate plan to limit increases to 10 percent — and find a more meaningful formula for setting salaries, one that is relevant to CSU’s mission and sensitive to economic realities.

At the same time, CSU’s severest critics are wrong to suggest that it must not raise executive salaries at all during hard times. A bill by state Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) would cap the salaries of Cal State presidents at 150% of what the chief justice of the California Supreme Court is paid — currently, about $343,000. It also would ban pay raises for presidents within three years of tuition hikes and require trustees to give first consideration to candidates within the system and the state.

Lieu’s frustration with the trustees is understandable, but his proposed remedy would interfere unacceptably with academic operations and could harm the university.

CSU should avoid the academic arms race that has helped push up tuition nationwide, and instead hire the best-qualified candidates it can find while staying within its budget. More important, as Taylor suggests, is that the university should base pay on performance. A $400,000 salary could be perfectly justified for a president who excels at raising private funds, increases graduation rates or helps students earn their degrees faster. But Cal State trustees have done too little to justify the hefty salaries they are on the verge of approving.


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The Vacaville Reporter

“A matter of state priorities”

Gov. Jerry Brown pitched his agenda for 2012 on Jan. 18 as he presented the State of the State to a joint session of the California Legislature.

While a proposed tax hike going before voters in November is at the top of his list, the governor included other goals, too, including finalizing a plan to fix the Delta, starting construction on a high-speed rail system and improving the state’s education system.

There is no question that a comprehensive approach to the Delta is necessary and it is encouraging that the governor and U.S. Interior Secretary have agreed to put the basic elements of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan in place by this summer. But deciding how to divvy up Delta water or the best way to convey it are only part of the picture. Plans must also take into account how to protect the Delta during earthquakes, floods and other catastrophes that could seriously affect the state’s water supply.

A comprehensive approach to protecting the Delta is going to require significant capital, which is why The Reporter Editorial Board has serious qualms about the governor’s push to spend billions of dollars on a high-speed rail system.

Gov. Brown pitched the rail project as a “wise investment” to serve a growing state, an investment that will cost less than adding roads and airports. “Those who believe that California is in decline will naturally shrink back from such a strenuous undertaking,” he said. “I understand that feeling, but I don’t share it.”

While the Editorial Board is divided about whether a high-speed rail system is viable in California, it is united in the belief that, without fixing the Delta, the state cannot grow — and could lose population should a serious calamity occur before levees are shorn up.

The state’s economy being what it is, taxpayers are not in a position to afford everything. Choices must be made. The priority right now should be water: repairing Delta levees, creating better water conveyance systems, finding new water sources and planning to adjust to changing weather patterns.

On the matter of education, however, the Editorial Board supports the governor’s proposal to return schools to local control. Rather than “concentrating more and more decision-making at the federal or state level,” Gov. Brown rightly observed, “we should set broad goals and have a good accountability system, leaving the real work to those closest to the students.”

Giving school districts the appropriate funds and the authority to solve their unique problems is preferable to requiring every teacher to follow the same state-mandated classroom script. And developing a “qualitative system” of assessing teachers by visiting, observing and evaluating classrooms is a much better approach than the current system of judging teachers by student test scores.

As always, of course, the devil is in the details. Educators, administrators and school trustees should work with the governor to develop what could be reasonable repairs to California’s ailing school system.