Back Talk

Rick wrote, “The new president will make $591,084 in salary and will still get $8,916 in a yearly car allowance. He will also get $228,000 in supplemental pension payments. He'll also get to live in a 13,320 square-foot mansion - on 10 acres of land and great views of the bay. But if you're worried how it is that Yudof can maintain such a place - he'll have a large staff to maintain at a $300,000 a year price tag. I'm not sure if that covers the electric bill - but even if it doesn't, Yudof is saving about $9,000 in gas money. “This amounts to a compensation package of $828,000 this year for a figurehead who spends his time attending rubber chicken dinners. How does this abuse of authority occur? Is there no authority to stand up and say, “This is not right?” Are there no restraints upon the people who control our government education systems? How does one get one’s mind around these figures in terms of the current budget problems that are causing California schools to undergo massive staff layoffs? When we allow the government to control any entity involving our daily lives, it takes over our lives, assumes a life of its own, the bureaucracy grows and metastasizes, eliminates any competition, destroys any profit and savings motives, removes any free market forces which tend to result in high quality at a good price, and the original goal of the entity becomes lost. Government bureaucracies have plenty of money to spend on whatever they deem important – our money.