New Education Report

League members put a high priority on supporting excellence in public education, but the last few years have been discouraging ones. A new study reported in the Chronicle on March 15, reveals a "deeply flawed" system. Part 1 of the study is available at http://irepp.stanford.edu/projects/cafinance.htm Governor Schwarzenegger has promised to make the next year one of educational reform, so it looks as though the League will have its work cut out for it. This won't be the first time the League has been in the forefront of educational reform. The invaluable website EdSource http://www.edsource.org was founded in 1977 by the League in cooperation with the Parent Teachers Association California and the American Association of University Women California chapter. For thirty years it has been a primary source of nonpartisan, objective information about education issues. Parents, teachers and policy makers have turned to it over the years for guidance in providing the best possible education for all of California's children.

During Women's History Month we are reminded how much of the history of women in the U.S. is linked with the history of League. More than seventy years ago, the League was started to provide information and education for women who had recently achieved the right to vote. This year our celebration of women's history is shared with the historic Mechanics' Institute, which has been providing new opportunities for San Franciscans for more than a century. The Mechanics' Institute was organized in 1854 when San Francisco was a frontier community running out of gold. It's original purpose was to provide technical and mechanical education to a generation that had grown up in an agriculture-based world. Over the years the Mechanics' Institute added a range of cultural and arts events. The League, too, has broadened its goals. It still provides objective election information to the public, but now it does so on television and through podcasts and video streaming. Today's League also focuses on other public issues such as water and energy policies, housing issues, and this year is starting an in-depth study of immigration policy. History reminds us that all great, living institutions change and grow as they mature. We look back and honor our past, but also look around us to see how our community is changing, and we work toward a future of even greater service.

Even the hard working members of the League can't keep up with all the problems facing the city. San Francisco Chronicle's columnists Matier and Ross on March 12 alerted us to the danger of killer frogs in Golden Gate Park. In case you missed that article, it seems the frogs have taken over a pond near the Academy of Science and are eating their way through all the turtles and fish that used to live peacefully in the murky water. Despite the best efforts of park workers to trap the frogs, remove them and euthanize them, the stubborn frogs keep returning. The next step would be an expensive draining of the pond to make it permanently off limits for frogs. Would that really work? Does anyone think we should set up a committee to monitor transparency in city frog-limitation efforts?

Foiling the Free Riders

Mayor Gavin Newsom surprised the city this week by suggesting San Francisco consider eliminating fares on the Muni. Despite having the lowest fares of any big city in the country, San Francisco collects less income than most cities. Many Muni riders have watched riders slip out the middle door of a trolley car as the fare checkers come in the front. During rush hour no one has a hope of pushing through the cars to check fastpasses and transfer slips. Newsom's answer seems to be: If you can't catch the cheaters, then eliminate the barriers. How about trying enforcement instead? Or getting new fare boxes similar to the ones in New York where cash fares have disappeared and all riders have to slide their Metro card through a scanner? The cost of buying the fare boxes would be saved in a couple of years by collecting more fares. And in the meantime, the risk of turning the Muni buses and trolleys into rolling homeless shelters would be avoided.