Last night Arnold gave the State of the State speech. Boy is he gonna piss off entrenched Democrats and special interestests. He’s calling a special session even.

Some highlights are here. I agree with most everything he is proposing, especially on budget reform, but I think he left one very critical money-saving action out: abolishing Cal-Trans (California’s version of the Texas Department of Transportation). Whereas TXDOT does very little actual road construction themeslves (most of it is bidded out), Cal-Trans, being the union infested impotent organization it is, does a considerable amount of construction ergo California has the crappiest roads in the country and very little money is there to fix them. Why? Because the money we fork over goes to building bike lanes and unrealistic public transportation projects (BUS hubs in downtoan San Francisco), NOT fixing roads and replacing bridges. You know, the Bay Bridge – the one that will crumble and fall and kill thousands of drivers on the next big quake. Cal-Trans is a parasite and it must be removed.

On the education front, here are some of the challenges facing California:

Thirty percent of students who enter 9th grade do not graduate. [Department of Finance]
Barely 40 percent of our students are proficient in Math. [Department of Education: “2004 Accountability Report”, 10.7.04]
Nearly half of all freshmen admitted to CSU need remediation in English. [CSU Analytical Studies Department, 1.28.04]
Thirty-five percent of California schools failed to meet the federal Adequate Yearly Progress criteria. [California Department of Education, “Progress Report 2004”]

Sad huh? California and Arnold have a lot of work to do.