A Frivolous Law Suit by The Wonder Twins

As a kid, I used to watch the Justice League of America which contained all the old-school superheroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Aquaman (among others). One of the younger superheroes were the Wonder Twins. The girl could become any living creature and the boy would become some form of water, liquid or solid. They would summon their powers with the saying "Wonder Twins: Activate." Well the Wonder Twins of California education have activated. The teacher's union and the school superintendant, a truly strange bedfellows pairing, have filed a bogus suit against Governor Schwazenegger for alledgely failing to provide some $3.1 billion in school funds.

According to Dan Walters of the Sacremento Bee,:

Politics are saturated with gratuitous, disingenuous, symbolic and intellectually dishonest actions. The lawsuit that the California Teachers Association, state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell and others filed against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday embraces all of those dubious tendencies.

The suit is about money that the Governor does not control. The Democratic state legislature writes the checks drawing on state funds and they should be the real defendants, but that would not have been politically wise for the CTA.

The real impetus behind this suit is nothing more than trying to undermine the Governor's ballot initiatives this fall. Schwarzenegger has shown no remorse in attempting to make political hamburger by slaughtering sacred cows of politics. One of his first victims has been the education establishment. Whether wise or not, many of the governor's initiatives are based on attacking the foundations of the educracy. He is challenging the fundamental stranglehold that the leadership of teachers' unions (which is not elected by teachers in California) have exerted by hook or by crook in the past. The efforts of the Governator will diminish the power of hte unions in education policy and that of course makes them mad.

The courts are innundated with frivolous lawsuits and this type of lawsuit is the worst offender. Because the people who will be paying for this suit are two classes of people who have been routine abused by their leadership. The union is using, of course, union dues to pay for this suit and those funds are routinely abused. The governor is being sued in his official capacity thus the state will be paying for his defense funded by taxpayer money. In a state where taxes are swallowing people whole, the last thing that needs to be done is for the taxpayer to foot the bill for a silly suit. Ironically enough, teachers are funding both sides of this suit so they get screwed on both sides.

Dan Walters concludes:

Whatever its motives, it's especially disheartening that those who purport to educate young minds should engage in a piece of cynical, intellectually dishonest political theater.

I couldn't have said it better.

Sitting in traffic Outside the Beltway