Responses to San Fernando Valley news Questions for AD 40 Candidates

October 17, 2008 

1. What are the two most important issues you want to address for District 40?

It’s difficult to narrow the list down to two, since we face so many issues of equal urgency, right now.  I would put the economy and education at the top of the list, but certainly transportation (traffic congestion and the state of our highways) and health care costs are just as important.  All of these issues need immediate attention and effective policy responses.  

As a Libertarian candidate, my two major goals, broadly stated, are 1) “fiscal conservative” reforms, such as lower taxation and greater outsourcing (competitive provision) of essential public services such as prison management and street repairs, and  2) increased social tolerance, or greater personal freedoms – such as gay marriage rights, reproductive choice, end-of-life choices, medical-marijuana rights, sex worker rights and protection of the right to self defense – 2^nd Amendment rights.

2. What needs to be done to improve the overall education system in California?

I am a big supporter of school vouchers and school choice.  I would work hard to develop pilot programs allowing greater educational choices in the Valley and around our state.  As an economist, I have seen numerous research studies showing improved student performance in U.S. cities that have introduced school choice and greater competition.  Not only do test scores go up in communities using school vouchers, but the public costs per pupil are much lower as well.  Surveys show that 75% of low-income and minority families are very happy with school vouchers - and refuse to give up their school choice programs, once they are tried.  This should come as no surprise, since a large percentage of our OWN public school teachers send their own children to private schools, not public schools.  Despite its obvious benefits to consumers – parents and students, it is difficult, politically, to get school choice introduced.  Teachers unions are the biggest lobbying groups in California.  Public school teachers themselves are not necessarily opposed to “competition,” which just means “choice.”  But since private non-profit and religious school employees may choose to remain non-union shops, teacher union officials do not want to see the emergence of a diversity of private, non-profit and religious schools competing with existing public school districts.  The reason unions do not want “school choice” is that a significant portion of teacher union dues goes to Democratic party candidate campaigns and measures.  Since teacher-union dues can be spent to further many non-educational, political goals, the Democrats in California sadly appear to be willing to sacrifice educational excellence -- in order to preserve their control of this dedicated union “revenue stream.”   That is my sense of what is going on, and frankly – every voter should be concerned about this conflict of interest and how it is blocking substantive, desperately needed reform in education.

3. If you were in office during the state budget crises, what would you have tried to do differently?

As a trained economist, I know consumers are best served when there is vigorous, open competition and choice.  One of the reasons our State spending has gotten out of control is because we have less and less competition in the provision of public services, with more and more of it controlled by cartels, such as public sector labor unions.  Part of union dues is designated for “political” activities, and this money is directly funneled into the campaigns of democrats at our state capital.  As a result, democrats in Sacramento face a direct conflict of interest when it comes to controlling state spending, because any increase in State spending means an automatic increase in political contributions to them.  There is little incentive for them to control spending, for that reason.   As the Valley’s Assembly member, I would work closely with others in Sacramento to reduce government spending by increasing outsourcing and privatization of as many public services as possible. Open and transparent competitive bids to provide services such as prison management will significantly costs for consumers, the taxpayers, and bring our budget into balance.  Any surpluses should be returned to taxpayers, unless they prefer a rainy day fund for emergencies such as major earthquakes. Mitigating the level of public sector unionization will also help control unsustainable spending levels.

4. Anything else you would like to tell voters?

Politics -- and “running for office” -- has become a very glamorous and exciting process in recent decades.  This trend is unfortunate.  Politicians are simply a “necessary evil.”  They should be viewed not as saviors or as geniuses - but as ordinary citizens providing in a few vital but very limited services to the community:  paving the roads, running the courts (protecting citizens against force and fraud).   The real “excitement” should be left to the individual citizens in our community who are competing and cooperating in a free society.  We are the ones who do the exciting things - discovering new products, inventing new services and creating new activities for the community – not the politicians.  Civil servants are just there to provide the minimal infrastructure that ALLOWS us to pursue our own dreams.   As government grows and grows, it takes over more and more decisions that should be left to the individual. Unfortunately, as government spending has grown (from 7% to over 30% of the economy, with the Federal government alone spending $3 Trillion annually) -- political contests have become increasingly glamorous and “exciting.”  Because there is so much “pork” or corporate welfare in today’s governmental budgets, this is what makes these “contests” so riveting and of such great fiscal significance -- and a huge burden to taxpayers.  If we can remove most of the corporate welfare, such as the recent bank bailouts, from governments’ budgets, we will automatically solve the problem of the ‘influence of money’ and interest groups in politics - and tax burdens will be dramatically reduced, at the same time.

5. If you could be on any game show or reality show, which one would it be and why?

I really enjoy Project Runway.  It illustrates in an exciting way how hard work under pressure and honest competition “bring out the best,” the excellence in each of us.  The contestants admirably also show us how to handle disappointments in life. And because each is a unique and very talented designer, they show us that, even though we don’t always “win” the position for which we initially aim, there is a ‘niche market’ for the creative efforts of everyone, in life!

- Pamela Brown, Libertarian Candidate for California State Assembly, AD 40