Another South OC School Bites the Dust

Well, this sucks.

Another outstanding Orange County elementary school scheduled to be shut down thanks to California's embarrassing budget crisis. Saddleback Valley School District itself faces a massive $10 million budget shortfall.

Back in January I posted about the end of La Tierra Elementary Elementary in Lake Forest, California. Got a great school? Into the trash can with it!

This month it's O'Neill Elementary in Mission Viejo, California just to the south of Lake Forest. A very good elementary school. And parents are right to be pissed off. 400 O'Neill students will be reassigned to other schools, engorging classroom sizes even further.

Let me remind readers that California's national rank in elementary education is a bona fide national disgrace. I don't know how Schwarzeneggar and Villagairosa sleep at night, but when your state's elementary school system is ranked just above Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico, you should step down from office. I'm being completely serious. You either make it happen yourself, or you step aside and let somebody else come in and make it happen.

Orange County has been historically regarded as a "special case" where the schools are some of the finest in the state. This remains to be the case. But these cuts are devastating and will impact the state and the nation dramatically in years to come.

This is what happens when voting constituents choose to live their lives as if it were a freaking movie.

Everyone wants to live here in OC. And the schools? - Why, they're all so fantastic!

Not anymore.

California is $42 Billion in the Hole

California Realtors might want to rethink that "great schools around the corner" bit within their age-old home sales pitch. By now the whole nation knows that the state of California is fucking broke. You know, for being the 9th largest economy in the world, California's education system is already national disgrace. And this 2009 budget deficit is not going to improve things in this regard. There are no quick fixes. Any resolution will be a painful, drawn-out process because we Americans are seemingly incapable of making difficult decisions.

California must cut jobs and must cut services, or raise income, gas and property taxes to unbearable levels that nobody can afford to make a decent living here. Even without the current budget crisis, California real estate values outgrew incomes at ridiculous rates between 2001 and 2007. Realtors, mortgage brokers and their self-congratulating enablers on Wall Street all applauded the intoxicating run up.

But now here we are.

Any sale today is likely linked to a foreclosure or the threat of a foreclosure. Counties in California will struggle to earn the same property tax remittances they did in years past. Schools will suffer even further. Home prices may continue to fall dramatically in 2009 as Alt-A loans reset. The national and global economic downturn and fear of job loss will continue to restrict discretionary spending. The recent US bailout will require the printing of money. Unless interest rates are soon raised, inflation will roar across the nation. There is also every reason to believe that oil prices will begin a steady incline once again because the economies of China and India have returned to the bar. And they're fucking thirsty. And finally let me just conclude by asking this question:

Where will the riots begin?

Oh California. You really thought you could have your $700,000 single family home, a HELOC from hell, granite countertops, a new fountain swimming pool, and a new white mustang for your Oprah-watching Mrs., didn't you!? Didn't you!?

Sinner!