terminator: 2,000,000,000 - teachers: 0

The Governator has lifted US$2,000,000,000 from California's education budget in a bid to make sure that young people can only elocute at his level. It may also shore up part of the budget. Good grief; aren't CA schools already in 50th place in the nation? Can they slide any further into Dis?

Schwarzenegger's budget plan, set for release Friday, calls for an overall increase of $200 in per-pupil funding but falls far short of the $4 billion that schools could claim under voter-approved funding mandates.

Voters say, "Yeah, we're screwed for education; drop another US$4b on them." Governator says, "Try half." Great...

To close the remaining gap, Schwarzenegger aides have said, he might propose a number of one-time savings -- such as selling surplus state land and curtailing transportation programs.

"Surplus state land"? What does that even mean? State land is held in trust for the citizenry, right? Or is this some other use of the term, not referrring to parks and reserves, but instead to government offices that aren't in use, due to previous cutbacks?

We apparently need even less transportation solutions as well. Will someone please ship a copy of SimCity to the Governator, so he can see how this stuff works? We have got D-I-C-K for safe, reliable, public transportation in CA. It needs to improve, if growth is to happen at all. I also encourage him to try the 405/10 Fwy junction in LA, or the 101/880 Hwy junction in Silicon Valley for examples of how not to leave public transportation in limbo while an area expands. Crap!