Crucial Public Policy Issues that Affect all Californians

By Tim Leslie

As a UC Regent and CSU Trustee, I will have the opportunity to influence California's education system. However, I will not merely focus my efforts at the university level because in order to improve the overall quality of education, we must begin in the primary grades. I will use the office of Lt. Governor as a bully pulpit to speak out for reforms necessary to restore excellence in our K-12 schools, including the development of a system of accountability for schools and administrators.

MAKE CALIFORNIA'S UNIVERSITIES MORE EFFECTIVE AND MORE RESPONSIVE

As Lt. Governor, I will propose the following:

Reform remedial education at CSU
Ease the burden of paying for a college education
Place a greater emphasis on high tech skills and
the needs of California's seniors
Direct more coursework and research to address
California's policy issues

MAINTAIN AND DEVEOLP A HEALTHY ECONOMY

As a member of the State Lands Commission, I will seek to implement common sense conservation policies that balance the needs of the enviornment with jobs, recreation and the health of local economies.

PROVIDE EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP FOR ALL CALIFORNIANS

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Unfortunately, it is easy to watch these tragedies happen without trying to do anything about it. But we cannot allow ourselves to forget that we can make a difference.

During the current legislative session, I have worked to address each on of the issues mentioned above. I'm confident that my efforts will improve our schools, save our teens, protect our sick, and guard our privacy.

To improve our schools, I have introduced Senate Bill 1561- The Public School Accountability and Accreditation Act of 1998. According to the Education Commission of the States, few California students perform to high academic standards. In fact, only two out of five California students perform to high academic standards. In fact, only two out of five California high school sophomores write in a coherent, organized and developed style.

Clearly, it is past time for somebody to take responsibility for our low-performing schools. Merely throwing more money into the system is not the answer-doing so only places a bandage on a much deeper problem and perpetuates an injustice upon our children.

My proposal is simple. SB 1561 will establish a method of rewarding schools that meet or exceed performance standards and provide special assistance to schools that consistantly fail to meet standards. Good schools deserve to be recognized and rewarded. Substandard schools must improve their performance. Ultimately, if a school continues to fail after repeated assistance, stronger measures will be taken. These measures could be any one of a variety of interventions or sanctions, including reconstitution, where the entire teaching and administrative staff is replaced.

Communities and states that have adopted reconstitution policies have seeen overwhelming success in their schools. Reconstitution will work in California, too.

In order to save the lives of our teen-agers, I introduced the Teen Driver Safety Act of 1997 last year, which recently became law and will go into effect this July.

According to the California Highway Patrol, teens make up only four percent of California's licensed drivers, yet they constitute nine percent of drivers in fatal crashes and 10 percent of drivers in injury crashes. Futhermore, 16 year-olds have the highest percentage of crashes involving speeding, the highest percentqge of crashes due to driver error, and highest rate of teen-age passengers killed in their vehicles.

The Teen Driver Safety Act will save the lives of thousands of teen-agers by ensuring that California's teens are fully prepared for the responsibility of driving themselves and their friends on our roads and highways.

Specifically, the Act implements a graduated licensing system. Prior to receiving a license, teens will have to have their permit for six months, rather than 30 days, and parents will have to sign a form saying that their children have had a least 50 hours of supervised driving experience, 10 of which must be at night. After obtaining a license, a teen won't be able to drive other teen passengers around for the first six months, and will not be allowed to drive between the hours of midnight and 5a.m. for the first year.

Preliminary studies in Ontario, Canada, have shown a significant reduction in teen fatalities due to a graduated licensing system. I am convinced that California will see the same success.

One of the hottest topics of the day in both California and the nation at large is HMO Reform. As more and more people witness the abuses that patients have had to endure as a result of poor medical decisions made by insurance companies, more people are understanding that something needs to be done. We must make sure that HMOs provide quality care and that they are held accountable for their decisions to approve or deny treatment.

My bill-Senate Bill 557-would hold medical directors of health plans to the same level of accountability as practicing physicians by requiring them to have a California medical or dental license. Currently, businessman who never even see a patient are making critical, sometimes life-and-death, decisions related to a patient's health care. Persons who make these decisions should be required to have experience in medicine, not just business.

Finally, this year in the Legislature, I have been working to curb the unveiling of our personal privacy. As we approach the 21st century, it is becoming increasingly difficult to protect our privacy. Since the introduction of the Internet, virtually anyone has had immediate access to all sorts of information about us. Things we once thought were private, including medical records, tax records, social security numbers, and so on, may not be so private after all.

I have introduced the Personal Privacy Protection Package in order to address this issue head on, before it escalates into an even greater problem. The package consists of a series of bills, all of which seek to protect the personal privacy of all Californians.

We must work to restrict the flow of personal information on us, and we must give law enforcement the tools it needs to prosecute those who obtain or use our personal information for illegitimate purposes.

It is my hope that the bills in this package can be a model for the nation as Congress continues to explore ways to protect our privacy during this computer age.

Yes, our society today does have its share of problems, just like every other age in history, but we do not need to sit back and allow these problems to take on a life of their own. We must start trying to get ahead of the curve. The legislative measures I have explained-The School Accountability Act, The Teen Driver Safety Act, HMO Reform, and The Personal Privacy Protection Package-are great places to start. I am confident that they will ease our transition into the 21st century.