California: Throwing Money Down the Drain

California has the highest taxes in all of the states.  Ever wonder where it goes?

Well, for one, here:
"Xavier De La Torre, 48, was confirmed Wednesday afternoon as [Santa Clara County, California's] top educator. He will be paid $299,500 annually, plus receive a $12,000 annual auto allowance and, with at least a satisfactory performance in the first year, $20,000 more toward purchase of pension credits. His salary will rise automatically every July by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area. … De La Torre is also being offered a $1 million home loan, half at 2 percent and half at 3 percent interest rates. The board will also advance him $25,000 for moving expenses."

And this is odd, too, considering that in other parts of the state, teachers are being laid off.  For example, the Paso Robles school district just laid off 30 teachers.  And in 2011 they laid off 52 teachers, citing "budget shortfalls".

I used to live in California.  Every election cycle the state would put a proposition on the ballot for $15 to $20 Billion for "schools", because the schools (a) were falling apart, (b) overcrowded, (c) had very outdated textbooks, and a host of other things.  Within the last few years I lived there, they had asked for, and gotten, $35 Billion in taxpayer money for the schools. But the schools never got improved; they were still falling down, they were still overcrowded, and the textbooks were still outdated.

After reading that story, I now know where the money is going.  California is being "schooled" all right...but not in the manner that the citizens had hoped.
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