Dr. Thomas Peters, President & CEO, Marin Community Foundation
My catbird seat at the foundation gives me a wide-angle view on a whole range of challenges facing our community. To my eye none is as overarching as our need to face squarely and candidly the urgent need to educate all of Marin’s young people.
The yawning gap in academic achievement between the majority of students and a number of others is not only ethically unbearable, it is socially imprudent.
With notable exceptions, the grades and graduation rates of students from poorer families and families of color are substantially lower than their peers’. This is a gap not of capacity or desire, but a gap of opportunity.
The fact is that some children just don’t get the early family advantages and learning experiences that many of their peers can take for granted, and thus often start out behind the curve, and quickly fall farther and farther behind.
It’s Marin’s challenge for 2010 and beyond. Truth is, the better the education for all, the better the quality of our future health care workers, engineers, teachers and legislators.
Judy Arnold, Marin County Supervisor, District 5
Marin County’s most pressing issue is our budget shortfall. It could be as much as $20 million and is due to falling property tax revenues and takeaways from local government by the state. In the months ahead, we must restructure our county into a leaner, greener and smarter organization. This includes strengthening our local economy in ways in keeping with Marin’s core values; addressing climate change mandates; and creating public/private partnerships to meet the necessities of our residents, especially those with the greatest needs. More than ever, this is going to require that citizens really engage with their local governments to make sure the tough choices that face us include an informed public. As Marin faces 2010 let’s all remember and carry out Mother Teresa’s admonition: “Life is a challenge, meet it.”
Gary Giacomini, former Marin County supervisor, now land use attorney with Hanson Bridgett, LLP
The county’s biggest issue in 2010 undoubtedly will be the virtual bankruptcy of local school districts, cities and the County of Marin itself. California’s state budget has a $26 billion projected deficit for each and every year for the foreseeable future. And when the state gets a cold, local entities get pneumonia and sometimes die. We now see cuts every day in local budgets and services. All these local districts and governments are dependent on the state for much of their income. This is trickle down theory at its worst. Marin County is down $500 million in its pension fund—and state law maintains it must be made up. I hate to say it, but this is a “Perfect Storm” for local governments. They are all going to take it in the shorts, big time. It will be a financial Armageddon for local schools and governments that will virtually devastate their budgets and cripple their services.
This article originally appeared in Marin Magazine’s print edition with the headline: “Heading Into 2010”.
