California since 1970 - Essay Example

This essay "California since 1970" outlines how this state changed based on main issues: population, school system, and political geography. California has been populated since 1970 when it had a population of 19,953,134. Currently the population of California is 38,292,687. The US Bureau officially estimated the population to be 36, 756,666 as in 2008. In 2000, its population was numbered 33, 871, 648. The state’s population has grown dramatically since 1970 ("California Population."). Based on the US Census Bureau, the population of California is made of white non-Hispanic (42.7%), Hispanic (36.2%), Blacks (6.7%) and Asian (12.4%). The growth rate has slowed recently; from 2000-2004, the state lost 99,000 people to other states than it gained from other states in the United States.

The presumption of system of governance, local control based on domestic electoral accountability- the system that was in place for the last 150 years has been taken over by the state control system. The decisions that were used to be local discretion matters-among them the student assessment, student graduation and promotion, and resource allocation are now matters of the government policy. Districts are now subjected to federal regulations and voluminous state and reporting requirements ( “Report of the Joint Interim Committee on the Public Education System”).

The state tells the facilitators how to teach readings and how to carry themselves in the company of teachers. Since the enactment of PSAA, the state took over the failing schools and fire principals and teachers. Due to the changes in governance since 1970, there are crucial areas of learning and teaching that were not subjected to the legislative mandate. Currently, the constitution of the state assigns education’s responsibility to the state while the legislature has delegated that responsibility to local schools.

The school districts were given the authority to collect taxes, make contracts, and implement state law as it applied to school’s operation. The education’s accountability was synonymous with domestic political accountability. The members of the school board answered to the electorates. Over the years, state centralization made a difference in some crucial ways. Among them are transparency, efficiency, rationality and adequacy of finance system. Since 1970, the combination of voter initiatives, court rulings and legislative enactment has altered the school system in the state of California finance (Watts, Malcolm and Clark Jones, 67).

Compared to 1970s, California now look decidedly blue. Both the California congressional representatives and senators are Democrats. During the last election, the Californians voted solidly Democratic. The growth in the democratic support since 197- has not been uniform in the entire state. The North used to vote for Democratic while the south used to vote for republican. This has been replaced by west-east, or the coastal inland division. In the early 1970’s, the most Democratic region was the Bay Area in the presidential elections, and the southern and central areas were solidly Republican ( "California's Political Geography."). Over the years the presidential elections has been a measure of political standings among the Californians this