No on Prop 74

At least the Sacremento Bee gets it:

It wouldn't add a single penny to your child's school or buy a single new textbook. It wouldn't improve education standards or provide health care to ill schoolchildren. It wouldn't enroll one new child into preschool, and it wouldn't provide enrichment programs for young children.

Proposition 74 wouldn't reduce class size or improve the quality of state-funded child care. It wouldn't make it any easier to dismiss low performing classroom teachers. In fact, the California School Boards Association has taken a position against the measure, in part because its members believe the proposition would make it more difficult to dismiss underperforming teachers. Most important, Proposition 74 wouldn't put one more qualified educator into California's schools.

So, what would it do? Proposition 74 would require California principals to perform an additional 30,000 teacher evaluations each year - without the money to pay for those evaluations. The nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst's Office says Proposition 74 would cost "tens of millions of dollars" to implement. That money would come from schools' already overburdened budgets, likely putting important education programs such as class size reduction in jeopardy.

Proposition 74 would force California teachers to undergo the longest probationary period in the country - five years. Most businesses require a 90 day probationary period for employees before they receive some basic rights in the company. Proposition 74 would force teachers to wait five years before they have any "due process" rights if they are fired. This initiative would allow schools to dismiss teachers during their first five years without a reason, or even a single negative evaluation. This disincentive would impact recruiting new and qualified teachers when California needs at least 100,000 teachers in the next 10 years.