The following was addressed to Superintendent of Schools Dianne Talarico. Please save your “thanks” regarding Measure R for the citizens of Santa Monica. They’re the ones who passed this measure. Malibu, despite your $150,000 PTA-funded propaganda campaign, didn’t come close to delivering the required 2/3 support. Had we just a fraction of that amount to combat your propaganda, we could easily have knocked Malibu voter support below 50%.
We are no longer in the realm of representative democracy when our two communities are so imbalanced that one can imperiously impose its will on the other by sheer force of numbers. Whereas most voters in Malibu are homeowners who have to bear the cost of school taxes, most voters in Santa Monica are renters who are effectively shielded from such taxes by rent control, thanks to the iron grip Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights (SMRR) holds on both the district and city government.
It’s an open secret that SMRR views Malibu as a rich community with a social obligation to pay a disproportionate share of support for schools. That much was already evident in the ’70s when SMRR first began wreaking havoc on Santa Monica’s political system. The silver lining is that Malibu has finally woken up SMRR’s misguided social experiment and is now moving to create its own district.
I respectfully urge district and union leaders to accept the inevitability of our breakup. Malibu fought bitterly for its independence as a city. It would be best for everyone if we all worked to make this divorce as painless as possible.
Wade Major