Governors and My Community Partner

The governor of California has the ability to influence education, education policy and budgets in a number of ways. First the governor has the ability to strike down or sign into effect any laws. If the governor likes a law promoting a certain education policy, than he will sign it into law. Meanwhile, if the governor does not like a certain bill, he has the ability to veto it. He can either line item veto where he will strike out a certain part of the bill, pocket veto the bill where he leaves it on his desk unsigned until it expires or he can just do a regular veto on it. Vetos have the ability to hinder or help education by preventing the wrong bills from going into place or by striking down the right ones.

In addition, the governor has control over the annual budget. He has the ability to propose how much money will be spent in the field of education or where cuts will be made. He can specifically set aside money for P.E. programs or alternative schools that would help my community partner. After the governor proposes the annual budget, it goes to the legislative branch where it will either be approved and put into effect or sent back. In this way, the legislative branch also has some say over the amount of money that the governor can budget for education. Because of the recent budget crunch in California, a lot of money normally allocated to education has been cut because it is deemed as unnecessary or too much overspending in this category. The governor may find that the easiest place to make budget cuts is in the realm of education. This is why you have propositions being passed in states, like Proposition 30 in California, that are meant to give more money to education once again.

In addition, the governor has the ability to work closely with the legislative branch. In this way, he has the ability to influence legislation that will be channeled through the house and the senate and also have bills introduced by members on his behalf. If the governor sees that education needs more funding or whatever other needs it has, the governor has the ability to try to introduce a bill through a member of the legislative branch. By being close to members in the legislative branch, he has the ability to influence law in this way as well.

The governor may also have motivation to make sure education stays funded because it is an issue that many of his constituents will not be happy with if he makes major cuts in it. If the governor is concerned about being reelected to his next term, he will make sure he doesn’t do something that will upset voters. For this reason, he may restrain from cutting money in education.

Finally, the governor also has the ability to influence at the federal level. Annually, governors meet at a large conference where they discuss various issues. In the past, they have tackled nation-wide issues such as global warming, taxing, education and disasters. In this way, the governor has the ability to influence education policy and grant-in-aids at the federal level. This could potentially mean more money to education as it is also a federal issue in some sense. The governor could also try to get a grant-in-aid to help fund public schools that are desperately in need. This could dramatically help my Community Partner.