We badly need funds for education and Measure AA is a start, but we need much more than these local revenue efforts can provide.

We need big businesses, which for decades have benefited from property tax loopholes, to step up and pay their fair share.

Closing the loophole for big businesses would not only make it fair; it would provide up to $12 billion in revenue and help fund the first-rate schools California once boasted.

So, when the governor says he doesn’t want to make too many enemies by supporting reform, he is either out of touch with this new political reality or, more likely, he is unwilling to admit exactly which enemies he is afraid of.

The virtual abandonment of California’s commitment to funding its public university system coincided with the enactment and aftermath of Proposition 13, which significantly reduced state revenues from property taxes.