At least once in every California campaign cycle, it seems, an initiative gets ”Draper-ized”.
That’s a word I just made up to describe what happens when a ballot measure runs afoul of the Democratic power structure in Sacramento. It’s a reference to Tim Draper, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who back in November 2000 ran Proposition 38, which proposed $4,000 vouchers for families that opted to shift their kids from public to private schools.
The Draper Initiative was an uphill climb to begin with. Two years earlier, former Gov. Pete Wilson tried and failed to get the reform-heavy Prop 8 passed. Even some within the Silicon Valley ed community — most notably, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings – disagreed with Draper’s approach.
But the death-blow came from, all places, the state Attorney General’s office.
