In Sacramento and Washington, D.C., our representative system of government isn’t working, and the public is beginning to react. Almost two-thirds of Californians think the state Legislature should be part-time, and 82% of Americans disapprove of Congress. But if you talk with California lawmakers or members of Congress, they seem oblivious to the criticism. It’s the other party that’s the problem.

As cynical as I have become about the California Legislature, I was still stunned by the reaction to Controller John Chiang's decision not to pay lawmakers for not passing a balanced budget. Democrats had no idea that the controller wouldn't play along with their phony budget.

Here’s more evidence that we need a part-time Legislature in California: It took lawmakers almost six months to come up with a phony budget, which Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed within hours of its passage. Part-timers couldn’t have done any worse, and likely would have solved the problem.

Another round of standardized test scores have been released and education experts, politicians and parents are assessing the results. Unfortunately, this accountability system doesn’t tell us much beyond what we already knew about our public schools.