Brown speaking outside a L.A. elementary school during his campaign. He never ventured inside the school during the trip. (Creative Commons)

Gov. Jerry Brown briefed an invite-only crowd of educators and local officials in Riverside on Friday about the impending crisis that yet again looms in California if Republicans and Democrats refuse to compromise.

Resembling the rancor and blame game in Washington, D.C. this week, state legislators and the governor plan to use the weekend and the next week saying lawmakers from their opposing party are to blame for the failure to a close a $26.6 billion budget deficit last month.

Brown spoke at an elementary school in a county with a booming Latino population and also one of the state's most diverse universities in terms of the make-up of its student body. Brown said the goal of Friday's forum was to listen to the educators not to campaign. The California Teachers Association has been airing radio ads recently that Brown could listen to to understand the problem.

I too could tell him about the problem at high schools, where budget cuts are widening an achievement gap between schools in low-income ares and high-income areas (see video below).

Campaigning might prove more effective at this juncture. And that campaign should have started with a rally at the University of California, Riverside. All those student groups against further budget cuts and even a possible doubling of their tutiton could have organized a phone-banking event around the governor's visit. He's done the little things already such as cutting the use of taxpayer-funded cellphones by state employees. After proposing a series of generally applauded pension reform measures last week, Brown must cast a wider net.

Teachers and school administrators closer to the parents can handle the messaging on that level. Kids, after all, can't vote. If Brown wants the public to push Republicans to open a bit more, he should be mingling with college students to slowly lay the foundation needed to inspire them to vote in a possible election.

Holding events in Latino communities more likely to favor his proposals would go a long way in making them feel safer and more comofortable in California. They too could eventually become key voters. But Brown's stategy is to focus on middle-class voters in Republican territory and flip their stances on higher taxes. It's a strategy more old than bold that failed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago as he hoped to sustain state revenues.

To reach reporter Paresh Dave, click here.

Find him on Twitter: @peard33.