What the City of Santa Ana Does Not Want the Public to Know
What the City of Santa Ana Does Not Want the Public to Know
Longtime teacher Brenda Lebsack noticed some disconcerting statistics coming out of the Santa Ana Unified School District. Only 30% of students are proficient in reading and 20% are proficient in math, but graduation rates are at 91%. To raise awareness in the community, she called the City of Santa Ana seeking to place the following...
By Julie Hamill
California Student Test Scores Fall Short but Education Officials Ignore Root Causes
California Student Test Scores Fall Short but Education Officials Ignore Root Causes
The California Department of Education released its annual student test scores this week and the news is sobering. The state’s California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) results for the 2023-24 school year show the percentage of students who have met or exceeded state standards for English language arts, math and science has increased only slightly...
By California Policy Center
CPC Launches Local Fiscal Health Dashboard for California’s Cities, Counties and School Districts
CPC Launches Local Fiscal Health Dashboard for California’s Cities, Counties and School Districts
Interactive Database Reveals which Local Governments are Fiscally Sound or at High-Risk of Fiscal Crisis Sacramento — California Policy Center today released a new Local Fiscal Health Dashboard that tracks the financial health of California cities, counties and school districts. The interactive database allows users to track how elected officials are managing local budgets, support ongoing budget...
By California Policy Center
The Disruptive Potential of Photovoltaics
The Disruptive Potential of Photovoltaics
Earlier this year the New York Times published an opinion piece “What Will We Do With Our Free Power?,” written by David Wallace Wells. The sheer optimism of the piece was a breath of fresh air. Rather than emphasizing the existential terror of a climate crisis that renewable energy may help us avert, the author focused on...
By Edward Ring
CPC files amicus brief in support of Temecula school district
CPC files amicus brief in support of Temecula school district
CPC Amicus Brief in Support of District Read the Full Amicus Brief Here. In Mae M. v. Komrosky, the trial court upheld Temecula Valley Unified School District’s (“TVUSD”) resolution against teaching racist and divisive theories and policy requiring parental notification when students change their identity at school. Union plaintiffs appealed, contending that the district was attempting to establish...
By Julie Hamill
Time to Gut and Amend California’s Rogue Water Agencies
Time to Gut and Amend California’s Rogue Water Agencies
In California today, we have given unelected state bureaucrats the power to make decisions that affect millions of people and cost billions of dollars, and there is almost no recourse. There is also very little public criticism of the decisions these agencies make. That’s because the people who are most familiar with the extraordinary power...
By Edward Ring
California parents and voters wait too long for vital data
California parents and voters wait too long for vital data
As the 2024-25 school year is underway, Californians await the results for last school year’s CAASPP testing. CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) assessments measure student achievement in the areas of English, math, and science, and are taken in the spring; Results are then publicly released the following fall. The release date for...
By Sheridan Swanson
Newsom’s “Special Session” on Gasoline Prices
Newsom’s “Special Session” on Gasoline Prices
By now most of the mega-majority Democrats in our state legislature understand basic facts about energy in California: We still derive 50 percent of our total energy from petroleum, and another 30 percent of our energy from natural gas. This makes them understandably reluctant to kill California’s oil and gas industry, and gives them pause...
By Edward Ring
Congress Comes to Santa Nella to Talk About Water
Congress Comes to Santa Nella to Talk About Water
The Great Valley of California, one of “the more notable structural depressions in the world,” covers an area of 20,000 square miles. More than half of it, about 6.7 million acres, or over 10,000 square miles, is irrigated farmland. If you drive south on the main north-south artery, Interstate 5, orchards and cultivated fields appear as...
By Edward Ring
AB 460 Hands Water Bureaucrats Even More Power
AB 460 Hands Water Bureaucrats Even More Power
Siskiyou and Modoc counties have a combined population of 52,700 people and combined area of 10,227 miles. That’s less than the population of Yucaipa in a territory the size of Massachusetts. It’s a big place with almost no political clout. That’s why back in August 2022 when a handful of desperate ranchers and farmers along the Shasta River defied the...
By Edward Ring
Should California Take On More Debt for Schools?
Should California Take On More Debt for Schools?
Californians tend to be credit card debt-laden and don’t seem to mind adding more debt to their monthly financial commitments. That may be why they, as voters, do not flinch when Sacramento legislators put bond measures on the ballot. These propositions usually receive enough votes to succeed and permit the state to borrow more money....
By John Moorlach
A Golden State Birthday
A Golden State Birthday
Demisemiseptcentennial. Try saying that several times fast. On Sept. 9, we celebrate 174 years since California was admitted to the United States and prepare for its 175th anniversary—or demisemiseptcentennial—in 2025. Despite its over-the-top and often messy politics, I dig its good vibrations. There’s something mystical and magnetic about California. It’s the Olympus of America and...
By Lance Christensen
It’s Always Budget Season in Local Government
It’s Always Budget Season in Local Government
The many California agencies that have placed new taxes on the November ballot owe it to their residents and businesses to wean their organizations from reliance on serial tax increases to remain afloat. It’s disconcerting that such a clearly unsustainable strategy has become the go-to solution for so many municipal leaders. The problem is that...
By Mark Moses