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
Ballot-O-Rama: A Guide to California’s 2024 Ballot Propositions
Ballot-O-Rama: A Guide to California’s 2024 Ballot Propositions
As spectator sports go, November’s ballot propositions have everything – drama, intrigue, the manipulation of language. But for California, this is no mere entertainment: the stakes are very high, indeed. The ballot includes 10 important propositions, few of which are likely to be the source of more smoke, light and heat than Proposition 36, which...
By California Policy Center
California Policy Czars Ignore Water-Supply Solutions in Plain Sight
California Policy Czars Ignore Water-Supply Solutions in Plain Sight
The state is spending billions on water-rationing and tens of billions on a giant tunnel even though far better measures exist to keep faucets flowing. Chronic water scarcity in California is indeed the new normal, but it’s not because of climate change. Even if the state is destined to experience lengthier droughts and reduced snowpack,...
By Edward Ring
California’s High-Risk Dashboard is Gone Without a Trace but Should Not be Forgotten
California’s High-Risk Dashboard is Gone Without a Trace but Should Not be Forgotten
Last October, California’s State Auditor took down a dashboard that had been tracking the financial health of high-risk cities in California since 2019. Just another loss for transparency in the Golden State. Providing important public data and key financial metrics for over 470 California cities, the dashboard was an essential tool for holding local governments accountable for...
By Andrew Davenport
More Water Supply Requires Industry Unity
More Water Supply Requires Industry Unity
Probably the most consequential and controversial water policy decisions in California involve how much water to pump out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and into southbound aqueducts, and we’re in the middle of another one right now. For the last several years, as summer turns to fall, state and federal regulators reduce the amount of...
By Edward Ring
Natural Gas Can Help Get California to Net Zero
Natural Gas Can Help Get California to Net Zero
But delivering the electricity it generates is the next big challenge. California’s official policy to combat climate change is to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2045. There are many ways to get from here to there. As the state legislature and agencies navigate these options, they should take into account a few cautionary statistics. California currently consumes...
By Edward Ring