If Everyone Is Behind, Then No One Is Behind

Firefighters Union Backs Prop 15 Instead of Forestry Reform

Thousands of firefighters continue to battle blazes across California. In Orange County, two firefighters are in critical condition after suffering major injuries battling the Silverado Fire. Every year around this time, firefighters risk their lives, and some of them lose their lives, protecting the rest of us from these catastrophic fires. Deep respect for what firefighters do,...

By Edward Ring

School Reopenings Are Being Determined by Politics and Unions

School lockdowns have little if anything to do with “science.” A working paper released this month by Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform reveals that local politics – not the severity of COVID-19 – is the most important factor in determining whether k-12 public school districts opened for in-person learning in the fall. Political...

By Larry Sand

Pension Costs Are Not the Reason California’s Schools Fail the Disadvantaged

A recent guest editorial published by Bakersfield.com entitled “California’s defunding of public education” makes the case that a “pension contribution maneuver” has left school districts up and down the state with shrinking budgets. The author, Shaohua Yang, gets many of his facts right. For example, he writes that “California 2019 per-capita income tax ranks the fifth highest...

By Edward Ring

Open Letter to Gov. Newsom: ‘Don’t Make it Easy to Leave the State We Love’

Editor’s note: A Southern California businessman copied us on his open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Given his reasonable fear of political retribution – from state tax investigators, for instance, or regulators – we honored his request to remain anonymous. Dear Gov. Newsom, I am writing as a lifelong resident of California. I was born...

By California Policy Center

How to Save California’s Forests

For about twenty million years, California’s forests endured countless droughts, some lasting over a century. Natural fires, started by lightning and very frequent in the Sierras, were essential to keep forest ecosystems healthy. In Yosemite, for example, meadows used to cover most of the valley floor, because while forests constantly encroached, fires would periodically wipe...

By Edward Ring

Bugging the Proselytizers

If cops are expected to wear body cameras, teachers’ lessons should be recorded. In Texas, a 9th grade English teacher adorns her virtual classroom with posters professing support for Black Lives Matter and the LGBT lifestyle. In southern California, a teacher regularly tells her students how stupid President Trump is, and that conservatives are destroying...

By Larry Sand

The Battle for California is the Battle for America

By now, this is a familiar story. California is a failed state. Thanks to years of progressive mismanagement and neglect, the cities are lawless and the forests are burning. Residents pay the highest prices in America for unreliable electricity. Water is rationed. Homes are unaffordable. The public schools are a joke. Freeways are congested and...

By Edward Ring

Time to Restructure Failing BART System

Of all the public agencies facing financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, public transit has taken the biggest initial hit. The reasons for this are obvious: when there’s a lockdown and businesses are closed, commuters stay home. And of those still fortunate enough to have places to go, few want to board...

By Edward Ring

Creative Instruction and Its Enemies

Parents battle the education monolith in the COVID-19 shutdown wars. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the teachers unions and others in the education establishment as a Hydra that will go to great lengths to insure that in-person learning is denied throughout the country. In Boston, the teachers union is suing the mayor and other city...

By Larry Sand

Why I’m Driving my Kids from Pasadena to Orange to go to School

By Michael Davis This school year, my family will be joining the throng of Southern Californians making long commutes, but for us it will be for the sake of our children’s education. We live in Pasadena, but our kids will be going to Orange County Classical Academy, a new charter school in the City of...

By California Policy Center

2019 California’s 482 Cities Rankings

*The 2019 rankings are still in process as several cities are still preparing their 2019 audits. Use the Search Bar below to search for a specific cities ranking.

By John Moorlach

Why is the Prison Guards Union Targeting Senator Moorlach?

In a tight race, incumbent Republican state senator John Moorlach has been targeted by the prison guards union. In a report filed on October 1, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association Independent Expenditure Committee disclosed spending $910,705 on cable television ads and mailers opposing Moorlach. Running to unseat Senator Moorlach is Democrat Dave Min, whose campaign...

By Edward Ring

Indoctrifornia

While California’s ethnic studies mandate for k-12ers is dead for now, there is still much in the works to be concerned about. California governor Gavin Newsom is a force of nature. He leads a state which has record homelessness, rising crime and exploding pension debt. But wait, there is so much more! Ruling more like...

By Larry Sand

If Everyone Is Behind, Then No One Is Behind

COVID-19 has further exposed the teachers unions’ disregard for children. In early September, researchers Corey DeAngelis and Christos Makridis released the results of a study they spearheaded, which found that “school districts in places with stronger teachers’ unions are much less likely to offer full-time, in-person instruction this fall.” The authors stress that the results...

By Larry Sand