The litany of reasons California is broken is well documented. The highest cost of living and the highest taxes. The highest percentages of homeless people and people living in poverty. Unaffordable homes and unaffordable rent. High crime and failing schools. A hostile business climate and record migration out of state as people and businesses flee....
Ballot initiatives are supposed to empower the people to stand up to moneyed special interests. Fifteen states permit the people to pass laws and amend their state constitutions by popular vote. A fixture in California politics since 1914, the citizen ballot initiative enabled notable victories for the Californians, perhaps most notably Proposition 13 in 1978,...
California Policy Center has been tracking the following bills that passed off the floors of both the Assembly and Senate last week and are headed to (or on) Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The governor has until October 13th to sign or veto these bills. AB 715 (Zbur) – At a time of increased hostility and...
SACRAMENTO — As charter school advocates wait for the California legislature to complete their work before session ends this weekend, the following is a summary of the most important developments regarding charter school bills in the California legislature. Since the Senate Pro Tem waived Joint Rule 61, any bill that was amended within 72-hours will...
Politico: “Why Sacramento is fighting over antisemitism in schools” CPC’s answer: Because the California Teacher Association (CTA) would rather yell about foreign policy than answer for its documented failure to educate California’s students. To paraphrase the old joke, those who can’t do, teach – and those who can’t teach math or writing fall back on...
The California Air Resources Board has entrenched itself as one of the least accountable, least effective, and most costly bureaucracies in the history of California politics. The goal of CARB is simple: to lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in California. The way CARB aims to achieve this is primarily by adjusting the Low...
The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that it will investigate California for violating the authority of parents over their children who attend public schools, specifically on matters of gender identity. According to the Los Angeles Times, the investigation was initiated in response to a January 31 complaint filed by the California Justice Center. In that complaint, California Policy Center’s...
If Californians haven’t already, they’re bound to hear much more about CEQA—pronounced “SEE-kwuh” or the California Environmental Quality Act—in the coming days. Viewed as the Holy Grail of environmental policy, CEQA was signed into law by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1970 in an attempt to allow public input into large government projects. However, a half-century...
Biden’s wannabe labor secretary brought one of California’s worst workforce ideas to the entire country. There’s much harrumphing in the media about President Donald Trump’s penchant for norm-busting, but he’s hardly the first to engage in it. Under President Joe Biden, the media generally cheered student loan forgiveness, talk of packing or ignoring the Supreme Court,...
A bill that would allow state residents to sue private companies for restitution is only the latest front in California’s ongoing war on oil producers. L.A.’s wildfires are still burning, but that hasn’t stopped anyone with eyeballs from identifying the likely causes: America’s costliest natural disaster isn’t “natural,” really, or not entirely. It is, in fact, the...
California has collected record gasoline tax revenue in 2024 according to data released by the U.S Census Bureau in December. If Californians buy as much gasoline and diesel as they did the last quarter of 2023, the state will rake in over $10 billion for the year. The final number will not be released for several more months, but it is unlikely Californians will buy...
Earlier this month, California Assemblyman Isaac Bryan of Los Angeles introduced a bill, Assembly Bill 7, which would affect admissions for the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. The legislation would require the state’s public colleges to “consider providing a preference in admissions to an applicant who is a descendant of...