Newsletter | California Policy Center

Teacher Union Pinocchios

A new poll shows that teachers are politically divided, but union political spending is anything but. The results of a poll released last week by the Education Week Research Center reveal that teachers are evenly distributed across the political map. 29 percent said they are liberal, 27 percent conservative and the remainder describe themselves as moderate. The results are not really surprising, as an internal National Education Association poll dating back to 2005 shows pretty much the same thing. In fact, the 2005 NEA survey, consistent with previous results, found that members “are slightly more conservative (50%) than liberal (43%) in political philosophy.”

By Larry Sand

Shoddy Studies

Flawed reports aside, charters – schools of choice – are flourishing. As I wrote last week, too many government-run schools are failing and the future for them, collectively, is not rosy. But the monopolists running our traditional public schools (TPS), in addition to blaming lack of funding, have been busy lashing out at charter schools, which are decentralized and give parents a right to choose where to educate their kids.

By Larry Sand

If You Think the Bull Market Rescued Pensions, Think Again

One year ago the Dow Jones stock index was 19,756. Today it closed at 24,211, an increase of 23%. Pretty good for one year! When the stock market does well, pension funds do well, since that’s where these funds place most of their portfolio investments. But CalPERS, the largest public employee pension system in the...

By Edward Ring

Big Education’s bad month

November saw a rash of stories about the troubled public school monolith. As I wrote last week, the public education brand is in trouble and as 2017 fades away, a wave of stories is sending the year out with not a bang or a whimper, but rather with an unceremonious thud. A Public Policy of...

By Larry Sand

Rhetoric to Challenge California’s Statist Elites

California’s ruling elites have enacted policies that make it impossible for middle class citizens to live here. They have artificially elevated the cost of living, nearly destroyed public education, decimated public services, neglected public infrastructure, and declared war on small business. To deflect criticism, they’ve convinced a critical mass of voters that any attempts to...

By Edward Ring

The Government Union War on Meritocracy

How can you persuasively counter arguments for diversity quotas, when implacable fanatics purporting to represent every identifiable group whose aggregate achievements fall short of the mean will argue it is discrimination, not merit, that determine outcomes? Expect no help from government unions. Resentment gives them passion, restitution gives them power. Undermining the meritocracy is key...

By Edward Ring

How Public Sector Unions Exploit Identity Politics

As the ethnic composition of America changes from mostly white to a kaleidoscope of color within a generation, there is no better way to fracture society than to teach everyone to resent everyone else. Nurturing tribal resentment is a winning strategy for government unions, because a swollen, authoritarian, unionized government becomes the referee. Government union...

By Edward Ring

Without Government Unions, there Would be No Gas Tax Increase

Nobody argues that California’s roads need huge upgrades. But the solution didn’t require the $0.12 per gallon tax hike that goes into effect today. The root cause of these neglected roads – and the reason even more taxes will never be enough to fix them – is the power of public sector unions, whose agenda...

By Edward Ring

How Can Local Officials Prepare for the Upcoming Janus vs AFSCME Ruling?

“A public employer shall provide all public employees an orientation and shall permit the exclusive representative, if applicable, to participate.” – Excerpt from California State Assembly Bill AB 52, December 2016 In plain English, AB 52 requires every local government agency in California to bring union representatives into contact with every new hire, to “allow...

By Edward Ring

Marin County Discloses Debt Balances on Property Tax Bills

How would you like it if every time you received a property tax bill from your county assessor, you also received a notice that disclosed the amount of the county’s total debt, annual operating expenses, total unfunded liability for pensions, and total unfunded liability for retirement healthcare? You might not like it, but you’d have...

By Edward Ring

Senate Hearings Reveal the Weak Case for High-Speed Rail

I testified for the first time before a state legislative committee on Tuesday. My main takeaways: The argument in favor of High-Speed Rail is catastrophically weak, and parking near the State Capitol is awful. My testimony did little to persuade Senate Transportation and Housing Committee members. They ultimately killed SB414, a bill that would have...

By Marc Joffe

The Tragedy of Caltrain: Doomed Because of its Faustian Bargain

On the peninsula, between San Jose and San Francisco, Caltrain has been campaigning for some time for “electrification” of its system, arguing that switching from diesel to electric is the only way to modernize its system. On the merits, this is a foolish argument: Modern Tier 4 diesel systems offer a sound alternative, and would...

By Mike Brady

Massive Road Tax Really is a Pension Tax

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators have caused a stir with their plan to increase taxes to pay for the state’s unquestionably decrepit infrastructure of roads and bridges. Instead of thinking of this as a new transportation tax, however, Californians should see it as a pension tax, given the extra money plugs a hole caused...

By Steven Greenhut

San Francisco Unified Driving Parents Away from Traditional Public Schools

As we approach Tax Day, when millions of taxpayers deal with our convoluted tax laws, many San Francisco parents have more than taxes on their minds. This is the time of year when the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) mails out the school assignment letters to anxious parents awaiting the results of the government...

By Aubrey Freedman