Fighting for a sane measure for educators. Years ago, when I was teaching, I asked then United Teachers of Los Angeles president A.J. Duffy at a union meeting why teachers weren’t responsible for paying their own dues. He replied, “They might forget.” I didn’t respond, but knew that some of my colleagues were thinking what...
NEA & AFT back race-based admission policies. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could reverse the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, in which SCOTUS asserted that the use of an applicant’s race as a factor in an admissions policy of a public educational institution does not violate...
With the November 8 election already ten days ago, we are now conditioned to accept that some final results will not be known until December 16, five weeks later. Counting proceeds at a crawl in counties up and down the state, and those among us with housebroken political sentiments are expected to be impressed at...
California parents are understandably exasperated with the alarming achievement disparities among K-12 students in the state. State and national performance assessment rankings show that California’s traditional public schools are some of the worst performing in the nation. And while poor school performance affects students of all backgrounds, low-income and minority students are disproportionately impacted. The...
The disparity in fundraising in California between Democrats and Republicans is systemic. From statewide offices to local races, government unions — not corporations — make or break candidates, and it’s not even close. A survey of California’s Secretary of State website will debunk any suggestion that Democrats are protecting California’s citizens from the big bad corporations. If...
On every major issue affecting cost-of-living in California, unions supported political agenda of self-serving ruling elite. If you go to the “what we do” page of the California Labor Federation, the lead paragraph starts with this sentence: “The California Labor Federation is dedicated to promoting and defending the interests of working people and their...
There is only one answer to this question: Public sector unions. Anyone who argues otherwise is either misinformed or has a personal or professional motivation to delude themselves and others. Before offering evidence of the financial power of public sector unions, consider the power these unions wield that is not explicitly financial. These unions operate...
In less than a year, three Orange County cities will be in the utility business. Fullerton, Costa Mesa, and Irvine have created a joint powers authority to purchase and distribute electricity to households and businesses in those cities, under what’s known as “community choice aggregation.” It’s difficult to imagine how this model will result in...
One of the biggest reasons California’s technology moguls supported the Biden/Harris candidacy had nothing to do with ideology. It had to do with their pocketbooks. Because with a Californian presiding over the Senate, and a Californian Speaker of the House, expect federal bailouts to flow west by the hundreds of billions. The likelihood of federal...
The California Policy Center, established in 2013, exists to expose and undermine the destructive power of government unions. Most Californians still don’t understand the threat these unions represent to the integrity of our democracy, the agenda of our politicians, and the solvency of our public institutions. Government unions, sometimes also referred to as public sector...
Prepared by Golden Together, a Movement to Restore the California Dream Edward Ring, California Policy Center Steve Hilton, Founder of Golden Together Published March 20, 2025