History repeats itself, Karl Marx wrote, “First as tragedy, then as farce.” But he didn’t say what happens the third time, when tragic farce strikes again and the whole benighted process repeats itself. Take the case of Julie Su, President Joe Biden’s acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. In the past four years,...

Last month, the California Court of Appeal issued a decision in Visalia Unified School District v. Public Employees Relations Board, impacting personnel disputes in school districts throughout California. This is a must-read for all California school district HR directors. Overview: Despite finding that a school district’s decision to fire the union chapter president was retaliatory,...

In appointing Laphonza Butler to take Dianne Feinstein’s still-warm U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked his twin, someone of Cirque-du-Soleil-level flexible morality and connections to wealthy donors on all sides of most issues. In that regard, at least, she’s a perfect representative of California politics. She is “simply the best person that I...

California’s powerful unions had the state Assembly in its usual vise grip Monday as a legislative deadline loomed that made it do-or-die for some bills. All eyes were on AB1400, the bill that would put the state government in charge of healthcare for every Californian. But Monday afternoon, the legislation’s sponsor, Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose),...

A challenger for governor of California could radically improve education with one executive order. In a recent opinion piece in The Epoch Times, veteran writer John Seiler put forth a set of strategies for a Republican to beat California Governor Gavin Newsom in the state’s September 14th recall election. Among other things, he suggests that...

Editor’s note: This column is an expansion of a piece the author previously published in CalMatters on July 22, 2021. You can read that piece here. A massive battle is about to hit California school districts, and parents must prepare to fight for their students. Through a series of federal relief packages passed in Washington,...

Some 300,000 Californians have stopped paying membership dues or fees to California’s government unions since 2018, the year the Supreme Court of the United States, in Janus v. AFSCME, ended mandatory union membership requirements for state and local government workers.  The 20 percent drop in membership has allowed California workers to keep approximately $240 million...

New episode of the Radio Free California Podcast is out! California Policy Center’s own Will Swaim and David Bahnsen are at it again with their latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. In this week’s episode, they discuss a barnyard metaphor used by a Santa Clara County official to describe the tawdry relationship...

Two opinion articles worth a read Summer is almost here, and the tide may finally be turning in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  This week, two notable opinion pieces were published in area newspapers questioning the ongoing, union-orchestrated school closures, and challenging the LAUSD Board of Education to stand up to the United Teachers...

Supporters of education reform in California have never had a bigger opportunity than they do right now. In the past year, more parents than ever witnessed the selfish overreach of the teachers’ unions, at the same time millions of them experienced creative educational solutions that bypass the traditional public school system.  Meanwhile, an activist army...