California
California
CAPITAL IDEAS: Minimizing the Economic Costs from California’s Drought
California continues to endure the state’s most severe drought since at least 1895. And, the economic costs have been high. Estimates for 2015 alone show a cost of 21,000 jobs and $2.7 billion in economic losses. Read full editorial
California
Courts shouldn’t make education policy
In a recent decision, the California Court of Appeal ruled that it was up to the California Legislature, not the judiciary, to set the level of spending for schools. The court’s ruling makes good sense, not only for legal reasons, but also in light of judicial history and education research. ...
Agriculture
Market-driven solution to relieve drought
Drought-weary Californians breathed a sigh of relief because another “March Miracle” series of storms soaked much of the northern half of the state. Sadly for the people of the Golden State, their relief is mostly misplaced. The state reported that the statewide snowpack is only 87 percent of normal and ...
Commentary
For GOP Health Reformers, No Sleep Til Cleveland
The Republican National Convention is less than three months away. The party may not have settled on a presidential nominee by then but if the GOP’s top elected official, Speaker Paul Ryan, has his way, Republicans will arrive in Cleveland with a brand-new plan for replacing Obamacare. The time is ...
Business & Economics
Tackling the Public Pensions Problem
State and local public pension systems are in deep financial trouble. The latest comprehensive assessment by Joshua Rauh of the Hoover Institution, which captured 97 percent of public pension assets, found that the unfunded liabilities of public pensions are in the trillions of dollars. The public pensions problem is a ...
Commentary
President Obama Double Downs On Medicaid’s Failures
President Barack Obama is calling on taxpayers to shell out more money for his health reform law’s disastrous Medicaid expansion. The president recently asked Congress to approve $106 billion in new Medicaid spending over the next 10 years. Nevermind that the Congressional Budget Office just concluded that, as is, Medicaid ...
California
Vergara Overturned, But Teacher Tenure Conversation Changed Forever
The same week a state appellate court overturned a lower court’s ruling that barred teacher tenure, four families in Minnesota filed a similar lawsuit questioning the fairness of tenure laws and last in-first out policies. “There’s no doubt though that [Vergara v. California] has already changed the conversation,” Andy Smarick, ...
California
Friedrichs decision isn’t end in fight against public-sector unions
As expected, in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a 4-4 tie vote in the critical Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which sought to determine whether non-union public employees could be forced to subsidize union collective bargaining. While the tie vote means that ...
California
Medi-Cal system encourages abuse
After more than a year, California’s politicians and health insurers have finally agreed to and passed last month what California Healthline calls a “tax hike in name only” to finance Medi-Cal. If only it were that simple. Funded jointly by the state and federal governments, Medi-Cal is the subject of ...
California
Key Brown Education Legacy Program Comes up Short
In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown touted the centerpiece of his education agenda, the Local Control Funding Formula, which simplifies the way in which local school districts are funded. Yet his key legacy program has experienced critical implementation problems and has exposed, once again, the ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Minimizing the Economic Costs from California’s Drought
California continues to endure the state’s most severe drought since at least 1895. And, the economic costs have been high. Estimates for 2015 alone show a cost of 21,000 jobs and $2.7 billion in economic losses. Read full editorial
Courts shouldn’t make education policy
In a recent decision, the California Court of Appeal ruled that it was up to the California Legislature, not the judiciary, to set the level of spending for schools. The court’s ruling makes good sense, not only for legal reasons, but also in light of judicial history and education research. ...
Market-driven solution to relieve drought
Drought-weary Californians breathed a sigh of relief because another “March Miracle” series of storms soaked much of the northern half of the state. Sadly for the people of the Golden State, their relief is mostly misplaced. The state reported that the statewide snowpack is only 87 percent of normal and ...
For GOP Health Reformers, No Sleep Til Cleveland
The Republican National Convention is less than three months away. The party may not have settled on a presidential nominee by then but if the GOP’s top elected official, Speaker Paul Ryan, has his way, Republicans will arrive in Cleveland with a brand-new plan for replacing Obamacare. The time is ...
Tackling the Public Pensions Problem
State and local public pension systems are in deep financial trouble. The latest comprehensive assessment by Joshua Rauh of the Hoover Institution, which captured 97 percent of public pension assets, found that the unfunded liabilities of public pensions are in the trillions of dollars. The public pensions problem is a ...
President Obama Double Downs On Medicaid’s Failures
President Barack Obama is calling on taxpayers to shell out more money for his health reform law’s disastrous Medicaid expansion. The president recently asked Congress to approve $106 billion in new Medicaid spending over the next 10 years. Nevermind that the Congressional Budget Office just concluded that, as is, Medicaid ...
Vergara Overturned, But Teacher Tenure Conversation Changed Forever
The same week a state appellate court overturned a lower court’s ruling that barred teacher tenure, four families in Minnesota filed a similar lawsuit questioning the fairness of tenure laws and last in-first out policies. “There’s no doubt though that [Vergara v. California] has already changed the conversation,” Andy Smarick, ...
Friedrichs decision isn’t end in fight against public-sector unions
As expected, in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a 4-4 tie vote in the critical Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which sought to determine whether non-union public employees could be forced to subsidize union collective bargaining. While the tie vote means that ...
Medi-Cal system encourages abuse
After more than a year, California’s politicians and health insurers have finally agreed to and passed last month what California Healthline calls a “tax hike in name only” to finance Medi-Cal. If only it were that simple. Funded jointly by the state and federal governments, Medi-Cal is the subject of ...
Key Brown Education Legacy Program Comes up Short
In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown touted the centerpiece of his education agenda, the Local Control Funding Formula, which simplifies the way in which local school districts are funded. Yet his key legacy program has experienced critical implementation problems and has exposed, once again, the ...
