In Debate, Torlakson Misrepresents Teacher-Discipline Bill

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson debated challenger Marshall Tuck on Wednesday night and once again found himself on the defensive over the teacher tenure laws targeted in the Vergara decision. Cabinet Report details how Tuck went after … … Torlakson’s support of teacher tenure laws that were invalidated by a superior court judge […]

Vergara Appeal Decision

To an astounding degree, prominent California Democrats have so far avoided substantive comment on Judge Rolf Treu’s landmark — but tentative – June 10 ruling in Los Angeles Superior Court that teacher tenure laws are so harmful to minority students in poor neighborhoods that it “shocks the conscience.” A spokesman for Attorney General Kamala Harris told […]

Prop. 26 Shows Teeth, Kills San Diego Hotel Tax Hike

One of the few recent big triumphs of the small-government, low-tax movement in California came in 2010, when state voters approved Proposition 26.  The constitutional amendment cleared up loopholes that allowed governing bodies to pass tax hikes on simple majority votes if they asserted the taxes were actually fees. Here is part of the ballot […]

State Peddles Idea that Bullet Train Contractors are Investors

On Jan. 11, 2010, the Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a report on the latest iteration of the business plan for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. It contained a game-changing conclusion — a predictable conclusion but still a crucial one. Here’s what I wrote in a Union-Tribune editorial at the time: The Legislative Analyst’s Office released […]

CA Fossil-Fuel Foes Want To Ban More Than Just Fracking

California foes of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have been surprised and disappointed at their inability to get Gov. Jerry Brown or the Legislature to ban the practice. Brown’s support for a law regulating but permitting the newly improved drilling technique barely seemed to discomfit the oil industry. But now frack phobes are borrowing a tactic […]

7 Ways James Fallows is Wrong About the CA Bullet Train

Writing on The Atlantic’s website, the much-respected journalist/intellectual James Fallows — a Redlands native who knows California better than nearly all other national pundits — has come out as a big fan of the state’s bullet-train project. He promises to return frequently to the project in coming months and explain all the ways that it […]

CalSTRS Bailout will be CA Version of Budget Sequester

On April 10, 2012, I wrote an op-ed for the L.A. Daily News with an unusual take on what ultimately would kill the bullet train. My theory was that the teachers unions would fight to keep a new mouth from the trough of the general fund because of the long-term need to maintain a status […]

TX Routs CA in Education Test Scores

Every time I write or speak on a radio show favorably about Texas compared with California, I get harsh online comments, emails and phone calls. The usual theme isn’t just that California is a nicer place to live. It’s that Texas is a hellhole compared with just about anywhere — a place that hates unions, […]

Reputation Defender: The LA Office of the NAACP

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is expected to face suspension or more from the NBA at a press conference at 11 a.m. today (Pacific time) in the league’s New York office. Sorry, but I can’t believe the tone-deafness of people of some on the right who see this as much ado about nothing. He’s […]

Push for Sharper Minimum Wage Hike Under way in San Diego

California’s second-largest and the nation’s eighth-largest city appears sure to have a six-month-plus debate over whether to raise the minimum wage much more than the state government has in store. The Democratic majority of San Diego’s City Council is going to put a proposal on the November ballot, with the specifics not yet clear. This […]