Election Surprise – What It Means for Prop 13 Bills in Legislature
Republican Susan Shelley has come within a whisper of pulling a major upset in the Special Election for Assembly District 45. With final absentee and provisional votes yet to be verified, as of early this morning, Shelley is just 173 votes behind Democrat Matt Dababneh out of more than 26,000 votes cast. As I pointed […]
Problem: The Prop 30 Taxes Have No Cliff
Those of us who complain that the Prop 30 revenues are temporary are often told two things. First, that temporary taxes make the most political sense. Second, that the revenues will be made permanent, perhaps in 2016. But the structure of the Prop 30 taxes has a little-discussed political problem that will make it harder […]
California’s Dystopian Job Future?
This Friday, the Employment Development Department will be releasing the employment numbers for September and October. Most likely, they will follow the pattern we’ve seen for the past nearly three years of steady job gains and slowly reducing unemployment. Since February 2010, the state has gained over 826,000 payroll jobs, an average of roughly 27,000 […]
Revolutionizing California’s Schools
California has embarked on a bold experiment in education. Policy shifts like the new Common Core State Standards and the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula make local school districts dramatically more autonomous. Such changes provide a golden opportunity to transform education’s much derided one-size-fits-all factory model into something, frankly, more human. So how might your local school district take advantage of […]