Budget Sequestration Cuts and California Schools

By Lisa Schiff
A friend of mine emailed me last fall incredibly worried about the impact of potential sequestration cuts on schools and students across the country. He was a long-time Washington D.C.-based public education advocate, so I was simultaneo…

The California Budget: Back in Black

By Robert Cruickshank
Last week’s big news was the announcement from Governor Jerry Brown that the state budget is out of perennial deficit and looking at several years of surpluses. We’ll talk more about what those surpluses mean and how they ought to…

California’s Environmental Leadership: Making Progress Amid Economic Recovery

By Ann Notthoff
What California does makes a difference. When President Obama increased national mileage standards last year, he built on the pioneering work that Senator Fran Pavley started here in 2002. We dream big, we take big steps and when it com…

Michigan is Just the Beginning

By Dick Meister
Be alert, American workers: The passage of right-to-work legislation in Michigan means serious trouble for unions and their supporters everywhere. Yet there’s legitimate hope that it also could lead to a revitalized labor movement.
You …

New Political Terrain Holds Promise for California Schools

By Lisa Schiff
My daughter came home from school the other day frustrated and angry. She had been excited the evening before because she’d learned that having finished The Odyssey her ninth-grade English class was now going to tackle Beowolf. We discus…

Two-Thirds Rule Makes Transit Funding Proposals Worse, Not Better

By Robert Cruickshank
Last week I made the case for restoring democracy to transit funding decisions in California. A Democratic State Senator is proposing exactly that, offering a constitutional amendment that would reduce the requirement for passing …