The “value-added” assessments are useful in analyzing teacher performance, but they can be made better. The crucial issue, though, is what to do with this data. Read more
As legislators finished their session and scattered to their home districts this week without a realistic budget plan and two months after the deadline for approving a budget, one cannot help but wonder if our elected leaders truly grasp the depths of economic crisis and despair facing Californians. Read more
As entertainment goes, the final regular-season episode of the Budget Show in the Capitol was shoddy. The actors – the Assembly members and senators – are B-rate. The speeches, despite their strained attempts to sound Kennedy-esque, were pretentious. Read more
When the Los Angeles Unified School District unveiled its opulent $578 million Robert F. Kennedy High School, the most expensive government-run K-12 school in this nation's history, it was the latest evidence that the floundering district is like a vacuum cleaner with its hose wedged firmly in the back pocket of taxpayers. Read more
Unfortunately, Obamacare doesn't guarantee a right to health care. Instead, it undermines that right by subverting Americans' freedom to obtain the health care they prefer. Read more
To help us find out what is in ObamaCare, Sally Pipes, President and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, read the greater than 2000 pages of the legislation passed in March. Read more
I've frequently argued that, as the state faces an unfunded pension liability that's as high as $500 billion, legislators are not doing anything about a problem that is depleting public services and imposing additional debt and tax burdens on Californians. Read more
Sally C. Pipes, PRI president and CEO, recommends watching this video: "It shows a North Carolina mother confronting Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan about ObamaCare, telling her bluntly, “My children will suffer” because of ObamaCare." Read more
Recent scandals, runaway spending and ongoing fiscal crises have all boosted interest in lobbying. Washington, D.C., draws much of the new interest, but states, including Maryland, also deserve scrutiny. Read more
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