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Accountability In Higher Education
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
8.20.2002
At the end of August, California will release school-wide student scores on the state’s standardized tests. While not a perfect tool, testing has been the key component in the state’s K-through-12 accountability system and has spurred improvement efforts in many low-performing public schools. Since improving the public schools is a means to increasing access for all California students to colleges and universities, the time may be ripe to expand accountability to higher education.
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Proposed State Tobacco Tax Increase
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
7.23.2002
In order to close the state’s massive budget deficit, Gov. Gray Davis proposes a slew of tax increases, including raising the state’s tobacco tax by 72 percent to a whopping $1.50 per pack of cigarettes. Davis estimates that the tobacco tax hike will bring in nearly half-a-billion dollars in additional revenues. Before he banks on these added tax dollars, however, Davis would be well advised to look at the problems currently being experienced by states and countries with high tobacco taxes.
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2002 Farm Bill
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
6.4.2002
During his presidency, Bill Clinton said that the era of big government was over. Evidently, someone forgot to tell that to President Bush when he recently signed the 2002 federal farm bill.
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Teacher Unions and Collective Bargaining
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
4.2.2002
Up in the State Legislature, the California Teachers Association is sponsoring legislation that one long-time Sacramento columnist has termed the most dangerous education proposal of the year. The bill, AB 2160, would expand the scope of collective bargaining to include non-wage-and-benefit issues such as curriculum, textbooks and academic standards. The battle over the bill is likely to be bloody.
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2002-03 Budget Deficit
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
1.8.2002
Governor Gray Davis blames much of the state’s $12.4 billion deficit on the events of September 11th. The foundation for the budget disaster, though, was laid much earlier. Back when times were flush, Gov. Davis and the State Legislature went on a spending spree. Many of us warned at the time that when the inevitable recession hit California, we would discover that Gov. Davis signed all those spending bills using a pen filled with red ink. Now the recession is here and, voila, we have big deficits.
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Agroterrorism
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
10.16.2001
In the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the subsequent U.S. military retaliation, Americans are expressing deep worries about new rounds of terrorist activity. Much of the focus has centered on biological terrorism, especially the release of diseases such as anthrax that are directly fatal to humans. Less talked about, but potentially more devastating to our economy and our way of life is a subset of biological terrorism called agroterrorism, which targets agriculture and our food supply.
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2001 State Test Scores
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
8.21.2001
It's very important to test students to see if they’re learning in the classroom and meeting the standards of knowledge enacted by our state policymakers. The question, however, is whether California’s standardized test, the Stanford-9 exam, actually accomplishes those goals. Because of key problems with the test, it’s unclear just how much progress kids are making in their learning and what it is they are learning.
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Gov. Davis, Electricity and Ethics
KQED Commentary
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
7.24.2001
On the surface, things seem to be going pretty good for Gov. Gray Davis with regard to California’s electricity crisis. The governor has gotten nice publicity switching on some new power plants. The weather has been unseasonably cool. His sagging poll numbers are edging back up. Yet, for Davis, just beneath this optimistic picture lies some very troubling problems.
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