Commentary
Commentary
Options are the Best “Alternative” Education Policy for Parents
(This post was co-authored by Evelyn B. Stacey, Education Studies Policy Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento, California. Located about an hour north of San Francisco, Santa Rosa is a gateway city to California’s renowned Wine Country in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. This “jewel of Northern California” ...
Business & Economics
Things could be worse – we could be California
As bad as the deficit woes of Arizona are – and they are very, very bad – we still have the comfort of knowing that things could always be worse. We could be California. On Tuesday, California voters overwhelmingly rejected five ballot propositions intended to shore up the state’s $15.4 ...
Commentary
Capistrano Unified Recall Leader Weighs In On Film, Is Mum About Excluded Journalist
As if to demonstrate why anyone would be interested in a movie about school districts, Capistrano Unified delivered some of its trademark drama at last night’s premier of Not As Good As You Think (which we previewed here). Capistrano Dispatch editor Jonathan Volzke apparently wasn’t invited to the event — ...
Business & Economics
An Agenda For California’s Fiscal Reform
The California state budget for years has been “balanced” with heavy borrowing, various kinds of raids on localities and special funds, and transfers from the future to the present. More generally, spending profligacy, high tax rates and onerous regulations have worked their magic: The gap between the ability of the ...
Commentary
One Last Hope for DC Voucher Program
In early May, President Obama presented a revised 2010 budget that included $12.2 million for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. The proposal represented a “compromise” solution to DC’s embattled voucher program, but is hardly a gain for low-income students and their parents. The DC voucher plan currently awards up to ...
Business & Economics
State voters signal loud and clear: Down with taxes
Californians did not solve all our state problems at the ballot box Tuesday. Far from it. They did, however, send a signal that could help end our economic nightmare if politicians take heed. On Tuesday, Californians made it clear they reject higher taxes, with good reason. We are already one ...
Commentary
Today’s “Public Options” Are Already Bankrupt
Mr. Wulsin reports the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that private insurers pay providers 20 percent to 30 percent above their costs; Medicare’s payments lay somewhere above or below the line; and Medicaid pays about 20 percent below costs. We call this the cost-shift, which increases private health insurance premiums by ...
Business & Economics
Is California Too Big To Fail?
California, the state that gave us wheatgrass, the microprocessor and the summer of love, is about to provide us with yet another first: a bailout of a failing state government. Preliminary returns on Tuesday night show that voters soundly rejected ballot measures calling for higher taxes, meaning that the not-so-Golden ...
Commentary
Film: Capistrano district poster child for ‘broken’ school system
New documentary showcases the problems of one O.C. school district. The Capistrano Unified School District is portrayed in a new, 49-minute documentary film as a case study in what is wrong with the American public school system and how politics, misplaced priorities and lack of oversight can derail what should ...
Business & Economics
Health Care Hold Up: Why Obama Won’t Give California Its Medi-Cal Bailout
Senator Barbara Boxer promised that California would get $11 billion in federal “stimulus” cash, which the embattled Golden State could use for a Medi-Cal bailout. But now President Obama is holding back almost $7 billion at the urging of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The union was upset at ...
Options are the Best “Alternative” Education Policy for Parents
(This post was co-authored by Evelyn B. Stacey, Education Studies Policy Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento, California. Located about an hour north of San Francisco, Santa Rosa is a gateway city to California’s renowned Wine Country in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. This “jewel of Northern California” ...
Things could be worse – we could be California
As bad as the deficit woes of Arizona are – and they are very, very bad – we still have the comfort of knowing that things could always be worse. We could be California. On Tuesday, California voters overwhelmingly rejected five ballot propositions intended to shore up the state’s $15.4 ...
Capistrano Unified Recall Leader Weighs In On Film, Is Mum About Excluded Journalist
As if to demonstrate why anyone would be interested in a movie about school districts, Capistrano Unified delivered some of its trademark drama at last night’s premier of Not As Good As You Think (which we previewed here). Capistrano Dispatch editor Jonathan Volzke apparently wasn’t invited to the event — ...
An Agenda For California’s Fiscal Reform
The California state budget for years has been “balanced” with heavy borrowing, various kinds of raids on localities and special funds, and transfers from the future to the present. More generally, spending profligacy, high tax rates and onerous regulations have worked their magic: The gap between the ability of the ...
One Last Hope for DC Voucher Program
In early May, President Obama presented a revised 2010 budget that included $12.2 million for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. The proposal represented a “compromise” solution to DC’s embattled voucher program, but is hardly a gain for low-income students and their parents. The DC voucher plan currently awards up to ...
State voters signal loud and clear: Down with taxes
Californians did not solve all our state problems at the ballot box Tuesday. Far from it. They did, however, send a signal that could help end our economic nightmare if politicians take heed. On Tuesday, Californians made it clear they reject higher taxes, with good reason. We are already one ...
Today’s “Public Options” Are Already Bankrupt
Mr. Wulsin reports the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that private insurers pay providers 20 percent to 30 percent above their costs; Medicare’s payments lay somewhere above or below the line; and Medicaid pays about 20 percent below costs. We call this the cost-shift, which increases private health insurance premiums by ...
Is California Too Big To Fail?
California, the state that gave us wheatgrass, the microprocessor and the summer of love, is about to provide us with yet another first: a bailout of a failing state government. Preliminary returns on Tuesday night show that voters soundly rejected ballot measures calling for higher taxes, meaning that the not-so-Golden ...
Film: Capistrano district poster child for ‘broken’ school system
New documentary showcases the problems of one O.C. school district. The Capistrano Unified School District is portrayed in a new, 49-minute documentary film as a case study in what is wrong with the American public school system and how politics, misplaced priorities and lack of oversight can derail what should ...
Health Care Hold Up: Why Obama Won’t Give California Its Medi-Cal Bailout
Senator Barbara Boxer promised that California would get $11 billion in federal “stimulus” cash, which the embattled Golden State could use for a Medi-Cal bailout. But now President Obama is holding back almost $7 billion at the urging of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The union was upset at ...
