Students and others at a Los Angeles march targeting climate change. (Photo: Sam the Leigh, via Shuterstock)OPINION: The State Seal of Civic Education would create a shift in the collective mindset of our state’s schools toward prioritizing civic engagement education, providing guidance and resources for students to become involved in activism, and incentivizing community organizing work.
Residential housing units under construction. (Photo: Orange Grove, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Our state’s high cost of living is driven in large part by exorbitant housing prices.
Skyrocketing rents and record-high home prices are forcing many families to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave our state altogether. Californians of all backgrounds are calling out for action: We need housing now.
A view of the Coachella Valley in inland southern California. (Photo: Virrage Images, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The inequalities of our state are writ large in the Coachella Valley. The west side of the valley offers verdant homes with pools that sell for millions, the distractions of Palm Springs and rock concerts, and a glamourous history that involves Hollywood and Presidents from Eisenhower to Obama who have come to the Coachella Valley to play golf.
A woman balancing her books with the help of a calculator. (Photo: fizkes, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Oversight can protect and level the playing field for both parties, as we will see soon in California with the state’s recent decision to “modernize” its lead financial regulatory agency, the Department of Business Oversight, into the new Department of Financial Protection & Innovation (DPFI).
An Employment Development Department office in Sacramento. (Photo: Screen capture, ABC7 News)As residents of one of the highest taxed states in the nation, Californians have a right to expect the government they pay handsomely to provide the basic services their taxes fund. For instance, we expect that when we have an emergency and we dial 9-1-1, help will arrive in a burst of flashing lights, sirens, and hurried professionals.
Photo: Tony Savino, via Shutterstock)OPINION: It is critical that as the budget discussions progress one sector of public school students who have been shortchanged are treated — and funded — equally as their peers: Personalized Learning public charter school students.
A hospital in Tustin with signs lauding health care workers. (Photo: BrianPham75, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The numbers grow scarier each day. Over the past week, California has topped more than 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 in a single day, with more than 8,000 people hospitalized due to the virus. Those volumes dwarf any seen in the past year, and the impact of get-togethers during Thanksgiving are not yet being felt, nor is the projected effect of the December and New Year’s holidays.
Out for a spin on a California coastal road. (Photo: oneinchpunch, via Shutterstock)OPINION Rather than imposing climate austerity measures that perpetuate poverty, there are wiser investments we can make today that will have a greater impact on reducing wildfires and creating healthier forests without adversely impacting disadvantaged communities, people of color, and the struggling middle class in our state.
California Latinos celebrate the 3election results at a Nov. 7 rally in downtown Los Angeles. (Photo: Matt Gush)OPINION: The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has left Harris’ Senate seat open. In appointing someone to fill this seat, Governor Newsom has the opportunity to secure another historic first by selecting our state’s first Latino or Latina U.S. Senator.
Los Angeles, after a storm has passed through. (Photo: kjarrett, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Californians will literally breathe easier when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office in January. While the results of other races were mixed, the stark contrast between President Trump’s “Make Our Air Dirty Again” record and Biden’s promising green agenda made control of the presidency the decisive factor in our environmental outlook for the next four years.