Graduates at ceremonies at Santa Monica City College. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)From housing to college, Californians are complaining about affordability. As parents and students grapple with their future, many are looking towards alternatives to the typical four-year degree. Many are focusing more on careers, jobs, benefits, and steady careers that fulfill their interests.
Sather Tower at UC Berkeley, looking toward the bay. (Photo: Chao Kusollerschariya, via Shutterstock)OPINION: How can the state of California make intelligent public policy on higher education when it does not have the data to do so? This simple question underscores every governor’s and legislator’s dilemma when they annually establish funding levels for California’s postsecondary education system. There is no integrated statewide database for higher education.
A nurse practitioner, left, discusses care with a young girl and her mother.(Photo: Monkey Business Images)>OPINION: California is facing a crisis in our healthcare workforce. We lack enough primary care providers. This issue, combined with a wave of physicians getting set to retire and an expanding aging population, has created a perfect storm particularly in our rural and underserved communities.
A janitor mops the floor in a new school building. (Photo: Siyanight, via Shutterstock)If passion for children were enough to pay the rent, classified education workers would be some of the wealthiest people in the Golden State. Instead, the hard-working teaching assistants, janitors, special education aides and cafeteria workers who keep our K-12 schools running barely scrape by during the school year, only to face hunger in the summer months when their paychecks stop.
U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, following the defeat of the failed effort mounted by him and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, to repeal Obamacare. (Image: CNN screen capture, via YouTube)In California, people shopping for 2018 coverage in the state’s exchange, Covered California, will still have the full three months they’ve had in recent years, starting on Nov. 1 and ending Jan. 31. And the state Legislature last week passed a bill, currently awaiting the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown, that would ensure a three-month enrollment window for consumers seeking coverage in 2019 and beyond.
A senior medical practitioner on the phone with hospital records. (Photo: sirtravelalot, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The California Assembly is currently considering a bill, Senate Bill 790, which would put in place severe restrictions around gifts or other financial benefits that pharmaceutical companies can give to medical professionals as part of marketing activities. Not only will the bill limit physician access to important information about new treatments, but it also insults the integrity of every physician practicing in California and is a threat to the patient-physician relationship.
Pedestrians crossing Hollywood Boulevard. (Photo: Sean Pavone)Pedestrian deaths are on the rise throughout the nation, but California is bucking the trend. Preliminary data by the Governors Highway Safety Organization shows an increase in pedestrian fatalities throughout the United States, rising 12 percent to 5,997 in 2016. Yet California, home to the highest number of pedestrian deaths for years, is finally seeing a drop.
Sunlight streaming through the bars of a prison cell. (Photo: nobeastsofierce, Shutterstock)OPINION: I am a 50-year-old man who has spent 39 years of my life behind bars. Millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to incarcerate me in juvenile camps and the state’s prison system, where I was given a life sentence for murder. Life could have turned out differently for me, if I had the guidance and support I needed as a child who took to the streets to escape family dysfunction and abuse.
A vaccination in progress. (Photo: Komsan Loonprom)At least three lawsuits have been filed seeking to overturn California’s new law that prevents children from attending public or private school or day care without getting mandatory vaccinations.
A nurse with her young patient, and the patient's father. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California is one of just 12 states that still excludes qualified nurse practitioners from taking a leading role in helping patients prevent and manage chronic disease like obesity, diabetes and hypertension. I believe this outdated model has deadly consequences for people in our community, where our specialized care for diabetes suffers for lack of qualified health care providers.