Posts Tagged: funding

Opinion

A plea to keep politics out of school funding

Children taking notes during classroom instruction. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: California has an astounding surplus – almost $100 billion – yet Gov. Newsom’s Administration proposed a K-12 budget that does not fund all students equally. It shortchanges and discriminates against over 200,000 students who attend nonclassroom-based public charter schools by intentionally excluding them from hold harmless provisions.

News

Governor’s budget good for higher education — mostly

UCLA students at graduation ceremonies.(Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)

Times are flush in the Golden State, fiscally speaking. With a total budget surplus of $97.5 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May budget revision prioritizes the funding of higher education. Just ask Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who helms the California Community Colleges.

News

Under ‘realignment,’ private prison firms look to the counties

Prison inmates at a California institution, many of whom were "realigned" to counties' custody.(Photo: Pubic Policy Institute of California)

In 2019, California outlawed private prisons. By the time the ban went live in January 2020, the world’s biggest private prison contractor, the Florida-based GEO Group, lost $223 million in contracts with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

News

New law curbing small gas motors affects portable generators, too

A man fires up a gasoline-powered generator to provide electricity to a trailer. (Photo: Virrage Images, via Shutterstock)

California’s first-in-the-nation law banning the sale of new gas-powered mowers and blowers also targets a machine that has become increasingly popular with consumers in recent years — portable generators. As people face power blackouts — in areas where utilities have cut power to curb wildfire threats, for example — many have turned to generators as a backup energy source. 

Analysis

Some surprises in the handling of this year’s budget

California 's state Capitol in Sacramento. (Photo: Steven Frame, via Shutterstock)

ANALYSIS: For someone who is interested in the activities of the California Legislature and tracks the budget closely, the last two legislative sessions have brought some interesting developments, as well as a recognition of the tremendous work that legislators, staff, and the governor’s administration put into crafting the state’s spending plan each year.

News

Newsom seeks major funding for low-income mothers, their babies

Illustration of a pregnant woman. (Image: Tanya Antusenok,via Shutterstock)

Amid a pandemic that has pushed millions of mothers out of the workplace, caused fertility rates to plunge and heightened the risk of death for pregnant women, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers are seeking a slate of health proposals for low-income families and children. Newsom, a self-described feminist and the father of four young children, has long advocated family-friendly health and economic policies.

Opinion

Race, income have dramatic effect on pollution exposure

Homes in Los Angeles with a refinery and oil storage tanks nearby. (Photo: trekandshoot, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The science is clear. There is no way to effectively protect the health of vulnerable and unserved communities without confronting how factors like race and income impact exposure to the air quality threats created by fossil fuels.

Opinion

A battle against unfairness in education funding

Students in a classroom receiving instruction, pre-pandemic. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Over the past year, the need for equity has risen to the forefront of public discourse. As calls for racial equity and health equity have rightfully become more prominent, unfortunately education equity has shifted in the wrong direction. One of the most egregious acts of education inequity is seen in the fine print of AB 1316.

News

State stem cell agency follows the money — $5.5 billion

A pipette and receptacles used in stem cell research. (Photo: CI Photos)

The talk at the California stem cell agency this week was of ”boiling the ocean,” the meaning of “unlikely” and “DEI.” All of which involves how $5.5 billion in taxpayer dollars will be used over the next decade or so.

Opinion

Lawmakers must give high priority to Alzheimer’s care

An elderly patient is comforted by a young caregiver. (Photo: Ocskay Mark, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Every year, the Alzheimer’s Association releases a report providing national and state-level statistics on Alzheimer’s prevalence, mortality, cost of care and impact on caregivers. As a son caring for my father who is living with Alzheimer’s, these statistics simply cannot do justice to the huge emotional, physical and financial toll that this disease takes on families and society at large.

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