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.
David Cruz is the head of the Economic and Business Council for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC has declined to take a position on California’s hotly-contested Proposition 22, but Cruz has been actively engaged in making the case to pass the measure, including an appearance in an October debate against Latina activist Dolores Huerta, who is in opposition. David joined us by phone to discuss his support for Prop. 22, including a novel take on how to view the nearly quarter-billion dollars spent on the campaign.
Detail of an antique California Bear Flag handerkerchief with detailed Grizzly Bear. Photo by the Bear Flag MuseumCalifornia’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission is generally regarded as a model of its kind, achieving balance and representation through a carefully constructed mix of quotas, political gamesmanship and random selection. How then, did the first round of new commissioners selected on July 2 (eight of a total of 14) fail to include a single Latino, the state’s largest ethnic group?
A coronavirus anti-body testing station in Palo Alto run by Stanford University. (Photo: Sundry Photography, via Shutterstock)In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a multimillion-dollar state initiative to bring COVID-19 testing to the people and places with the least access: rural towns and disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. California is now halting its expansion, citing costs, even as the state is getting walloped by record-setting spikes in new infections and double-digit increases in hospitalizations.
An illustration suggesting the variations in the voting population. (Image: Julian Tromeur, via Shutterstock)There are plenty of things to look at now that California counties have updated their voter files with the 2018 general election vote history. This is our first chance to see what really happened, as opposed to what people thought had happened based on the outcomes.
Children at a California public school respond to a teacher's question. (Photo: Monkey Business Images, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The new comprehensive analysis of California’s PreK-12 education system, Getting Down to Facts II, revealed that the state is moving in the right direction with reforms put in place over the last decade, but more importantly it showed much more must be done to support student success.
Students at the graduation ceremonies of UCLA. (Photo: Joseph Sohm)OPINION: California is recognized as an innovative economic leader boasting access to world class higher education, yet the state is quickly being outpaced in the percentage of students who actually complete their degrees. What drives this chasm between shining opportunity and lackluster outcomes? One reason is as simple as it is startling: Students’ basic needs are not being met.
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.
A San Francisco street scene. (Photo: Oneinchpunch, via Shutterstock)Part 3: As California grows, the shifts of population within the state can have a dramatic impact on the drawing of future political boundaries. These shifts can be broken into two different types of population counts: The absolute population counts as defined by the 2020 U.S. Census, and the citizen voting age populations, or CVAP.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks to the Sacramento Press Club. (Photo: Michael Warren Mott)State Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading California’s increasingly tense challenge to the policies of Donald Trump’s administration. It’s a role that gives him high visibility — and headaches. Becerra, in office just five months, is backed by the person who appointed him attorney general: Gov. Jerry Brown. That support is likely to translate into financial resources, too.