Here’s an update of a commentary I wrote in May of 2011, in response to coordinated protests across the state against higher California community college tuition. It turns out that — even with the 2012 substantial increase in our community college tuition — our community college students still pay easily the lowest community college tuition and fees in the nation — and most of our community college students don’t pay ANY out-of-pocket tuition at all!

The specific figures in the article below (the article was published in several places) are outdated, so I update the numbers here— and I include not just tuition but the fees. But note that theotherpoints in the article are as valid today as the day I wrote the piece —many of our students don’t pay any tuition or fees at all!

2013-14 UPDATE:Based on a 15 credit… Read More

With billions of dollars expected to be generated by the California Air Resource Board’s cap and trade auctions, many in the Legislature are excited with ideas of how to spend the money.

But rather than scheming on foolhardy, unsustainable spending plans, if the real goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, experts involved in the process say the Legislature should give the money back to the businesses it taxed, with the proviso the money is spent helping the companies lower their emissions.

What is AB 32 and Cap and Trade?

Last week, the Senate held a very… Read More

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A Snapshot of Legislation Moving through Sacramento

The Good

AB 2031 (Dahle) – Provides relief for certain retailers who must collect the Lumber Products Assessment (LPA) by excluding those who sell less than $25,000 in qualifying products annually. LPA is a 1 percent tax on purchases of lumber products and engineered wood products.

This bill provides a much needed break for smaller retailers who sell lumber products many of which cannot afford to remain in business if they are required to upgrade computer systems and inventory practices. Also saves money for the State Board of Equalization, by reallocating the money spent collecting from these… Read More

A landmark ruling Tuesday by Los Angeles County Superior Court JudgeRolf M. Treu found the two-year teacher tenure rule in California, unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs in the Vergara vs. the State of California case, nine California public school children,argued they were directly harmed and deprived of a quality of education by the state statute that forces schools and districts to pink-slip good teachers, and retain ineffective teachers, because of tenure.

But most telling in Treu’s ruling was his outing of the teacher tenure rules — a practice which could only be describes as “stacking the deck.”

Treu found that new… Read More

The California Teachers Association is the most powerful special interest in California. They often run ads touting how much they care about education and our students, while at the same time steadfastly defending laws that make it virtually impossible to fire grossly ineffective teachers who can have a devastating impact on the education of students. Yesterday a judge in Los Angeles exposed this hypocrisy by ruling that CTA-backed laws protecting ineffective teachers are illegal because they deprive our children of a quality education.

The judge found:

“Evidence has been elicited in this trial of the specific effect of grossly ineffective teachers on students. The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience…There is also no dispute that there are a significant number of ineffective teachers currently active in California classrooms…The number of grossly ineffective teachers has a direct, real, appreciable, and negative impact on a significant number of California students, now and well into the future for as long as said teachers hold their… Read More

Here is an incredibly deceptive SAN DIEGO U-T story, topped only by the even more deceptive headline “WAGE PUSH GETS BUSINESS BACKING.” The story is about a handful of businesses that recently held a press conference advocating that the city of San Diego adopt a dramatically higher minimum wage ($13 is the one currently proposed by progressives for our city).

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jun/07/tp-wage-push-gets-business-backing/

Nowhere in the story does the reporter try to quantify the NUMBER or PERCENTAGE of businesses calling for a higher minimum wage at the press conference. At the VERY least, he should point out the obvious – that a few businesses supporting such a policy tells us nothing about the breadth or depth of such business support.

Indeed, reading the headline, one could conclude that MOST businesses want a much higher minimum wage. Does ANYONE think that such is the case?

In a city this big with a substantial Democrat plurality in voter registrations, it can’t be too difficult to pull together a dozen business owners… Read More

As the California legislative Democratic Latino Caucus attempts to put two initiatives on the November ballot designed to attract Latino voters, tens of thousands of “unaccompanied alien children,” are flooding across the southern U.S. borders illegally.

The current infusion of illegal immigrants flooding the borders is expected to grow. The number of unaccompanied, undocumented youth and child immigrants, as young as three-years old,… Read More

Several months ago when my friend Peter Kuo asked me to assist with his State Senate race in the heavily democratic District 10, I never imagined I’d be asked how to respond to claims that he talked to someone who had died 2 years ago, however that very thing happened yesterday.

We all remember the 1999 drama “The Sixth Sense” where Haley Joel Osment’s character saw dead people, however even in the movies he never talked to them (except for Bruce Willis.) Now Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski is claiming his opponent Peter Kuo, is talking to them!

Kuo advanced to the November election in the South Bay Area senate district last Tuesday riding momentum against SCA 5 and general disdain for Sacramento. Apparently Asm. Wieckowski felt a sense of urgency to put out a press release differentiating himself from Kuo on education. Afterall, Wieckowski ought to be a little defensive that much of the billions California has spent on education ends up outside of the classroom and has delivered dismal results for California students. California ranks among the bottom in the nation on educational achievement, and Wieckowski’s party has controlled… Read More