Pressure mounts on Gov. Newsom to fix education funding for English learners
By Chris Reed A scathing audit on school funding that found the state did not meet promises made six years ago to help English language learners, foster children and students from poor families sets up a 2020 test of the clout of the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers – and of the willingness […]
Auditor: State’s 12 largest cities all at financial risk
By Chris Reed According to a new website run by California State Auditor Elaine Howle and her staff, the dozen most populated cities in California all have significant fiscal problems and will be forced into major adjustments in coming years. Eleven of the cities – Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, […]
San Jose mayor joins push to break up PG&E
By Chris Reed The political pressure on Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Legislature and the California Public Utilities Commission to break up Pacific Gas & Electric has grown rapidly since PG&E ordered power outages from Oct. 9-12 that affected more than 2 million people in response to the fire threat posed by heavy winds. The utility […]
State auditor will review how $30 billion in Local Control Funding Formula grant money was spent
By Chris Reed New reports show that six years after Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature approved a sweeping overhaul in how school funds were divvied up, the evidence is mixed that the overhaul is accomplishing its main goal: improving the academic performance of the 1.2 million English language learners in California public schools. Under the law, […]
New law makes it easier for authorities to force troubled homeless into conservatorships
By Chris Reed Reflecting frustration over the fact that years of adding resources to fighting homelessness had brought little progress, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill making it significantly easier for authorities in three counties with 40 percent of California’s population to force the most severely troubled individuals into conservatorships. Those are arrangements in […]
CA cities, counties ask for Supreme Court’s help on homelessness
By Chris Reed Rushing to meet last week’s deadline for filing amicus briefs, dozens of local governments and other groups in California have jointly and separately beseeched the high court to uphold laws targeting sleeping in public. Such laws are seen as a key way to crack down homelessness. The flood of legal filings came […]
Tech lobby can’t win changes in CA online privacy law
By Chris Reed With the California Legislature in the final three weeks of its session, big tech companies and business lobbies have so far had little success in getting changes to the California Consumer Privacy Act. The landmark online privacy law – enacted in summer 2018 – takes effect Jan. 1, 2020. The law parallels a […]
Some worry California Citizens Redistricting Commission lacks diversity in applicant pool
By Chris Reed Despite requests from more than 20 civic groups that she keep recruiting applicants for the California Citizens Redistricting Commission past the present Aug. 9 deadline, state Auditor Elaine Howle doesn’t appear to believe it is necessary. Last week, California Common Cause, the California NAACP and the National Association of Latino Elected and […]
Despite crackdown, is state losing ground in vaccination push?
By Chris Reed Four years into a crackdown on high numbers of California students going unvaccinated because of claimed concerns over vaccine risks, new statisticsfrom the 2018-2019 school year show that 10 percent or more of the students in 117 kindergartens and 5 percent or more of those at 1,500 other kindergartens do not have their […]
State’s largest ‘community choice’ energy program takes a hit
By Chris Reed The community choice aggregation (CCA) movement has built considerable momentum in California in recent years. In CCA programs, groups of local government agencies team up to take over decision-making on what sources of power to use in the local electric grid – with utilities continuing to hold responsibility for maintaining the grid. […]
