For years, even decades, polling has consistently found that Californians’ highest political priority is public education. That trend continues in a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, conducted in the wake of teacher strikes for higher salaries in three urban school districts. PPIC found that three-quarters of...
Trump Backs Off Proposal to Cut Special Olympics
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was backing off a budget request to eliminate funding for the Special Olympics, reversing course after his administration weathered days of criticism for the proposed cut. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a rally in Michigan, Trump...
DeVos Criticized Over Plan to Cut Special Olympics Funding
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is facing sharp pushback over a proposal to cut federal funding to the Special Olympics. Celebrities, politicians and activists have taken to social media to rebuke DeVos for her plan to cut funding for the group as part of $7 billion in reductions in 2020. The...
California Supreme Court Throws Cities, Including Fresno, Into Chaos Over Local Taxes
The California Supreme Court has some explaining to do. Late last year, the city of Oakland put a new land parcel tax on the books, after 62 percent of voters turned out to boost funding for public education. Now a local business group is suing the city, arguing that the new tax...
Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Border Wall
WASHINGTON — Battling with one branch of government and opening a new confrontation with another, President Donald Trump announced Friday he was declaring a national emergency to fulfill his pledge to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump made the announcement from the Rose Garden, as he claimed illegal...
Trump Tweet: No Emergency Funding for California
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is threatening to withhold Federal Emergency Management Agency money to help California cope with wildfires if the state doesn't improve its forest management practices. However, local and state Republicans in California pushed back hard against the president's threat. Assemblyman James Gallagher and state Sen. Jim...
Dyer Talks Staffing, 911 Calls, Atlantic Article, Parks, and More
Earlier this year it appeared to me that Mayor Lee Brand had teed up the perfect sales tax proposal for Fresno: a half-cent divided between parks and public safety. But the Fresno City Council majority shot down the idea and now voters have a single option — a 3/8 of...
Is Temperance Flat Dam Proposal Down to Its Last Strike?
A proposed dam at Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River above Friant is eligible for $171.3 million in funding, California officials announced today. But while that's a lot of money, it's well short of what's needed — along with federal and local financing — to make the $2.6 billion,...
Editorial: Want To Rebuild Middle Class? Then Boost CSU Funding.
There is unfinished bipartisan business in the state Legislature that belongs at the top of every lawmaker's to-do list. Members of the Assembly and the Senate must make it clear to their respective leaders that Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $92 million budget increase for the California State University system is...
Grownups Have Messed Up School Budgets. Turn It Over to the Kids.
California education finances are an unholy mess — with incomprehensible budget formulas, equity funding that doesn’t produce equity, and cuts to schools even during the current economic expansion. And our state’s so-called education leaders refuse to fix the system. We should let the kids fix it instead. This isn’t a...