When Jerry Brown began his first governorship in 1975, he quickly set himself apart from his father, former Gov. Pat Brown. The elder Brown’s legacy had been an immense expansion of the state’s public-works infrastructure—new colleges and universities, a web of freeways and, most of all, a massive project to...
DA Smittcamp: Newsom Death Penalty Moratorium Is a Disgrace
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp joined three other California district attorneys to author an op-ed for CNN. In the piece, they state their strong opposition to Gov. Gavin Newsom's death penalty moratorium, saying it "is disheartening to victims and their families who have waited years for justice." There are...
Walters: Can Newsom Finally Fix State's Tech Woes?
California is the global capital of technological innovation, but state officials are much more adept at devising catchy names for their big “information technology” projects than actually implementing them. Take, for instance, something called “BrEZee,” which is supposed to streamline how the state Department of Consumer Affairs licenses countless thousands...
Walters: Why Is Our 'Achievement Gap' so Stubborn?
California has poured tens of billions of additional dollars into its public schools this decade on the assumption – or hope – that they would close the state’s stubborn academic “achievement gap.” Former Gov. Jerry Brown championed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) that gives school districts with large numbers...
Walters: How Budget 'Trailer Bills' Are Misused
In the jargon of the Capitol, “trailer bills” are measures that accompany the annual state budget – in theory making the changes of law necessary to implement the budget’s fiscal policies. In practice, they serve another, much different function – to sneakily do things that might otherwise be difficult to...
Walters: DMV Crisis Could Make or Break Newsom
Ambitious politicians like to dazzle us with what Hollywood screenwriters call “high concept” pitches that reduce complex ideas to a few succinct words. Gavin Newsom is certainly an ambitious politician and is extraordinarily oriented toward high-concept gestures. His latest emerged during a quick trip to El Salvador last week, ostensibly...
Newsom Names Former Sanger Superintendent to State Ed Board
Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed Matt Navo of Clovis to the 11-member California Board of Education. Newsom's office announced Navo's appointment, as well as that of early education specialist Kim Pattillo-Brownson of Los Angeles, on March 29. Navo, 48, is director of systems transformation at the Center for Prevention and Early...
Walters: Election Results Fuel War on Charter Schools
Elections have consequences, and while some are unintended, one major impact of last year’s California elections is very much intended. Organizations and wealthy individuals favoring education reforms and charter schools went head-to-head with the California Teachers Association and other elements of the education establishment. It was a wipeout. The CTA,...
Walters: Three Months in, Newsom Has Only Tepid Approval
Gavin Newsom coasted into the governorship last year, defeating his Republican rival by more than a 3-2 margin. It seems a little odd, therefore, that three months into his governorship, he enjoys only tepid popular support. A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that just 45...
Why Gavin Newsom Is No Fan of High-Speed Rail
How will California ever finish high-speed rail when it can’t finish San Francisco’s Downtown Rail Extension? Twenty-three years ago, a restauranteur named Gavin Newsom was appointed to his first political gig, as a San Francisco parking-and-traffic commissioner. Back then, a top priority of San Francisco transportation officials was a proposed...