Dan Walters

Gov. Brown wants California to be a global leader in reducing or eliminating carbon emissions to fight global warming. But what that entails, and how much it costs, are blanks to be filled in later.

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

Overcoming powerful opposition, the Legislature passed two bills that would, if signed, make it easier for adolescent students to learn and easier for older students to obtain college degrees.

California's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris both played big roles in last week's confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. While Feinstein was critical of the circus-like atmosphere of the hearings, Harris contributed to it. But both were pursuing personal political goals.

Despite the overall left-of-center tone to the Legislature's just-concluded session, the California Chamber of Commerce sidetracked all but one of the 29 liberal bills it labeled as "job killers."

California's school children rank near the bottom on nationwide tests of academic achievement and educators and their political allies argue that more money is needed to close an "achievement gap." But how much, where would it be found and would it actually do the job?

A collection of commentaries by Dan Walters over the past week.

The Legislature eagerly grants special treatment under the California Environmental Quality Act for sports arenas and other high-profile projects but refuses to undertake broader CEQA reform, even for vital transportation and housing projects.

The most interesting statewide political contest this year is for state superintendent of schools, and it's a proxy war for the years-long conflict between the education establishment and reformers over how to close the "achievement gap" among California's six million K-12 students.

Labor unions enjoy huge clout in the California Legislature, but in the real world, union membership has been slipping in California and could decline even more with a new U.S. Supreme Court decision on union dues.