Dan Walters

During his second governorship, Brown's displayed a penchant for appointing old friends and trusted aides to powerful and/or well-paying state positions.

When politicians take the easy way out and ignore reality, it comes back to haunt them and their constituents, whether it's delayed infrastructure maintenance or providing salary unaffordable salary increases.

A new study of California's K-12 schools concludes that the "achievement gap" remains large, and more efforts—along with a lot more money—are needed to close it.

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.