California Voices

By Peter Dreier Peter Dreier is E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and founding chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College, dreier@oxy.edu. He wrote this commentary for CALmatters. Almost half of California’s population–17 million people–are renters. Many of them spend more than half of their income on rent, plunging many full-time […]

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.

By Grant Deary and Carol Burger Grant Deary is executive vice president overseeing marketing and external affairs for Nor-Cal Beverage Co., grantd@ncbev.com. Carol Burger is president of Burger Rehabilitation Systems, info@burgerrehab.com. They wrote this commentary for CALmatters. Family business owners look to the next quarter-century, not just the next quarter. We treat our employees as […]

California students need more than a test score. They need a test that opens the door to college.

Marches in support of immigration does matter. But voting is our pathway to fundamentally change immigration policies and so much more.

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 next governor must safeguard the University of California and help it remain the world’s greatest public research and teaching university.

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?

Daniel Sperling, Davis The article by Julie Cast is naïve, oblivious to good policy, and unfair to Gov. Jerry Brown, for the following reasons: Banning oil production in California, as advocated by critics of Gov. Brown, is well-meaning but misguided. It would simply result in Californians buying oil from Middle Eastern and other undemocratic countries, as […]

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