In summary

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

School spending popular, taxes not so much

New poll says voters want to raise school spending, but are leery about taxing themselves to do it.

Can we protect kids from becoming zombies?

The Legislature has another chance to protect adolescents from too-early school start times. Former Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill setting 8:30 a.m. as the earliest class time in most instances, but it’s back this year and opponent are trying to keep it from reaching Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Can Newsom finally fix state’s tech woes?

Despite California’s status as a technological innovator, its state government has seen failure after failure in implementing information technology. Gov. Gavin Newsom is promising to fix this chronic problem.

Why is our ‘achievement gap’ so stubborn?

California’s “achievement gap” in its K-12 schools has persisted, despite spending many billions of dollars to close it. Two new proposals, a state audit and a system to track students’ achievement, may tell us why the gap has been so stubbornly wide.

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Dan Walters has been a journalist for more than 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times...