Despite calls from Sacramento to reduce standardized testing in California public schools, voters strongly support the use of state standardized tests, both as an essential way to measure student performance and as an important element in teachers’ evaluations, a new PACE/USC Rossier School of Education Poll shows. Nearly two-thirds of […] Read more »
How California Is Turning The Rest Of The West Blue
Colorado’s politics have become positively Californian lately. There are new restrictions on guns. Pot is legal. The legislative agenda featured an expansion of alternative-energy use requirements for rural consumers. Gay couples can now enter into civil unions. There’s a reason for all this. [cont.] Alan Greenblatt, NPR News Read more »
Two Big States’ Big Split on Immigration
In the current immigration debate, California and Texas look like very similar terrain. The two electoral behemoths are both “border states” familiar with the issue. And in both Hispanics make up the exact same percentage of the population according to the latest Census numbers: 38.2%. And yet, as the debate […] Read more »
California: Basics of health law not understood by many
Many California residents will qualify for new health care options when the Affordable Care Act takes effect in January, but a large chunk of them still don’t understand even the basics of the law and how it might apply to them. In a new Field Poll of California voters released Tuesday, […] Read more »
Meritocracy or Bias?
… Frank L. Samson, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Miami, thinks his new research findings suggest that the definition of meritocracy used by white people is far more fluid than many would admit, and that this fluidity results in white people favoring certain policies (and groups) over […] Read more »
How Immigration Plays in Border States
When it comes to the immigration overhaul debate, the U.S.-Mexico border states are different. Those four states – Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas – hold 27.5 million Hispanics, about half of the total U.S. Hispanic population. As the House of Representatives digs into immigration policy you might think those […] Read more »