Report Rethinking the State-Local Relationship: An Overview By Dean Misczynski Apr 29, 2011 Governor Jerry Brown’s January 2011 budget proposal sparked renewed interest in "realignment”—that is, in changing how the state and localities divide responsibility for programs and services. This report identifies basic principles for realignment, outlines legal and other constraints, and examines critical funding issues. This report is part of a PPIC series on rethinking the state-local relationship. The series includes: Child Welfare Services Corrections K-12 Education Local Economic Development This work is supported by funding from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and by contributions of unrestricted support to PPIC’s Donor Circle.
Report Funding California Schools: The Revenue Limit System By Margaret Weston Mar 1, 2010 California’s 978 school districts receive the majority of their funding through a formula known as "revenue limits.” While it is commonly believed that this funding is equitably distributed across districts, this is not the case. In 2005-2006, this funding differed across districts by as much as $3,871 per student. This report examines the components of the formula determining revenue limits, discusses the variations in funding, and considers potential reforms in school finance. This report was supported with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Report Determining College Readiness in California’s Community Colleges: A Survey of Assessment and Placement Policies By Hans Johnson, Marisol Cuellar Mejia, Olga Rodriguez Nov 9, 2016 Assessment and placement policies govern where students begin their college journey. Yet community colleges vary greatly in how they identify college-ready students—potentially leading to inequitable access to transfer-level courses. This research was supported with funding from The Sutton Family Fund.
Report Closing the Gap: Meeting California’s Need for College Graduates By Hans Johnson, Ria Sengupta Bhatt Apr 16, 2009 California faces a shortage of almost a million college-educated workers by 2025. Taking a practical approach, this report finds that this education-skills gap could be cut in half by modest investments in programs aimed at expanding college attendance rates, increasing transfer rates from community colleges to four-year institutions, and boosting graduation rates at four-year institutions. As the state’s economy becomes increasingly reliant on highly skilled workers, a confluence of trends—the retirement of baby boomers, and demographic shifts toward groups with historically low rates of college attendance—makes these investments all the more crucial to the state’s continued economic success.
California Counts, Report Immigrant Pathways to Legal Permanent Residence: Now and Under a Merit-Based System By Joseph Hayes, Laura Hill Jun 4, 2008 How do immigrants become legal permanent residents in the United States? The process is complicated and often takes years to accomplish. This study examines how current federal immigration policies operate, focusing in particular on how the policies affect California, which is home to 27% of the nation's immigrants. The authors also examine how changes to federal immigration policy proposed last year would alter the composition of legal immigrants in the United States. The proposed legislation would replace the current system -- which gives priority to applicants based on family reunification and employment -- with a system that places greater emphasis on employment and skills.
Report Transportation Spending by Low-Income California Households: Lessons for the San Francisco Bay Area By Lorien A. Rice Jul 26, 2004 In Transportation Spending by Low-Income California Households: Lessons for the San Francisco Bay Area, Lorien Rice explores the roles that transportation expenditures play in household budgets, both in California’s metropolitan areas and in the Bay Area more specifically. In particular, Rice analyzes vehicle and transit expenditure data, estimates costs for various commutes in the Bay Area, and explores mode choices and other travel factors that influence monetary costs. Her findings indicate that transportation was the third-largest budget item for California’s low-income households—despite the fact that these residents are more likely to use public transit, carpool, or walk to work. Rice also reviews policy options to address transportation affordability and proposes ideas for further research.
Report Lessons from the 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act By Steven Raphael, Sarah Bohn, Magnus Lofstrom Mar 14, 2011 Arizona’s unauthorized immigrant population shrank after employers were required to verify workers' legal status with the federal E-Verify system. The 2007 law also pushed a substantial number of unauthorized immigrants into self-employment. The study estimates that from 2008 to 2009 Arizona’s population of unauthorized immigrants of working age fell by about 17 percent, or about 92,000 people, as a result of the Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA).This research was supported with funding from the Russell Sage Foundation.
Report Making Room for the Future: Rebuilding California’s Infrastructure By David E. Dowall, Jan Whittington Mar 12, 2003 This report identifies the state’s most pressing infrastructure problems and shows how policymakers can address them more effectively. In particular, it analyzes the issues and opportunities confronting three of the state’s major infrastructure responsibilities-education, water, and transportation-and identifies a range of policy tools that can be used to improve infrastructure service delivery. After surveying the key institutions in each sector, the authors offer a list of recommendations for addressing the state’s infrastructure challenges. They also suggest a three-step approach to implementing these recommendations: immediate measures to relieve costly congestion and infrastructure impaction; near-term efforts to address infrastructure service shortfalls; and a long-term overhaul to remove structural and institutional impediments to infrastructure provision.
Statewide Survey PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians and Higher Education By Mark Baldassare, Dean Bonner, Sonja Petek, Nicole Willcoxon Nov 17, 2010 Some findings of the current survey: About three-fourths of Californians say state funding for public higher education is inadequate. Most Californians favor more money for higher education even at the expense of other state programs. Almost 60 percent of all parents -- and 72 percent of Latino parents -- are very worried about paying for college. Most Californians say the state’s three college systems are doing a good or excellent job. Job Approval Ratings: Governor SchwarzeneggerCalifornia State Legislature Time Trends of Job Approval Ratings: Governor SchwarzeneggerCalifornia State Legislature This survey was supported with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
