Edison Lee of the California Policy Center examines Gov. Newsom’s recent Executive Order N-3-22, which loosened hiring/certification requirements for substitute teachers and returning retired teachers. Much-needed amidst California’s scramble for instructors, Newsom’s executive order highlights the overwhelming red tape roadblocks lower-income professionals (e.g., hair salon shampooers) face to get certified. Lee calls for deregulating occupational certification processes, which are far too extensive and expensive in the Golden State.

Responding to progressives’ extreme jail-emptying plans, Johnny Khamis asserted this Feb. that giving criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card is an absurd response to mental illness and unideal prison numbers. Matt DeLisi and John Paul Wright of City Journal support this idea, refuting beliefs that the criminal justice system harshly and unfairly incarcerates too many citizens. On the contrary, the state is historically lenient on crime (e.g., via revolving-door “justice”) and unprepared to manage a high volume of it—proving jail-emptying is a serious public safety risk.

Dr. Jeff Hummel, SJSU economics and history professor, recently delved into the controversial 1619 Project at a Mt Hamilton/Bastiat Society event. Though proponents often doubt this project’s veracity, they frequently reference/praise the 1619 Project for “academic attention,” says Dr. Hummel. For historians who advocate the 1619 Project, their professional writing often contradicts the project’s foundational claims—raising questions about influential academics playing the rewrite-history game for their own fame.

Silicon Valley office space vacancies remain high post-pandemic, despite nationwide rates leveling out. Would it be beneficial and realistic to kill two birds with one stone by converting empty offices for unhoused residents? While it has been successfully enacted on local individual bases, repurposing office space is not without drawbacks and reasonable criticism. Multiple perspectives from various press below.

Nonprofit Do Not Harm, which exposes Wokeism in the medical discipline, recently reported on UCSD’s School of Medicine. With hardly a side glance from CA’n residents, this department pushes affirmative action hiring practices and teaches that race permeates healthcare—all to uphold an ideologically-biased anti-racist stance, as encouraged by SJ’s Racial Equity Office. National Review breaks down Do No Harm’s report on UCSD’s racially discriminatory practices, which presumably engender “a lower quality in medical outcomes.”

This Nov., incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond may get the boot from local “parent advocate” Lance Christensen. California Globe’s Katy Grimes dives into why Christensen (with a modest budget/grassroots campaign) is even a contender against Thurmond, to whom CTA donated $2.2 million. Are parents’ demands for open, CRT-free schools slowly but surely overcoming teachers unions’ agendas?

Local consulting firms’ dismal prediction of 30% primary election voter turnout in California was overly optimistic by two times, as the real number was 16% (though SCC performed fairly well in comparison with 33.3%—our new record low). Why? Evan Symon from the California Globe discusses two potential culprits of low turnout: races perceived as inevitably tipped in one candidate’s favor, and individualized political disappointment or disinterestedness.

The pandemic-related failure of local public schools to provide appropriate education to schoolchildren has greatly increased attendance at and interest in local charter/private schools. But does School Choice go far enough if it lets the structural impact of huge school districts continue? Howard Husock at the American Enterprise Institute explores.