CA gubernatorial candidates, take these issues seriously

from Dan WaltersCalMatters

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Eric Swalwell’s sudden exit from the gubernatorial campaign amid sexual misconduct revelations leaves nine men and women as serious contenders for spots on the November ballot.

So far, their campaigns have produced scattered positions and promises that only occasionally touch on California’s real-world issues. However, by pure coincidence, there has recently been a flurry of think tank reports and articles on these issues that should be required reading for future moderators and forum moderators to interview candidates.

In no particular order:

schools

The Public Policy Institute of California delved into the an alarming lack of academic achievement among California public schools. It noted that on state tests, only 49 percent of students met or exceeded state standards in English and 37 percent in math.

Federal test scores were even less satisfactory, with only 29% of fourth-graders and 28% of eighth-graders performing well in reading, and 35% and 25% in math, respectively.

Long behind in academics, Mississippi has gotten serious about increasing reading comprehension through phonics. California, after years of political debate, has finally half-adopted phonetics, though it doesn’t fully require it. Ann article in Atlantic magazine reveals that phonics alone is not enough in Mississippi; state mandates coupled with state oversight were needed to make acoustics work—a suggestion perhaps California should follow suit.

jobs

Outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom likes to brag about California’s $4 trillion economy, but rarely mentions the darker side — several years of virtually no job growth. Public Policy Institute of California digs into this stagnation and reports, “Job growth has been limited to a few key sectors such as health care and local government, while stock market gains have been driven by AI. Unemployment has not increased much in the past two years, although it remains higher than in 2022 and above almost all other countries.

“One major challenge for the next governor will be providing expensive services like health care to a growing elderly population while the share of workers declines,” PPIC says.

The Conservative Pacific Research Institute plowed the same economic ground in a report. “The data show that California’s economic challenges are no longer theoretical — they are measurable and getting worse,” said Wayne Winegarden, one of the report’s authors. “Weak statewide job growth and a shrinking private sector signal that California is at a crossroads. Without meaningful policy reforms, the gap between California and the rest of the country will continue to widen.”

One aspect of California’s economic sluggishness is the exodus of workers due to the extremely high cost of living. Another report from the Public Policy Institute of California says the state has seen a net loss of nearly 1.3 million people since 2020. The outflow, combined with a record low birth rate, makes California particularly dependent on immigration for new workers, which in turn has been affected by upheavals in federal immigration policy.

homes

Study of UC-Berkeley’s California Policy Lab delves even deeper into the loss of population from the state to other states, citing the high cost of living, especially housing, as a major factor.

It notes that “in 2012, the state’s median household income was roughly enough to qualify for a mortgage on a middle-class home, but is now well below the level needed to qualify for even a bottom-tier home.”

However, those who leave California find it easier to become homeowners due to much lower prices and see an improvement in their overall financial well-being.

This is not an exhaustive catalog of California issues that campaigns for governor must address. Water supply and homelessness also need attention, as do the insurance crisis and the state’s chronic budget deficits. But these reports are a good start to a serious debate.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.