In My Own Words

Online classes could unclog course bottleneck

March 21, 2013

OC Register

When my contemporaries reminisce about their college days, most focus fondly on the experience of invigorating intellectual challenges coupled with those exciting times of newfound independence.

Prop. 63 saves lives

March 10, 2013

San Francisco Chronicle

Step out of a BART station onto Market Street and you are greeted by one of San Francisco's most humbling scenes. It meets the eye before the historic street cars. It is San Francisco's mentally ill population, which can be a first and long-lasting impression linked to one of the world's most spectacular cities.

Expanding Mental Health Services -- a National Model That Works

February 27, 2013

Huffington Post

Two days after the school shooting in Newtown, the number of Google searches for mental health peaked to a 12 month high. The country is finally talking about mental health care. Connected and unconnected to Newtown, leaders exclaim that we must do something. Yet with some notable exceptions, the discussion is mostly lip service. We must translate that talk and the good intentions into real action.

Darrell Steinberg: Gov. Perry, bring it on; California can compete

February 11, 2013

OC Register

Some are calling it a bold, aggressive action. To me, it's simply an act of desperation. The governor of Texas has been creating a little media buzz with his latest effort at poaching California businesses.

Viewpoints: Commitment needed to mental health services

February 02, 2013

Sacramento Bee

What does $10 billion mean in the context of a $3.8 trillion federal budget?We spend $10 billion and more on tax giveaways for huge multinational corporations with financial operations overseas, on fossil fuel subsidies for enormously profitable oil companies, and on unnecessary farm subsidies.

California did it; so can D.C.

January 03, 2013

Los Angeles Times

Congress may have avoided certain disaster on Tuesday, but the plan that was passed does little to get the country back to a functional system of budgeting that doesn't involve chronic deficits. So what would that take? Republicans will have to recognize that raising taxes on high-income earners is a necessity. Democrats will need to agree to budget cuts and entitlement savings.

Darrell Steinberg: School course correction

December 12, 2012

OC Register

After several years under the yoke of a profound recession, the California economy is starting to show signs of a breakout. In the last year, the private sector has added 300,000 new jobs, nearly double the national rate. California also attracted more than 50 percent of all venture capital investment in the country, almost three-times the amount of New York and Massachusetts combined.

Connect curriculum to real-world jobs

August 26, 2012

San Francisco Chronicle

Nationwide and in California, the political debate over public education reform rages over important but divisive fights on how to evaluate and discipline teachers. The controversy dominates headlines while our biggest challenge is left unaddressed: making studies rigorous and relevant.

Viewpoints: Delta water plan shows progress in state's policy

August 05, 2012

By Darrell Steinberg
Sacramento Bee

To the casual observer of California's water wars, the recent announcement by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Gov. Jerry Brown seemed like just another news conference in an endless string of pronouncements over state water policy.