Recent News

For Immediate Release Aug 29, 2018 Contact: David Wooley (davidwooley@berkeley.edu) Executive Director, Center for Environmental Public Policy A report issued by the Goldman School of Public Policy provides a roadmap to California state programs designed to boost markets for electric trucks, freight equipment and supporting infrastructure.  Approximately $1.8 billion is available to buy-down the initial cost of a wide range of equipment to reduce emissions from heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles and cargo handling equipment.  California has long recognized that…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Amy E. Lerman, PhD Email: alerman@berkeley.edu California Correctional Officers at High Risk for Depression, PTSD, and Suicide, Finds Landmark Survey August 20, 2018 BERKELEY, CA—“We need to talk about suicide.” That is the message of a new movement being waged by criminal justice organizations across the country. In the wake of a series of high-profile celebrity suicides, serious mental health issues have been making headlines in recent months. The issue of suicide…

From the Center for Studies in Higher Ed Contact:  Zachary Bleemer — bleemer@berkeley.edu John Douglass — douglass@berkeley.edu Despite massive cuts in state funding over the past thirty years, the University of California has managed to keep enrollment on pace with growth in population. With California’s population projected to grow 22.5 percent (from 40 to 49 million by 2040), that will no longer be the case, unless UC is able to find new funding models. …

One of the first acts of Governor Jerry Brown’s last year in office was his final state budget proposal in January. In what’s become typical fashion during his tenure, the proposal included not only a financial plan for California for the upcoming year, but a boldly comprehensive policy blueprint. Several innovative changes for California Community Colleges were part of that blueprint, including a proposal to create the 115th community college campus, fully online and under the…

Goldman students (from left): Emory Wolf, Emily McCaffrey, Daniel Lao-Talens, Henriette Ruhrmann, Joseph Monardo, Joony Moon, Randall Tran, Chenchen Zhang Now is a fascinating time to study policy. As the US and the global community are searching for policy approaches to the future, we at GSPP are discussing how we can advocate for the future we want as policy professionals. Our thoughts and conversations with current and previous students at GSPP shape our perspective on the world. For us, the…

Rarely do new companies burst into the transportation picture the way that Uber, Lyft and other app-based ride services have done since 2012. These two companies now transport 6.6 million passengers per day, roughly triple traditional taxicabs and about one-half the number of passengers traveling by local bus in the United States. What are they? How are they transforming urban transportation? What public policy responses, if any, are needed? To understand what is happening, it's important to set aside the hype.…

Author, Gaelan Ash (MPP '19). You can reach him at gaelan.ash@gmail.com Derided as utopian in the 19th century, the co-operative movement is experiencing a modern renaissance, popping up in low-income communities to address bread and butter issues like income inequality and economic exclusion. For Taye McGee, a worker-owner at Rich City Rides, a bike shop in Richmond, California, co-operatives are anything but utopian. His job in the co-op has enabled him to make a positive impact in his…

"Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished members of faculty, staff members, families, and fellow graduates. Good morning. On behalf of the graduating class of 2018 I would like to say welcome and thank you for celebrating this special day with us as we begin this exciting and exuberant post-graduation chapter. We are all filled with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, a deep pride in the work we've put in with these last super-accelerated 12 months, and a self-assured confidence that we will be…

In the latest contribution to the Democracy Papers, Kay Schlozman, Henry Brady, and Sidney Verba give an authoritative overview of inequalities of political voice in the United States. Drawing on their recently published book, Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People’s Voice in the New Gilded Age, they show that not only has American political life long been dominated by inequalities of political voice, but also that these inequalities have been further accentuated by the…

As global temperatures rise because of climate change, suicide rates are likely to rise as well, according to a new analysis by Stanford University and UC Berkeley researchers. The study, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, concluded that projected temperature increases over the next few decades could lead to an additional 21,000 suicides in the United States and Mexico by 2050. That’s an increase of several percentage points over rates today, which are actually rising as other…