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The roots of California's housing problems aren't particularly hard to trace given the reams of house-price and population data going back decades. For instance, the Los Angeles Times reported that the median price of a California home in 1970 was only 5% higher than the national average at $24,300. That year's nationwide median price was $23,400, which translates to a low $181,000 price in 2023 dollars after adjusting for inflation.

Cities throughout the West face rising crime¿, ¿soaring housing costs¿, ¿a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests¿. ¿Policymakers typically address these and¿ ¿other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion¿. ¿They fail to understand what makes great cities thrive¿. ¿The Free Cities Center is Pacific Research Institute's effort to foster serious thinking about urban policy¿. ¿PRI hopes to incubate good ideas that will improve our cities¿. ¿It will feature incisive reporting and opinionating on our new web page¿, ¿and in a series of webinars¿, ¿research papers and books¿. ¿If you love cities and are brokenhearted by their current state¿, ¿help is on the way¿.¿

Homeschooling is probably the most misunderstood school choice option. Many believe that homeschooling isolates students, is practiced by a narrow demographic, and shoulders parents with the entire responsibility for teaching their kids. The reality is that homeschooling is an incredibly diverse movement and offers a myriad of socialization opportunities for students plus a wealth of resources for homeschool parents.Thanks to the massive educational disruption brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, homeschooling has transformed from a tiny curious sideshow to a mainstream part of the education landscape. Increasing numbers of parents have found that homeschooling offers them and their children the choices, flexibility, and personalization that cannot be found in one-size-fits-all conventional schools.The Homeschool Boom highlights the wide variety of people who have decided to homeschool. They have taken the opportunities offered by technology, varied learning models, new and abundant curricular choices, and the freedom to individualize learning to educate their kids successfully outside the traditional classroom.The parents, children, and educators you'll meet reading The Homeschool Boom epitomize this new wave of homeschoolers who were dissatisfied with current direction of their children's education but made a once-unthinkable choice - the choice to educate their kids at home.

Saving California is focused on policy changes that could help restore some of California's lost luster - regardless of what politician runs our massive state government apparatus. The authors are all current or former Californians, people with deep expertise in their respective policy areas. Although their chapters include a fair share of criticism of current policy directions - how could they not? - they each propose real-world policy changes that could push the state onto a better track. Their ideas are realistic reforms that will advance the stated goals even of the most progressive legislators, such as bettering the environment and helping the poor.

In his new Pacific Research Institute book Winning the Water Wars, journalist and R Street Institute western region director Steven Greenhut writes that California can end its decades-long battles over water and meet the needs of its current and future population by promoting abundance rather than managing scarcity.