California budget crisis
With California facing a state budget shortfall of billions of dollars, tough decisions face legislators, city managers, school board members, finance directors and other decision-makers contemplating the future.
The following UC Berkeley faculty members can address numerous issues relating to the state's financial crisis, ranging from the economy and housing markets to education, health care and infrastructure.
ECONOMY
Tom Campbell
Dean of the Haas School of Business
Phone: (510) 643-2027
E-mail: campbell@haas.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Fiscal policy and politics. A lawyer, economist and former U.S. congressman and California state senator, Campbell also served as director of the California Department of Finance from 2004-2005.
Thomas Davidoff
Assistant professor with the Haas School of Business Real Estate Group
Office: (510) 643-1425
E-mail: davidoff@haas.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Housing, real estate and urban economics
John Ellwood
Professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy
Phone: (510) 642-4512
E-mail: jellwood@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Financial management, public sector budgeting and the politics of the budgetary process. Trained as a political scientist, Ellwood has served as a consultant for various state and U.S. government agencies and was on the board of the California Budget Project. He also was the research director of the Public Policy Institute of the California Budget Project, served on the management staff of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), was on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and was special assistant to former CBO director Alice K. Rivlin. Ellwood co-authored "The Revenue Burden in California Since Proposition 13" (1998) with Michael A. Shires and Mary Sprague.
Kenneth Rosen
Professor of real estate and urban economics at the Haas School of Business
Phone: (510) 643-8274
E-mail: krosen@haas.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Economics of the housing and commercial real estate markets
EDUCATION
Bruce Fuller
Professor of education and co-director of the research institute Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE)
Phone: (510) 643-5362 (office) or (415) 595-4320 (cell)
E-mail: b_fuller@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: K-12 educational policy, school finance funding and government's role in universal preschool. Fuller has worked as an education specialist for the California Legislature and as education adviser to former California Gov. Jerry Brown. He also was a sociologist at the World Bank. He is author of "Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education" (2007). He frequently contributes commentary to media outlets.
Norton Grubb
David Pierpont Gardner Professor in Higher Education and faculty coordinator of the Principal Leadership Institute at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education
Phone: (510) 642-3488
E-mail: wngrubb@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: The role of schooling in labor markets, reforms in high schools and community colleges, teacher quality, interactions among education and training programs, and social policy toward children and youth. Grubb is the author of "The Education Gospel: The Economic Power of Schooling" (2005), and "Honored but Invisible: An Inside Look at Teaching in Community Colleges" (1999).
According to Grubb, governors, voters and tax-limiting initiatives share the blame for the deterioration of California's K-12 schools over the last 30 years.
Goodwin Liu
Assistant professor of law and co-director of the UC Berkeley School of Law's Warren Institute for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity
Phone: (510) 642-7509
E-mail: gliu@law.berkeley.edu
Law school media relations contact: Susan Gluss, 510-642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Expertise: K-12 education policy, Constitutional law, civil rights and the Supreme Court. He served in the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton administration and has written extensively on federal education policy. Liu advises that as the state's public schools grapple with the short-term goal of balancing their books in California's current budget crisis, "state policymakers must turn their attention to the long-term goal of funding our schools in a way that avoids the destabilizing boom-and-bust cycles we've seen in recent years. California needs a new school finance system; the inequities and incoherence of our current system are all too familiar. Because there is little appetite for reform in a good budget year, now is the right time to consider a fundamental overhaul."
Deborah McKoy
Director and founder of the Center for Cities & Schools at UC Berkeley's Institute for Urban and Regional Development
Phone: (510) 642-1628
E-mail: debmckoy@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Educational reform, community development and public policy
David N. Plank
Education researcher with the Graduate School of Education, executive director of the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) research institute
Phone: (510) 642-2953
E-mail: dnplank@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Education policy analysis and evaluation. Plank has conducted research and taught courses on education finance and policy.
Jeff Vincent
Deputy director and co-founder of the Center for Cities & Schools at UC Berkeley's Institute for Urban and Regional Development
Phone: (510) 642-1628
E-mail: jvincent@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Land use and school facility planning, community development and public schools
HEALTH CARE
William Dow
Associate professor of health economics in the School of Public Health's Division of Health Policy and Management; chair of the Health Services and Policy Analysis graduate group; and associate director of the Berkeley Population Center
Phone: (510) 643-5439
E-mail: wdow@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Dow's background is in health economics, both domestic and international, particularly as it relates to health insurance. He has worked with both Democratic and Republican groups on health sector reform proposals at the federal, state and local levels. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and previously served as senior economist for health at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Helen Ann Halpin
Professor of health policy, director of the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies and vice chair of the California Health Benefits Review Program
Phone: (510) 643-1675 or (510) 642-2862
E-mail: helenhs@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Halpin can discuss the impact of budget cuts on access to health insurance and state health programs. She has expertise in health insurance policy, including health insurance benefit design, health care reform, access to care, consumer experiences in managed care, and disease prevention and health promotion. Halpin has been quoted extensively in the media on issues related to national health care reform, particularly about Medicare and Medicaid. She is also a member of the Barack Obama campaign's health care policy committee and is an unpaid advisor to the Obama campaign.
Stephen Shortell
Dean of the School of Public Health and professor of health policy and management
Phone: (510) 643-5346
E-mail: shortell@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Shortell can discuss the impact of budget cuts on the delivery of healthcare services, including community services In February 2008. He was appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger to a four-year term on California's Public Health Advisory Committee, charged with providing expert advice and making recommendations on the development of public health policies and programs. Shortell has done extensive research on institutional incentives for improving quality of care and health outcomes, particularly when related to the management of patients with chronic illnesses.
INFRASTRUCTURE
David Dowall
Professor of city and regional planning, director of UC Berkeley's Institute for Urban and Regional Development
Phone: (510) 642-2233
E-mail: dowall@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Infrastructure planning and finance, comparative urban development policy. Dowall has conducted research on domestic and international land management, housing policy, economic development strategy and infrastructure planning and finance.