California has become a national leader in providing grants for school districts to improve their CTE programs. But how well have Southern California districts done in capitalizing on available funds and how are districts implementing these funds? In a previous post, the Lowe Down analyzed the Inland Empire’s capacity to prepare workers for the region’s
While policy makers search for a way to cut down traffic in one of the most congested cities in the world, Los Angeles drivers wait. An earlier blog post of the Lowe Down, Is the Commuting Price Right?, explored the per-mile tax idea that policy makers have to cut down on congestion. While this idea
Since the first international Olympic Games in 1896, the Olympics has served as an opportunity for host cities to boost their economies. Employment surges are largely attributed to sudden increases in jobs needed for preparations, staffing, and construction. As Los Angeles looks to the 2028 Olympics, The Lowe Institute has used data from past Olympics
Are the educational opportunities in the Inland Empire in line with the future demands of the labor market? According to a report on the future of middle income jobs, the US as a whole faces a significant mismatch between the skills middle education workers possess and skills required by middle income jobs. In California, there
Much media and political attention has been given to the U.S.-China trade war and speculation about its effect on both economies. General economic intuition would predict the tariffs to have a negative effect on exports and imports leaving and entering U.S. However, data from the L.A. ports points to a different narrative. In this article,
About a quarter of all homeless people in the United States live in California, nearly 130,000 on any given day. California also has the highest rate of unsheltered homeless individuals in the nation: 70%. Does lack of veterinary services in Los Angeles County homeless shelters provide a barrier to entry in California? While homeless people
The absence of an appropriation bill enacted the Antideficiency Act which forces non-essential government operations, including the National Parks Service, to stop during the shutdown. The National Parks Conservation Association reports the Department of the Interior were able to employ just under 3,300 of the 20,000 NPS employees as “essential staff” to keep National Parks
What could be worse for Inland Empire commuters than the daily, lengthy drive into Los Angles? Having to pay a per-mile tax on that ride. With the LA County Metro Transit Authority considering a congestion tax, we performed an analysis to predict the cost of Inland Empire workers commuting to Los Angeles. No matter how
When California SB 901 was passed last September instituting a variety of wildfire-related measures, it was met with mixed reactions. The bill’s detractors saw it as a bailout for large utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), who are able to pass off some their liability in starting wildfires to ratepayers in the form
Over the last few months, we seem to have witnessed a strong connection between political actions and the stock market. Perhaps the most important major recent political event was the 2018 federal midterm elections. Following those elections was a major stock market decline. Was the stock market decline caused by the election results? Stock prices
