CALIFORNIA WATCH : Looking Inward

California leads the nation in many categories--the good, the bad and the ugly--but it may not make the top 10 for self-reflection of the institutionalized sort.

After all, it wasn’t until recently that the respected RAND Corp. of Santa Monica turned its attention to domestic and state issues after years of heavy work for the Pentagon. And it was only a few years ago that the Washington-based California Institute, with its emphasis on the workings and non-workings of California’s congressional delegation, was born.

Some other organizations notably contribute to the state’s understanding of its problems and its opportunities--the Partnership 2000 group and elements of the UC system, to cite just two prominent examples; there are others of course. But on the whole, California has turned the microscope onto itself less often and systematically than, say, New York or Michigan.

This is why the generous grant by billionaire computer mogul William R. Hewlett to set up a nonpartisan think tank on the state’s problems is welcome and tremendously timely. The state is reeling from one serious problem after another--and not all of them are recession-driven. Some involve problems of our own making. Thus the Public Policy Institute of California, to be located at Stanford University and led by RAND executive David Lyon, is exactly what the doctor ordered.

William Hewlett is to be commended for pledging such a sizable sum--$70 million--for such a valuable purpose. Now more than ever, California needs its brightest minds on the case.