August, 2011 - Independence Institute

The latest Obamacare case was wrong to uphold Medicaid expansion—Part I 0
- August 20, 2011
As noted in my last post, on August 12 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit struck down as unconstitutional the Obamacare mandate that citizens purchase health insurance. However, the Court upheld the law’s massive expansion of the Medicaid program. Medicaid—part the 1960s “Great Society” mishmash now so widely understood to be a
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Build Trains = Raise Fares + Cut Bus Service 0
- August 19, 2011
Denver’s Regional Transit District (RTD) says it will have to raise fares and cut service due to higher-than-expected operating costs and lower-than-expected revenues. I am sure this has nothing to do with cost overruns for RTD’s rail lines that are under construction, right? Because operating and construction funds come from two entirely different sources, right? […]
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Outside the Education Box: Blended Learning Opportunities for At-Risk Teenss 0
- August 18, 2011
A new piece for Education Next by June Kronholz profiles Virginia’s four Performance Learning Centers (PLCs) — blended learning environments that use online technology to help get struggling at-risk students to graduate high school (H/T Joanne Jacobs). The story is chocked full of interesting anecdotes and insights. This one caught my attention:

Students graduate when they […]
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DeFazio: Turn BLM Lands into Trusts 0
- August 18, 2011
Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio is floating a proposal to turn the Bureau of Land Management’s “Oregon and California” lands into two trusts, one focusing on timber production and one focusing on environmental protection. This plan was partly developed by frequent Antiplanner commenter Andy Stahl. The Oregon & California (O&C) Railroad land grant lands now managed […]
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Health “reform” will increase spending 0
- August 18, 2011
“The report by the Medicare Office of the Actuary estimated that health spending will grow by an average of 5.8 percent a year through 2020, compared to 5.7 percent without the health overhaul. “
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Four Takes on the Phi Delta Kappa Education Poll: Pretty Darn Klever, Huh?0
- August 17, 2011
It was to my youthful bemusement that today I ran across several edublog postings about a new “PDK” poll. PDK? At first I wondered that might stand for: Pretty Darn Klever? (or Kute?) Maybe Precociously Delightful Kid? (Guess they weren’t really talking about me, though….)
It’s actually the 43rd Phi Delta Kappa poll of American opinion […]
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