Video: Time to Rethink How Colorado Finances Student Learning Success
“Before we can do anything to fix Colorado schools, we just need to give them more money. …Right?” A great new 2-minute video edited and produced by the Independence Institute highlights ideas presented in Denver by national school finance experts Dr. Eric Hanushek and Dr. Marguerite Roza. Colorado needs to think outside the box in designing a new system to fund learning success.
The Wildlife Service (Extermination Service, That Is)
A little-known agency in the Department of Agriculture is an out-of-control destroyer of wildlife, reports investigative journalist Tom Knudson in a lengthy series of articles in the Sacramento Bee. The agency, which calls itself the Wildlife Service, kills hundreds of thousands of animals each year. Thousands of non-target animals, ranging from endangered species to people’s […]
Gov’t National Health Information Network and your medical privacy
Recent breaches in electronic medical records has the Citizens’ Council on Health Freedom ask: “How vulnerable will patients be when the National Health Information Network (national medical records system) is fully in place?” Continue reading
The True Cost of Driving
Some smart-growth advocates argue that, even though housing costs more in cities than in suburbs, transportation costs in cities are so much lower that the total cost of housing plus transportation is lower. The problem with these claims is that they are based on average transportation costs. As Steve Polzin, a transportation researcher from the […]
House Bill 1333: The Fight to Expand Teacher Options
Tim Farmer, membership director for the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE), explains the case for House Bill 1333 and how it was killed by a Democratic-controlled state senate committee. In particular, he highlights the weakness of arguments used against allowing educators to make union or professional membership choices on a month-to-month basis and what can be done going forward to expand teacher options.
Teachers and Charter Schools: A Whole Lot of Appreciation Going On This Week
Today’s a good day for stepping back a bit. Yesterday it was exactly four years ago I started blogging as a 5-year-old. And here I am, still 5 years old. Hmmm….
While we’re in the spirit of commemoration, let’s be reminded that this week is both Teacher Appreciation Week and National Charter Schools Week. It’s a […]
Unfunded Liabilities in PERA’s Health Plan Accumulate
by Penn Pfiffner and Barry Poulson This legislative session Colorado HB1250 was introduced to begin addressing an unfunded billion-dollar liability in the Public Employee Retirement Association’s (PERA) retiree health care benefit program. Its own sponsor then killed the bill after it came under a fire storm of hysteria-tinged and false criticisms, fueled by one-sided media […]
What is Unique about U.S. Health Care? Patients are not the paying customers
Americans control less of our own health spending than do residents of other developed countries. After ObamaCare is defeated, reversing his long-term trend must be the top priority of the real health reform that replaces it. Continue reading
Transportation Notes from All Over
The city of Detroit decided not to build a light-rail line down Woodward Avenue, so some private foundations are trying to raise the $137 million to build it instead. Are they nuts? Do they really think this is the best use of their money? In 1996, the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union forced the county […]
SB 172 Testing Consortium Dispute Colors Last Days of Legislative Session
Phew! There are only a few days left in Colorado’s legislative session, but there are still education bills left that deserve our attention. My new grown-up friends at Parent Led Reform today have their sights set on stopping Senate Bill 172, one of the shortest pieces of legislation you may ever lay eyes on:
The bill […]
Government-Funded Medical Research Is Hazardous to Your Health
Just as Americans have become increasingly skeptical of “global warming” policy proposals based on questionable government-funded climate science, they should be skeptical about mandatory medical practice protocols based on increasingly questionable government-funded medical research. Continue reading
If They Only Had a Streetcar
Kansas City sold $295 million worth of TIF bonds to revitalize a part of the city known as the Power & Light District. The developer who benefitted from this money says “the development was successful as part of a broader effort to re-energize the city’s downtown.” Unfortunately, tax revenues are less than a third of […]
