California
California
LAUSD Election, New Data Provide Momentum For Charter Schools
Los Angeles Unified recently experienced a huge earthquake – a political seismic shift – when school board candidates supportive of charter schools defeated incumbents backed by the powerful local teachers union. And in a one-two punch, new research shows that charter schools are improving the achievement of the predominantly minority ...
Business & Economics
Step One: Recognize The Public Pension Crisis
As Milton Friedman famously noted, there are four ways to spend money; the fourth being spending somebody else’s money on somebody else. And, when people spend money this way, they tend to disregard both the costs and the outcomes. Simply put, people spend such money unwisely. Not only, as Milton ...
Business & Economics
Pensions: The Case For Defined Contribution Retirement Plans
Three problems, exemplified by the crises afflicting the public pension systems in Houston and Dallas, plague state and local pension systems across the country. First, state and local governments have only contributed 88 percent of the required annual contributions into their public pension funds between 2001 and 2015. In total, ...
Business & Economics
Lack Of Transparency In Public Contract Negotiations Would Lead To Higher Taxpayer Costs
No state needs to reform the relationship that governments have with public-employee unions more than California. Yet lawmakers keep going in the wrong direction. Contract negotiations between government and the labor unions who represent the public employees should be transparent. Too often, both sides are working toward a common goal ...
Business & Economics
CAPITAL IDEAS: Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Download the Brief Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In ...
California
Lawmakers Should Think Carefully Before Leashing ‘The Dog’
Crime in California is on the rise and the solution offered by Sacramento is … releasing suspected criminals back into the community without requiring them to post bail? Assembly Bill 42 would, if passed and signed, authorize the pretrial release of an “arrested person,” and “set a time and place ...
Business & Economics
Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone
Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
California
California GOP Congressional Delegation Helps Pass Obamacare Repeal
Key to the House Republicans’ victory on Thursday in repealing and replacing Obamacare was the support of many of California’s 14 GOP congressional members, including three who at the last minute co-sponsored an amendment that adds $8 billion more to fund “high risk pools’’ for millions of Americans with pre-existing ...
California
Even Blue California Warms To School Choice
A new poll by the respected Public Policy Institute of California found that a large majority of Californians support school-choice vouchers, which would grant parents public funding to pay for private-school tuition for their children. While that finding may seem shocking in blue California, that shock quickly dissipates given the ...
Business & Economics
Prevailing Wage Would Make California’s Housing Crisis Worse
California has a grim housing problem and nearly everyone in the state, whether they have tried to buy or rent a home or not, is aware of it. Apparently, though, some in Sacramento haven’t noticed and hope to mix in more of the poison that created the crisis in the ...
LAUSD Election, New Data Provide Momentum For Charter Schools
Los Angeles Unified recently experienced a huge earthquake – a political seismic shift – when school board candidates supportive of charter schools defeated incumbents backed by the powerful local teachers union. And in a one-two punch, new research shows that charter schools are improving the achievement of the predominantly minority ...
Step One: Recognize The Public Pension Crisis
As Milton Friedman famously noted, there are four ways to spend money; the fourth being spending somebody else’s money on somebody else. And, when people spend money this way, they tend to disregard both the costs and the outcomes. Simply put, people spend such money unwisely. Not only, as Milton ...
Pensions: The Case For Defined Contribution Retirement Plans
Three problems, exemplified by the crises afflicting the public pension systems in Houston and Dallas, plague state and local pension systems across the country. First, state and local governments have only contributed 88 percent of the required annual contributions into their public pension funds between 2001 and 2015. In total, ...
Lack Of Transparency In Public Contract Negotiations Would Lead To Higher Taxpayer Costs
No state needs to reform the relationship that governments have with public-employee unions more than California. Yet lawmakers keep going in the wrong direction. Contract negotiations between government and the labor unions who represent the public employees should be transparent. Too often, both sides are working toward a common goal ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Time for Return to Reasonableness in Federal Land Grabs
Download the Brief Nearly half of California isn’t actually California. It’s an extension of Washington, D.C. Almost 46 percent of the state’s land mass is owned by the federal government, according to the Congressional Research Service. This means business opportunities in virtually half of the state are greatly restricted. In ...
Lawmakers Should Think Carefully Before Leashing ‘The Dog’
Crime in California is on the rise and the solution offered by Sacramento is … releasing suspected criminals back into the community without requiring them to post bail? Assembly Bill 42 would, if passed and signed, authorize the pretrial release of an “arrested person,” and “set a time and place ...
Government Should Leave Sharing Economy Alone
Governments tend to target innovative industries that are too new to be regulated and single them out for punitive taxes and nasty abuse. As Art Laffer once put it, governments aren’t happy when business pioneers enjoy “success without the benevolent, guiding wisdom of” of the regulatory state. This was the ...
California GOP Congressional Delegation Helps Pass Obamacare Repeal
Key to the House Republicans’ victory on Thursday in repealing and replacing Obamacare was the support of many of California’s 14 GOP congressional members, including three who at the last minute co-sponsored an amendment that adds $8 billion more to fund “high risk pools’’ for millions of Americans with pre-existing ...
Even Blue California Warms To School Choice
A new poll by the respected Public Policy Institute of California found that a large majority of Californians support school-choice vouchers, which would grant parents public funding to pay for private-school tuition for their children. While that finding may seem shocking in blue California, that shock quickly dissipates given the ...
Prevailing Wage Would Make California’s Housing Crisis Worse
California has a grim housing problem and nearly everyone in the state, whether they have tried to buy or rent a home or not, is aware of it. Apparently, though, some in Sacramento haven’t noticed and hope to mix in more of the poison that created the crisis in the ...
