Education
Commentary
Scholarship programs are gifts that keep on giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands — even tens of thousands — of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools ...
Vicki E. Murray
December 20, 2010
Commentary
Tax Credit Scholarship Programs are Gifts that Keep on Giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands—even tens of thousands—of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools of their choice—regardless of ...
Vicki E. Murray
December 15, 2010
Commentary
Education payouts lack payoff
As the budget wars unfold, federal employees complain of being targeted as overpaid bureaucrats. A better target would be redundant and counterproductive federal agencies, which seem off-limits to the media. The New York Times poster person for the issue is Iyauta Moore, a black single mother with a master’s degree ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
December 14, 2010
Education
Florida Shows California that Demography is Still Not Destiny
The latest fourth-grade NAEP reading results reveal how California’s failure to reform its public schools is putting students at an alarming disadvantage. Experts note that through third grade children must learn to read, but beginning in fourth grade they must read to learn. If students cannot read at grade level ...
Vicki E. Murray
December 9, 2010
Commentary
WikiLeaks no threat to free society
SACRAMENTO – The response by pundits to the latest WikiLeaks classified-document dump has reminded me of a preacher who decries pornography, but who also insists on reading the dirty magazines page by page so that he can better understand the depth of the world’s depravity. If WikiLeaks’ actions were so ...
Steven Greenhut
December 3, 2010
Commentary
California fails at giving kids a quality high-tech education
California’s new superintendent of public instruction is Tom Torlakson, whose election locks in a status quo that short-circuits California students on high-tech delivery of educational services. Countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, Turkey, India and China, along with the European Union, are taking full advantage of online education. California, home ...
K. Lloyd Billingsley
December 1, 2010
Commentary
Demography Is Still Not Destiny
Florida ’s low-income, Hispanic, and black fourth graders now outperform all California fourth graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment according to a policy brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based think tank. Demography is Still Not Destiny attributes this striking gap ...
Vicki E. Murray
November 29, 2010
Agriculture
Is Our Food Hazardous To The Planet?
Enough with blaming agriculture for the world’s environmental woes! According to a new report released by the San Francisco, Calif.-based Pacific Research Institute, the environmental impact of raising crops and livestock is often misconstrued. The report, “Is Your Food Making the Planet Sick?” can be downloaded at www.pacificresearch.org/publications/is-your-food-making-the-planet-sick. “Modern agriculture ...
Pacific Research Institute
November 26, 2010
Commentary
Paulson: It’s time for school choice
Take time to watch Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman, voted best U.S. documentary at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and you’ll be confronted with the sorry state of America’s school system. How can America invent a more innovative and profitable future without a quality education system? In ...
Pacific Research Institute
November 21, 2010
Commentary
State’s new legislators should take cue from Florida on schools
California’s new education boss, Tom Torlakson, has his work cut out for him. He might start by explaining to parents why Florida, a demographically similar state, continues to outpace California in student achievement. On that score, the Golden State still sputters around the bottom of national rankings. California apologists of ...
Vicki E. Murray
November 11, 2010
Scholarship programs are gifts that keep on giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands — even tens of thousands — of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools ...
Tax Credit Scholarship Programs are Gifts that Keep on Giving
During this season of giving, imagine if California taxpayers could give the gift of a better education to thousands—even tens of thousands—of deserving children. Today a variety of parental-choice scholarship programs across the country, including tax-credit scholarships, empower parents to send their children to the schools of their choice—regardless of ...
Education payouts lack payoff
As the budget wars unfold, federal employees complain of being targeted as overpaid bureaucrats. A better target would be redundant and counterproductive federal agencies, which seem off-limits to the media. The New York Times poster person for the issue is Iyauta Moore, a black single mother with a master’s degree ...
Florida Shows California that Demography is Still Not Destiny
The latest fourth-grade NAEP reading results reveal how California’s failure to reform its public schools is putting students at an alarming disadvantage. Experts note that through third grade children must learn to read, but beginning in fourth grade they must read to learn. If students cannot read at grade level ...
WikiLeaks no threat to free society
SACRAMENTO – The response by pundits to the latest WikiLeaks classified-document dump has reminded me of a preacher who decries pornography, but who also insists on reading the dirty magazines page by page so that he can better understand the depth of the world’s depravity. If WikiLeaks’ actions were so ...
California fails at giving kids a quality high-tech education
California’s new superintendent of public instruction is Tom Torlakson, whose election locks in a status quo that short-circuits California students on high-tech delivery of educational services. Countries such as Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore, Turkey, India and China, along with the European Union, are taking full advantage of online education. California, home ...
Demography Is Still Not Destiny
Florida ’s low-income, Hispanic, and black fourth graders now outperform all California fourth graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment according to a policy brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based think tank. Demography is Still Not Destiny attributes this striking gap ...
Is Our Food Hazardous To The Planet?
Enough with blaming agriculture for the world’s environmental woes! According to a new report released by the San Francisco, Calif.-based Pacific Research Institute, the environmental impact of raising crops and livestock is often misconstrued. The report, “Is Your Food Making the Planet Sick?” can be downloaded at www.pacificresearch.org/publications/is-your-food-making-the-planet-sick. “Modern agriculture ...
Paulson: It’s time for school choice
Take time to watch Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman, voted best U.S. documentary at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and you’ll be confronted with the sorry state of America’s school system. How can America invent a more innovative and profitable future without a quality education system? In ...
State’s new legislators should take cue from Florida on schools
California’s new education boss, Tom Torlakson, has his work cut out for him. He might start by explaining to parents why Florida, a demographically similar state, continues to outpace California in student achievement. On that score, the Golden State still sputters around the bottom of national rankings. California apologists of ...