Commentary
Charter Schools
The Benefits of Charter Schools – Choosing Diversity
Every day, charter schools play an important role in meeting the diverse needs of California’s students. PRI’s Lance Izumi, Fortune School CEO Margaret Fortune, and EdVoice’s Bill Lucia share real-life charter school success stories and explore ideas policymakers can embrace to expand school choice options. Part 2 of our 4-part ...
Pacific Research Institute
March 25, 2019
California
California Leads the Nation in Bringing Back Medieval Illnesses
Victor Davis Hanson pointed out some years ago that California ignored its premodern problems while dreaming of postmodern marvels such as high-speed rail. There’s no better example of a premodern problem that’s been allowed to take root and thrive than the Medieval diseases now plaguing the state. California Healthline recently ...
Kerry Jackson
March 21, 2019
Commentary
Keep counterfeit drugs out of Florida
Florida’s House budget panel this week greenlit a bill that would allow the state to buy drugs from Canada. Lawmakers are poised to debate a companion bill in the Senate in the coming weeks. If the bill becomes law, officials would almost certainly need permission from the U.S. Department of Health ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 20, 2019
Commentary
A $44,000 Surgery Can Cost Just $16,000 Somewhere Else for One Reason: Competition
A hip replacement in Maine can run north of $44,000. Down the coast in Boston, it’s a different story. There, the same procedure costs just more than $16,000, a fraction of the price. Knee surgeries follow the same pattern. They cost up to $13,500 in Maine, but as little as $3,900 ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 20, 2019
Commentary
Here’s a prescription for mid-sized businesses providing workers with health care
Small businesses and large corporations have been spared some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations. Small firms are exempt from the employer mandate requiring them to offer coverage. Large ones don’t have to adhere to the law’s essential health benefits mandates. Mid-sized businesses haven’t been so lucky. These firms, which typically ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 19, 2019
Agriculture
Don’t Scapegoat Charter Schools For School Districts’ Fiscal Woes
Governor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to scapegoat charter schools. First, comments by the governor’s office ...
Lance Izumi
March 19, 2019
Charter Schools
Across the Country, Unions are Waging War on Charter Schools
A combination of powerful aggressive teacher unions and compliant state and local politicians have produced a perfect storm that threatens to destroy the future of charter schools and the children who benefit from them. Charter schools are publicly funded schools independent of school districts, which have more flexibility and autonomy ...
Lance Izumi
March 18, 2019
Commentary
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 18, 2019
Commentary
Desperately Seeking a Reformer to Head the FDA
Federal regulation affects our lives every day in more ways than we realize. The Food and Drug Administration alone regulates products that account for more than a trillion dollars annually—25 cents of every consumer dollar; and the average cost (including out-of-pocket expenses and opportunity costs) to bring a new drug ...
Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.
March 14, 2019
Climate Change
Green New Deal would cause a new Depression
Democrat firebrands Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey just unveiled their “Green New Deal,” a multi-trillion-dollar effort to overhaul the energy industry and slash America’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero within a decade. The legislation’s title is fitting. The original New Deal failed to create jobs and actually ...
Wayne Winegarden
March 13, 2019
The Benefits of Charter Schools – Choosing Diversity
Every day, charter schools play an important role in meeting the diverse needs of California’s students. PRI’s Lance Izumi, Fortune School CEO Margaret Fortune, and EdVoice’s Bill Lucia share real-life charter school success stories and explore ideas policymakers can embrace to expand school choice options. Part 2 of our 4-part ...
California Leads the Nation in Bringing Back Medieval Illnesses
Victor Davis Hanson pointed out some years ago that California ignored its premodern problems while dreaming of postmodern marvels such as high-speed rail. There’s no better example of a premodern problem that’s been allowed to take root and thrive than the Medieval diseases now plaguing the state. California Healthline recently ...
Keep counterfeit drugs out of Florida
Florida’s House budget panel this week greenlit a bill that would allow the state to buy drugs from Canada. Lawmakers are poised to debate a companion bill in the Senate in the coming weeks. If the bill becomes law, officials would almost certainly need permission from the U.S. Department of Health ...
A $44,000 Surgery Can Cost Just $16,000 Somewhere Else for One Reason: Competition
A hip replacement in Maine can run north of $44,000. Down the coast in Boston, it’s a different story. There, the same procedure costs just more than $16,000, a fraction of the price. Knee surgeries follow the same pattern. They cost up to $13,500 in Maine, but as little as $3,900 ...
Here’s a prescription for mid-sized businesses providing workers with health care
Small businesses and large corporations have been spared some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations. Small firms are exempt from the employer mandate requiring them to offer coverage. Large ones don’t have to adhere to the law’s essential health benefits mandates. Mid-sized businesses haven’t been so lucky. These firms, which typically ...
Don’t Scapegoat Charter Schools For School Districts’ Fiscal Woes
Governor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to scapegoat charter schools. First, comments by the governor’s office ...
Across the Country, Unions are Waging War on Charter Schools
A combination of powerful aggressive teacher unions and compliant state and local politicians have produced a perfect storm that threatens to destroy the future of charter schools and the children who benefit from them. Charter schools are publicly funded schools independent of school districts, which have more flexibility and autonomy ...
Medicare for All Won’t Result in Better Health Outcomes
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker claims Medicare for All would “save lives.” Vermont’s own Senator Bernie Sanders promises it would end “the disgrace of tens of thousands of Americans dying every year from preventable deaths.” But a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds little evidence to support those assertions. The authors examined ...
Desperately Seeking a Reformer to Head the FDA
Federal regulation affects our lives every day in more ways than we realize. The Food and Drug Administration alone regulates products that account for more than a trillion dollars annually—25 cents of every consumer dollar; and the average cost (including out-of-pocket expenses and opportunity costs) to bring a new drug ...
Green New Deal would cause a new Depression
Democrat firebrands Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey just unveiled their “Green New Deal,” a multi-trillion-dollar effort to overhaul the energy industry and slash America’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero within a decade. The legislation’s title is fitting. The original New Deal failed to create jobs and actually ...