Commentary
Commentary
Student DNA tests could go wild
SACRAMENTO – The University of California, Berkeley, has inadvertently stepped into a brewing ethical debate over genetic testing and medical privacy after it asked the incoming freshman class to submit to the campus cotton swabs with DNA samples from their saliva. The unusual experiment is part of Berkeley’s annual “On ...
Business & Economics
Is it “bigotry” to shrink state government?
Vol. 16 No. 28 July 21, 2010 Is it “bigotry” to shrink state government? By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director SACRAMENTO—Those who believe California state government is too large, and that we ought to make it smaller, are guilty of “conventional bigotry aimed at state employees.” So writes state employee ...
Business & Economics
Steven Greenhut on Public Employee Paychecks, Perks, and Plunder
Steven Greenhut, Editor in Chief of CalWatchdog.com and author of the new book, Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation sat down with Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker to discuss the widening gap between public and private sector employment.
Commentary
Less bang for education bucks
California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
Commentary
National Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade
Adopting the final draft of proposed national education standards in English language arts (ELA) would result in a significant weakening of the intellectual demands placed on Massachusetts and California students in language and literature, according to a review published jointly by the Pacific Research Institute and Pioneer Institute. In Part ...
California
Pensions are S.F.’s other golden gate
SACRAMENTO – I’d been starting to wonder about whether there are any true progressives left in California, until I heard about Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Many people describe themselves as progressive, mind you, but few seem to embody the core principles of a movement that is supposed to ...
Commentary
How California can improve its plunging graduation rates
The average national high school graduation rate, from 1997 to 2007, rose 3.1 percentage points to 68.8 percent, according to a recent report from Education Week. California’s graduation rate, meanwhile, dropped 4.7 percentage points to 62.7 percent. Only Nebraska and Nevada posted worse declines, and the problem is not limited ...
Commentary
Medical Tort: Ranking the 50 States
Key Points States’ liability laws drive medical-tort costs, which increase health costs. Evidence indicates that medical-tort costs are higher than optimal, with consequences including unfair verdicts, reduced availability of doctors, and increased use of wasteful “defensive” medicine. Eight variables contribute to a medical-tort index that measures all 50 states’ success ...
Business & Economics
Can GOP quit weed whacking?
Sacramento – If the California Republican Party were serious about its oft-stated calls for limiting government, then it should be championing an initiative on the November ballot that would reduce government interference in our lives, increase the efficiency of law-enforcement, protect property rights and help fill the gaping hole in ...
Commentary
School choice is the key to improving education
Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2010 Throughout the nation, among the 20 private-school scholarship programs now in existence, many of the most successful have been aimed at special-needs children. A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster ...
Student DNA tests could go wild
SACRAMENTO – The University of California, Berkeley, has inadvertently stepped into a brewing ethical debate over genetic testing and medical privacy after it asked the incoming freshman class to submit to the campus cotton swabs with DNA samples from their saliva. The unusual experiment is part of Berkeley’s annual “On ...
Is it “bigotry” to shrink state government?
Vol. 16 No. 28 July 21, 2010 Is it “bigotry” to shrink state government? By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director SACRAMENTO—Those who believe California state government is too large, and that we ought to make it smaller, are guilty of “conventional bigotry aimed at state employees.” So writes state employee ...
Steven Greenhut on Public Employee Paychecks, Perks, and Plunder
Steven Greenhut, Editor in Chief of CalWatchdog.com and author of the new book, Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation sat down with Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker to discuss the widening gap between public and private sector employment.
Less bang for education bucks
California’s public education establishment continually argues that the state ranks near the bottom in funding K-12 education. A just-released study by the U.S. Census Bureau pokes a giant hole in these claims. Those trying to portray California as miserly when it comes to education funding often cite figures put out ...
National Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade
Adopting the final draft of proposed national education standards in English language arts (ELA) would result in a significant weakening of the intellectual demands placed on Massachusetts and California students in language and literature, according to a review published jointly by the Pacific Research Institute and Pioneer Institute. In Part ...
Pensions are S.F.’s other golden gate
SACRAMENTO – I’d been starting to wonder about whether there are any true progressives left in California, until I heard about Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Many people describe themselves as progressive, mind you, but few seem to embody the core principles of a movement that is supposed to ...
How California can improve its plunging graduation rates
The average national high school graduation rate, from 1997 to 2007, rose 3.1 percentage points to 68.8 percent, according to a recent report from Education Week. California’s graduation rate, meanwhile, dropped 4.7 percentage points to 62.7 percent. Only Nebraska and Nevada posted worse declines, and the problem is not limited ...
Medical Tort: Ranking the 50 States
Key Points States’ liability laws drive medical-tort costs, which increase health costs. Evidence indicates that medical-tort costs are higher than optimal, with consequences including unfair verdicts, reduced availability of doctors, and increased use of wasteful “defensive” medicine. Eight variables contribute to a medical-tort index that measures all 50 states’ success ...
Can GOP quit weed whacking?
Sacramento – If the California Republican Party were serious about its oft-stated calls for limiting government, then it should be championing an initiative on the November ballot that would reduce government interference in our lives, increase the efficiency of law-enforcement, protect property rights and help fill the gaping hole in ...
School choice is the key to improving education
Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2010 Throughout the nation, among the 20 private-school scholarship programs now in existence, many of the most successful have been aimed at special-needs children. A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster ...
