New Jersey Gov. Christie: Skip Raises to Avoid Teacher Layoffs
Teacher layoffs create more public sympathy for increasing education funding than wage freezes. However, school districts could freeze wages and have employees contribute to health benefits rather than...
View ArticleGreen Dot Acts Responsibly to Close Under-performing Charter School
Green Dot has taken heavy criticism for its plan to close an under-performing and under-enrolled charter school next year. Yet, shouldn't school districts act like Green Dot and actively manage schools...
View ArticleA Growing Concern: Bank Taxers Without Borders
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced last month that he will propose a "global bank tax" at the G20 meeting in June. It is still unclear what kind of tax this will be, but in any event we can...
View ArticleNexGen Air Traffic Contol, Will we Ever Move Forward?
Interesting that this article appeared in NextGov describing the FAA hearings. “Federal Aviation Administration officials faced tough questions from lawmakers on Thursday when they asked for a steep...
View ArticleBrownâ??s Bank Tax Would Lead to Further Moral Hazard
In his Financial Times column, the British economist John Kay, warns against the “global bank tax” recently announced by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. If this tax is passed as some kind of...
View ArticleDon't Buy It
A few weeks before Congress passed a law that orders every American to buy health insurance, the Virginia legislature passed a law that says "no resident of this Commonwealth…shall be required to...
View ArticleCalifornia Needs Quality-Based Teacher Layoffs
In the Los Angeles Times, Timothy Daly and Arun Ramanathan make the case for quality-based layoffs:Unfortunately, the only tool that California schools can use to make these decisions is a calendar....
View ArticleFederal Education Spending Increased 72 Percent; National Reading Scores...
As Education Week reports on the nation's report card in reading released today:Reading scores stayed flat for 4th graders and rose only slightly for 8th graders on the most recent National Assessment...
View ArticleOklahoma Universal Preschool Fail: 2009 NAEP Reading Edition
Oklahoma has the highest quality universal preschool system in the nation. Yet, the NAEP State Profile of Oklahoma shows once again that the state's huge investment in universal preschool is not...
View ArticleThe Mandate and Mug Clause
What does it say about your cause that nearly every policy idea you cook up is based in some form or another on coercing the American people?When House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers...
View ArticleNancy Pelosi: Jobs Junkie
Nancy Pelosi has a one-track mind.Even as her moment of triumph neared this weekend, one could sense that she was a woman who remained unsatisfied. Sure, Rep. Pelosi (D-Calif.)—The Most Powerful Woman...
View ArticleRepeal the Davis-Bacon Act
For nearly 80 years, contractors working on federally funded construction projects have been forced to pay their workers artificially inflated wages that rip off American taxpayers while lining the...
View ArticleFree Riders Make Efficient Transit Management Impossible
Not long ago, I proposed that Washington, D.C. Metro consider variable pricing as a way to both manage transit usage during peak periods and raise revenues based on marginal cost pricing. Recently,...
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National Home Inventory Situation Getting Worse
You know, I think we might be missing the point with these sales numbers. Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their February sales numbers showing another drop. Sales of...
View ArticleFlorida's School Choice and Accountability Lead to More Gains on 2009 NAEP
While universal preschool did not help Oklahoma kids read better; school choice and accountability seem to be working for Florida.As Mathew Ladner reports at Jay P. Greene's blog:The NAEP released...
View ArticleU.S. DOT Moves Further Away from Evidence Based Public Policy With Statement...
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is apparently abandoning all pretense to evidence-based public policy based on his recent initiative to put bicycling and walking on the same...
View ArticleBank of America to Reduce Mortgage Balances in Messy Housing Struggle
The negative equity problem in America is very real and central to the nation's housing ills. Not only is it drowning hundreds of thousands of homeowners whose housing values are sinking deeper and...
View ArticleThe Entitlement Rip-Off
Bernie Madoff took money from people who thought he'd invested it, gave some to others who thought it was a partial return on their earlier investments, and kept much for himself. That's called a Ponzi...
View ArticleJamie Oliver's Ministry of Food Control
By at least one measure England’s Jamie Oliver is the most popular chef in the world. Such an accomplishment is no small feat for a dyslexic 34-year-old son of publicans nor for someone who dropped out...
View ArticleWhy Higher Future Inflation Rates Are a Bad Idea
During the last two decades the monetary policy regimes of most industrial countries have been based on the idea of “inflation targeting,” including the U.S. (though the target here is implicit rather...
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