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Environmental lessons from the late Stephen Schneider
The Daily Caller
By: K. Lloyd Billingsley
7.27.2010
Stephen H. Schneider, hailed as the “Carl Sagan of climate science,” and who served on the international panel that won the 2007 Nobel Prize with Al Gore, has passed away at 65. He should be remembered as much more than a global warming alarmist. In fact, he was once a global cooling alarmist.
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How California can improve its plunging graduation rates
The Daily Caller
By: Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D
7.23.2010
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 to California high-schoolers.
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Student DNA tests could go wild
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
7.23.2010
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.
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Less bang for education bucks
Orange County Register
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
7.22.2010
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.
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Steven Greenhut on Public Employee Paychecks, Perks, and Plunder
ReasonTV
7.22.2010
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.
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Double dip looks doubly certain
MarketWatch (The Wall Street Journal)
7.20.2010
Some think the worst is behind us, and that output and employment will slowly but steadily increase during the next few years. Others believe we are headed for another crash. The lessons from the last business cycle favor the case for pessimism.
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Medicare needs systemic remedies
Atlanta Journal Constitution
By: John R. Graham
7.20.2010
President Barack Obama signed a bill to “fix” payments to doctors by Medicare — until November. Although costing taxpayers $6.5 billion, this short-term patch will just have to be “fixed” again right after the next election. Throwing more money at a broken Medicare reimbursement schedule is what passes for bipartisan success in Washington.
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National Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade
News Study from PRI and the Pioneer Institute
7.19.2010
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.
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Can GOP quit weed whacking?
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
7.10.2010
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 the state budget by following the principles of the marketplace.
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School choice is the key to improving education
Los Angeles Daily News
By: Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D
7.7.2010
A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster care children into their homes would likely save the state money, while improving the educational opportunities of these deserving kids and making it more likely that couples would be willing to become foster parents.
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What Canada can teach the U.S. about education
The National Post (Canada's national newspaper)
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D., Jason Clemens, Lingxiao Ou
7.2.2010
Canadians, particularly those of conservative persuasion, love to compare Canada with the United States, which has a lot to learn in the key area of K-12 education. As the United States struggles with mounting deficits and debt, Americans would be well served to look north if they want to raise student performance while saving money.
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Police budget cuts won't spike crime
Orange County Register
By: Steven Greenhut
7.2.2010
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary," observed the journalist, critic and satirist H.L. Mencken.
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Viewpoints: School test scores mask failure
The Sacramento Bee
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
7.1.2010
With graduation season in full swing, the cover story in the June issue of Sacramento Magazine rates the 66 high schools in and around California's capital. The ratings rely on the state's school-performance scoring system which, unfortunately, masks a key reality.
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