For Immediate Release: February 9, 1999

New Legislators’ Guide Outlines "Starting Point" for Policies

Washington, D.C.-- In its ongoing efforts to examine government’s record on children’s issues and the challenges it presents to the family and society, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) has published the Legislators’ Guide to Children’s Issues 1999. The 155-page primer provides "starting points" for crafting policy approaches that rely on family and civil society, rather than government, to meet the needs of our nation’s children.

"Before any legislator thinks about introducing new legislation that will affect our nation’s children, they should definitely read the Legislators’ Guide to Children’s Issues 1999," says House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. "In light of the failure of current government programs to help children, we need to engage in a rigorous debate about the role government should play in their lives. The chapters in this guide should help spur this debate."

The guide’s chapters are authored by notable public policy experts, including Naomi Lopez, Erin Schiller, Mark Schiller, M.D., and Dominique Lazanski of the Pacific Research Institute; John Hood of the John Locke Foundation; Douglas Besharov and Nazanin Samari of the American Enterprise Institute; Ron Unz, author of California’s Proposition 227; Judith Kleinfeld, Ph.D. of the University of Alaska – Fairbanks; Sue Blevins of the Institute for Health Freedom; Robert Franciosi, Ph.D. of the Goldwater Institute; and S—lveig Singleton and Dean Stansel of the Cato Institute. The guide’s introduction is written by Eloise Anderson, former Director of Social Services for the State of California.

Topics such as child welfare, education, environment, health care, safety, and tax and budget issues are addressed in the guide, and recommendations are offered in each issue area.

"The guide offers ‘free market’ solutions to children’s issues," asserts the guide’s editor, Naomi Lopez of the Pacific Research Institute. "A pro-child agenda need not be limited to further expansion of government programs – which in many cases may not improve children’s status. There are better ways."

Among the many recommendations contained in the Legislators’ Guide to Children’s Issues 1999 are:

• Child Welfare: Expand support of parental choice in child care;
  
  
• Education: Abolish bilingual education programs and gender-based programs in schools;
  
  
• Environment: Require that all environmental education be based on sound science and economics;
  
  
• Health Care: Create refundable tax credits for the purchase of health insurance as an alternative to Medicaid expansion;
  
  
• Safety: Promote legislation encouraging entrepreneurship for child-safety technology products; and,
  
  
• Tax and budget: Adopt a system of generational accounting.
  
  

Legislators’ Guide to Children’s Issues 1999 has been published as part of PRI’s two-year Project on Children, a program which -- through numerous research studies and other publications -- will analyze the effectiveness of existing government efforts in the area of children and promote innovative free market solutions to childhood and family problems.

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For more information, please see Pacific Research Institute’s website at http//www.pacificresearch.org or contact Laura Dykes at 415/989-0833 x 113.

The Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility. The Institute believes these principles are best encouraged through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative, and limited government. By focusing on public policy issues such as health care, welfare, education, and the environment, the Institute strives to foster a better understanding of the principles of a free society among leaders in government, academia, the media, and the business community.