December 1997 PRI Ideas in Action
Policy Update and Monthly Impact Report

PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. The following is just a sample of PRI's recent contributions.

SALLY PIPES, PRESIDENT & CEO

PRI is delighted to announce that nationally-syndicated columnist George Will will be the keynote speaker at this year's annual PRI Privatization Competition gala dinner at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel on April 22, 1998.

In an article entitled "Reagan's Legacy," Sally writes in the November 1997 edition of Chief Executive that [thanks to Ronald Reagan's hugely successful economic policies in the '80s] "Washington's policy makers are [now] 'little more than bit players in the great economic opera.'"

Sally was interviewed on November 24 by Jeff Rosen of the New Yorker about California's Prop. 209 (CCRI) and government civil service. She also was interviewed by John Seiler of the Orange County Register on December 18 about her reaction to the recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to send the issue of California's Prop. 187 to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On December 10, Sally and Katherine Post, Director of the Center for Enterprise and Opportunity, attended The Heritage Foundation's dinner in Washington, D.C. to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

EVENTS

On November 6, Mayor Steven Goldsmith of Indianapolis addressed a luncheon and an evening reception at PRI focusing on his new book about renewal in America's cities.

On December 1, New York Times best-selling author Dinesh D'Souza addressed a large and enthusiastic PRI audience. He discussed his new book, entitled "Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader."

ENTERPRISE & OPPORTUNITY

Katherine Post, PRI's Director of the Center for Enterprise and Opportunity, was interviewed on KSFO Radio on November 30. She discussed changes to Medicare resulting from the recently enacted Federal Balanced Budget Act.

CIVIL RIGHTS

In a San Francisco Chronicle article, "Asians Benefit from Changes at UC" (Oct. 31), the writer discussed the possibility of increased Asian acceptance rates at the University of California as a result of Prop. 209 Lance Izumi was quoted, "Asian Americans who worry about the upward trend of enrollment [of Asians] in the UC system are doing a real disservice to Asian Americans."

Lance Izumi served as a panelist on KUSF-AM on November 14 in a discussion about Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Sevilla's speech on immigration reform.

John Liu, PRI's Director of Health and Welfare Studies, spoke on November 20 at a town-hall meeting. An attendee praised John for "spot[ting] critical issues [in the affirmative action debate] well before [others], then lay[ing] on the passion and persistence to enlist a few like minded others to makes things happen."

Lance was interviewed on December 16 by U.S. News and World Report for an upcoming article on affirmative action in the UC system.

EDUCATION

Lance Izumi's October 22 Capital Ideas was entitled, "Union Powerplay for L.A. School Construction Contracts." It was lauded as "right on the money" by William Tyler of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Los Angeles.

Yvonne Chan, Principal of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center (Vaughn), and a participant in PRI's colloquium "What's News: How the Media Covers Education," accepted the National Blue Ribbon at the White House last month. Vaughn is the first charter school in the nation to be awarded the National Blue Ribbon – one of the most prestigious educational honors in the United States (as reported in the Los Angeles Daily News, Nov. 5). Chan, who has worked with PRI on charter school issues, wrote of PRI that "[PRI's] research and advocacy provides an invaluable foundation for [charter school] parents and teachers...[PRI's] commitment to charter schools, especially in California's inner cities, will bring the dream of academic excellence to thousands more children."

Lance's article entitled "It's the National Curriculum that Really Shackles" appeared in The Sunday Times (London, Nov. 9). He compared Britain's grant-maintained schools to California's charter schools.

Lance spoke at the Mein Indicator Lunch at the Pacific Union Club in San Francisco on the successes of the British voucher system (Nov. 13). PRI's highly successful "California Index of Leading Education Indicators" was the subject of Lance's speech to the Mid-Peninsula Federation of Republican Women on November 17. He was interviewed by BBC Radio on Asian-Americans and affirmative action for broadcast on the BBC World Service (Nov. 19). In a December 3 Orange County Register op-ed entitled "Back-to-Basics Math," Lance was quoted forcefully calling for new, tougher math standards which the State Board of Education adopted December 1.

On December 12 in Seattle, Washington, Lance gave a speech at the Western Arts Federation on "The Political Right and Arts Funding."

On December 16, Pam Riley, Co-Director of the Center for Innovation in Education attended charter school hearings in Sacramento. The hearings were hosted by the California Network of Educators, of which she is a board member.

HEALTH & WELFARE

John Liu, Director of Health and Welfare Studies, spoke at the conference entitled "What HCFA Won't Tell You About Kidcare: Dangers and Opportunities for States," co-sponsored by The Heritage Foundation and the State Policy Network in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 14), about constructive ways to implement "Kidcare" at the state level. Tom Atwood, Director of Coalition Relations at the Heritage Foundation, thanked John for his participation, stating "Your participation contributed greatly to providing state policy leaders with sound market-based ideas to improve health care for children and challenge the left's attempt to use "Kidcare" to impose big-government health care on America."

On December 14, PRI Public Policy Fellow Candice Jackson Mayhugh's op-ed, "Hazardous Deal: Proposed Tobacco Agreement Would Choke Free Enterprise" appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News.

TECHNOLOGY

Justin Matlick, Director of the Center for Freedom in Technology, is currently putting the finishing touches on an in-depth evaluation of U.S. encryption policy. Encryption software, which ensures the privacy of electronic transmission by scrambling it into unreadable text, is one of the cornerstones upon which the Internet's future will be built. Justin's paper asserts that only a free-market encryption policy will satisfy the needs of individuals, private industry and government.

ENVIRONMENT

PRI Senior Fellow Steven Hayward's article "Middle Ground is Scarce in Global-Warming Debate: There is No Consensus Among Scientists" appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on October 30.

PRI Public Policy Fellow Erin Schiller, in a November 13 op-ed in The Washington Times, made a convincing case that the Kyoto Treaty "is a sham [and] will not prevent global warming." The article was later distributed to attendees at the Kyoto Global Warming Conference in Kyoto, Japan, December 1-10. Erin's article entitled "Improving Traffic, Air Quality," which outlines the case for free-market solutions to California's transportation problems through the use of 'congestion pricing,' appeared in both the Oakland Tribune and the Alameda Times-Star (Nov. 14).

URBAN STUDIES

On October 30, PRI Senior Fellow Joel Kotkin addressed the 1997 South Bay Economic Forecast Conference on the topic, "How Global Competition Determines the South Bay's Future: The Importance of Ethnicity to South Bay Growth and the New Economy of South Bay Cities." The event was cited in The Californian (Oct. 29).

In a Los Angeles Times article entitled "Economy Gives O.C. a Chance To Make Good" (Nov. 12), Joel Kotkin was quoted as saying, "[Orange County is a] leading post-suburban economy." Kotkin was also quoted on the same subject in a Los Angeles Times article entitled "Study Urges Wider Orange County Growth."

Kotkin's article entitled, "A Shortage of Skilled Workers," appeared in the Los Angeles Times (Nov. 2). He argued that a shortage of workers is America's most important long-term economic problem. The same article also appeared in the Keene Sentinel (Keene, NH, Nov. 5), Palm Beach Post (Nov. 6), Sunday Gazette (Schenectady, NY, Nov. 9), Sacramento Bee (Nov. 9), Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN, Nov. 9), News Tribune (Tacoma, WA, Nov. 9), Fayetville Observer-Times (Nov. 10) and the Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio, Nov. 11).

Kotkin's article, "A Union's War on Workers" appeared in the December 9 Wall Street Journal.

Senior Public Policy Fellow Steven Hayward's article entitled "The Quest for the Holy Rail," appears in the January, 1998 edition of Reason magazine, where he argues against government planners' attempts to remove cars from the road.

LEGAL

A September, 1995 PRI study entitled "The Economic Effects of Employment Law in California: The Unintended Consequences of Good Intentions" was the subject of an extensive Argus (Fremont, CA) article on Nov. 24.

BOOKNOTES

PRI's book, "The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions Versus Climate Reality," by Robert C. Balling, was cited as an important source for learning more about the current debate on global warming and climate change by the New York Times, The News-Leader (Springfield, MO), the Kennebec Journal (Kennebec, ME), The Morning Sentinel (Waterville, ME), the Gazette (Colorado Springs), the Syracuse Herald-American (Syracuse, N.Y.), and the Columbian (Vancouver, WA).

Don B. Kates, author of PRI's book, "The Great American Gun Debate: Essays on Firearms and Violence," wrote an opinion-editorial for The Christian Science Monitor (Dec. 16) outlining the main contentions made in the book.

PRI's books Crisis and the Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government by Robert Higgs (pg. 64), and Free Market Environmentalism by Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal (pg. 161), are cited in Beyond Politics: Markets, Welfare, and the Failure of Bureaucracy by William C. Mitchell & Randy T. Simmons as excellent examples of scholarship that expose the inefficiency of government bureaucracy.

Environmental Gore: A Constructive Response to Earth in the Balance, edited by John Baden, will be used as a required text this coming Spring semester at the Pennsylvania State University.

Sovereign Nations or Reservations? An Economic History of American Indians by Terry L. Anderson, was reviewed by Nicholas J. Aieta in Great Plains Research, Volume 7:1 (Spring 1997), and also by Bradley J. Birzer in Pacific Northwest Quarterly (Winter 1997/98, Volume 89, Number 1).

What Went Right in the 80s by Richard B. McKenzie, will be used as a required text in a course on American History at the University of Florida in the Spring of 1998.

Notables

Lance spoke out on the ineffectiveness of cigarette taxes in a KQED-FM commentary on November 18.

Steve addressed the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University on November 20th on his book "Churchill on Leadership." His lecture was reported in the News Journal (Mansfield, OH, Nov. 19).

PRI Senior Fellow Steven Hayward's article entitled "Debate on Term Limits Unsettled" appeared in the Sunday Sun Journal (Lewiston, ME), the Mobile Register (Mobile, AL) and the Birmingham News (Birmingham, AL). Steve wrote about term limits in his article, "Same as the Old Boss?" in Reason (December, 1997) and discussed whether they have changed California's political culture.

Lance Izumi's article "A (Morality) Tale of Two Ladies" about the British Royal Academy's "Sensation's" exhibition, appeared in the Winter, 1997 edition of The Salisbury Review [Great Britain].