December 1998 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 a sample of PRI’s influence in December 1998.

Freedom and Technology

Center for Freedom and Technology Director Justin Matlick’s op-ed on Internet privacy ran in the December 2, 1998 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The ABA Journal interviewed Mr. Matlick about Internet gaming issues.

Enterprise and Opportunity

Naomi Lopez’s op-ed on social security and women ran in the Portland Oregonian and the Bergen County Record on December 8, the Greenwich Time and the Stanford Advocate on December 9, the Fresno Bee on December 13, the Sunday edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune on December 13, and the Chicago Tribune on December 24. In addition, Lopez appeared on Bay-TV’s "Take Issue" to discuss social security reform during the White House conference on the subject.

Naomi Lopez was a guest on the Denver, CO-based "Mike Rosen Show" on December 2, 1998. She discussed The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, a new book by William G. Bowen, former President of Princeton University, and Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University.

PRI senior fellow Jane Wiegand’s Contrarian on women and the workforce, "Battle for Foreign Worker Visas Goes Beyond Gender," ran in the December 11 edition of the San Francisco Business Times.

On December 16, The Common Conservative, an on-line publication, published an op-ed supporting and praising PRI’s Project on Children. The opinion piece was written by Jo Kwong of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Fairfax, Virginia, who is also a member of the advisory board of the Project.

California Assemblyman Steve Baldwin sent Naomi Lopez a complimentary e-mail, saying "I enjoyed your little paper about day care, universal preschool, and the Hoover Commission report."

Heritage Foundation President Edwin J. Feulner’s column – "Unintended Consequences" – which describes in detail PRI’s Project on Children, continues to run in newspapers nationwide. On November 20, the column ran in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, on December 2, it ran in the Chester News & Reporter and on December 10, it ran in the Chariton Herald-Patriot.

Naomi Lopez wrote and published a guest editorial on gender discrimination in the Media Research Center’s Medianomics.

On December 21, Naomi Lopez was interviewed by Women’s Village, an on-line publication about women’s issues. She discussed her recent briefing on women and social security.

Education

In a December 22 meeting, California State Senator Ray Haynes, a member of the Senate Education Committee, praised Lance Izumi’s soon-to-be-released education standards template. Senator Haynes has said he plans to introduce legislation designed to enact the study’s recommendations.

An article in the December 16 Investor’s Business Daily quotes Center for School Reform co-director Lance Izumi on California’s failed teacher credentialing process.

PRI held a policy breakfast in Silicon Valley on December 8, 1998. SFIS Director Alison Weeks discussed privately funded scholarship programs in the Bay Area. In addition, Naomi Lopez discussed PRI’s Project on Children.

On December 10, Lance Izumi met with California Assembly Republican Leader Rod Pacheco’s staff to discuss education reform issues.

On December 12, KQED-FM broadcast Lance Izumi’s commentary on recent court decisions interpreting Proposition 209.

Lance Izumi’s Capital Ideas, "State Takeover of Schools," was recommended in the Heritage Foundation’s publication The Insider Newsletter.

The Rose Institute and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association hosted a roundtable discussion on California policy issues. CSR Co-Director Lance Izumi was one of the participants.

CSR co-director Lance Izumi was quoted on educational standards in editorials in the December 24 and December 25 editions of the Orange County Register. The editorial on the 24th was titled "Weak Education Agenda" and the one on the 25th was titled "Reading School Leaders."

Lance Izumi’s article "Judging Preferences" was published in the January issue of California Journal.

Environment

On December 9, PRI fellow Erin Schiller had an op-ed on water markets and California published in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Erin Schiller, PRI fellow, published "The Oregon Water Trust," a case study for the Center for Private Conservation, a project of the Washington, D.C.-based Competitive Enterprise Institute. The case study was disseminated with the Center’s fourth quarter report.

Book Notes

PRI Editorial Director K. Lloyd Billingsley’s new book, Hollywood Party, published by Prima Publishing, was reviewed in the December 16 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Reviewer Stephen Schwartz praises Hollywood Party, saying "Mr. Billingsley has broken new ground. The truth about the Hollywood communists may never penetrate the film community, but Mr. Billingsley has done a great deal to set the record straight for both of us."

A chapter from PRI’s book, The Heated Debate, by Robert C. Balling, will be used by University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Harvey Nichols in his spring semester class, "Ecological Perspectives of Global Change."

Selections from Environmental Gore: A Constructive Response to Earth in the Balance will be used in a Pennsylvania State University law class in the 1999 spring semester.

Chapter 18 of PRI’s book, Dealing With Drugs: Consequences of Government, will be included in a new book to be published next November by the Greenhaven Press. The book will be titled Addictions and will be a selection of pro and con essays on the issue of drugs.

"From Barbed Wire to Red Tape," a chapter from PRI’s 1991 book Free Market Environmentalism, will be included in the syllabus of a University of Arizona philosophy class in the spring of 1999.

Selections from Offshore Lands: Oil and Gas Leasing and Conservation on the Outer Continental Shelf will be used in a class at the University of Washington’s School of Marine Affairs.