July 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 July.

Sally Pipes, President

PRI President Sally Pipes was interviewed on July 13 by Sidney Hawthay of KHEP-AM in Phoenix on the subject of sexual harassment.

On July 15, Beijing television’s BTV-2 aired Road to Success, about private ownership and free-market opportunities, with a potential prime-time audience of 25 million. Sally appears in the program and also served on the board of advisors. Producer Michael Privitera hopes to bring Road to Success to other markets, including the former Soviet Union.

Sally’s op-ed "U.C. Diversity Scheme is Also Unjust," appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 16.

Education

On June 26, the Orange County Register interviewed Lance Izumi, Co-Director of PRI’s Center for School Reform, about a court ruling blocking the release of student achievement scores. On July 6, the Associated Press interviewed Lance on statewide test scores.

Lance’s "Does Reducing Class Size Help?" appeared in Investor’s Business Daily on July 8. The article was also mentioned in the daily "Policy Digest" of the National Center for Policy Analysis. The class-size issue was also the subject of Lance’s July "State of the State" column for California Journal. The June issue of The Insider referenced Lance’s Capital Ideas on bilingual education. On July 13, the Pasadena Star News interviewed Lance about the high salaries paid to district school officials.

On July 20, Lance and Katherine Post, Director of PRI’s Center for Enterprise and Opportunity, met with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal to discuss issues such as Proposition 13, bilingual education, and the difficulties of school financing.

Lance’s Capital Ideas "Reducing the Cost of School Construction" prompted a meeting on the subject with Senator Rob Hurtt, and Assemblymen Tom McClintock and Curt Pringle. On July 22, the Orange County Register interviewed Lance about newly released test scores. Lance’s KQED commentary on reducing school costs aired on July 28.

This month PRI released "A Ten-Point Agenda for Reforming Education in California." Lance’s briefing paper deals with subjects from finance to teacher competence to school choice.

Eugene Volokh, PRI Fellow in legal studies, published "The Constitution Vouches for School Choice," in the July 5, Sacramento Bee. The article also appeared in The New Republic.

On July 22, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Barry Farber of the Talk America Network interviewed PRI Editorial Director Lloyd Billingsley about educational success stories in California.

On July 17th, the first class of San Francisco Independent Scholars, a program administered by PRI, received $1,000 of a $2,000 annual scholarship to either attend private school or pursue a rigorous independent study program. Bank of America is providing students with free checking accounts. On July 18-19, SFIS launched its outreach for 1999 by participating in the first annual Third Street Fair in Bayview-Hunter’s Point. Representatives from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State University were in attendance, along with other privately-funded scholarship programs.

Environment

Visitors to PRI’s web site may now test their environmental knowledge with a questionnaire authored by PRI fellow Erin Schiller, answering true or false to such propositions as: Air pollution in the U.S. has been increasing over the last 20 years; Forests are flourishing in the U.S. and are growing faster than we are cutting them down; NASA satellites and weather balloons have confirmed that global warming is taking place; We are exposed to a higher amount of toxic substances in nature than through man-made chemical additives and pesticides; World population is growing faster than food production. Visitors may tabulate their scores and the site provides explanatory data.

"Congestion Pricing on the Road Ahead," by PRI fellow Erin Schiller, appeared in the July 21 San Francisco Chronicle.

Director of Research Dana Joel represented PRI at the annual conference of the National Association of Counties as a member of the "Cooler Heads" coalition on global warming. Dana was interviewed by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) about PRI’s environmental index. CFACT’s radio spots air on approximately 150 stations nationwide.

Health and Welfare

On July 1, Naomi Lopez, Director of Health and Welfare Studies, addressed the Economic Roundtable of San Francisco on Social Security privatization. Her "Stealth Care for Kids," appeared in the July Medianomics, published by the Media Research Center. On July 21st Naomi discussed children’s health care on Rios Live on Chicago’s WYLL.

Technology

The July 13 issue of Computerworld, Inc. mentioned PRI’s U.S. Encryption Policy: A Free-Market Primer in an article titled, "Encryption Stops Crime". Justin Matlick, Director of PRI’s Center for Freedom and Technology, was listed in the July/August directory of hot sources in Talker’s Magazine.

Civil Rights

Scripps Howard News Service syndicated Katherine Post’s Contrarian, "Affirmative Action Makeover," about the President’s revamped preferences programs for the federal government. The article appeared in papers around the country, including the Washington Times on July 7 and the Chicago Sun-Times on July 8.

CNN & Company interviewed Katherine on July 22 along with Susan Page of USA Today and Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times. The guests discussed the news and Hillary Clinton’s effect on feminism.

Notables

Action Alert, PRI’s newest publication series, has proved a resounding success. Recent examples include "Downsizing Worker Opportunity With Another Minimum Wage Hike," by Donald Sutherland and Mark Schiller’s "A Prescription for Medi-Cal." "Government’s Hidden Bite out of Californian’s Take-home Pay," by Dean Stansel of the Cato Institute, and Naomi Lopez’s Action Alert on the Social Security Trustees Report, were both mentioned in the July Insider newsletter.

The July/August California Political Review published "California’s 1999 Budget," by Ben Zycher, PRI Senior Fellow in Economics, a researcher at the Rand Corporation, and economics lecturer at UCLA.

On July 3, Lloyd Billingsley appeared on KQED’s This Week in Northern California to discuss the media. Guests included San Francisco Examiner editor Phil Bronstein, Jeffrey Klein of Mother Jones magazine, and Paul Mason of ABC News. Lloyd’s "The ‘Un-American Hunt," about California’s committee on un-American activities appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on July 12.

Lance Izumi’s Capital Ideas about San Francisco mayor Willie Brown prompted an invitation to write an article for Philanthropy, the journal of the Philanthropy Roundtable. San Francisco Faith, a Catholic publication, interviewed Lance about San Francisco’s regulations regarding the autonomy of churches. The spring issue of the Federalist Society’s Free Speech and Election Law News published Lance’s article on California’s smoking ban. Lance’s "Cost Effectiveness of Prisons," appeared in the spring issue of Women of Conviction, the quarterly publication of the Women Prosecutors of California.

PRI Education Fellow Royce Van Tassell received a scholarship to attend New York University’s Summer Seminar July 5-10 at the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. Royce also began participation in the Liberty Caucus, an affiliation of legislators, interest groups and think tanks.

The Mont Pelerin Society awarded Justin Matlick, Naomi Lopez, and Erin Schiller scholarships to attend its General Meeting in Washington, August 30 - September 4.

Booknotes

PRI’s Federal Judge’s Desk Reference to Environmental Economics will be listed in the Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law published by the college of law at Florida State University.