PRI continues to impact public policy in California, the nation, and abroad. The following is a sample of PRI’s influence in June 2000.

Health and Welfare

PRI President Sally C. Pipes’s Brain Trust article for the Investor’s Business Daily, “New Bill of Debts: Consumers Suffer from Clinton Plan to Protect Patients,” appeared on June 8. PRI Public Policy Fellow Laura Dykes’s recent op-ed “Gen-X and the Medicare Basket Case” appeared in the June 20 edition of liberzine.com. “Drug-price lid cuts choices,” a letter to the editor by PRI’s Naomi Lopez Bauman, ran in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 27.

Freedom and Technology

Jack Kemp, now a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, quoted PRI’s Center for Freedom and Technology (CFT) in “Digital divide remedy,” which ran in the Washington Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer in June. CFT Director Sonia Arrison was quoted in the May 22 New York Times about privacy legislation, in a story that also ran on CNET.com and Yahoo!News. “Online Sale of Tobacco Drawing a Fight,” by Carolyn Said, quotes Sonia in the May 29 San Francisco Chronicle.

PRI Fellow Helen Chaney participated in a roundtable discussion of freedom of speech on the Internet in a segment of “Beyond Computers,” KQED/National Public Radio, which aired on stations around the country between June 28 and July 4. Helen’s “Feds didn’t learn from AT&T case” was published in the Orange County Register on June 8.

Education

On June 14, the Associated Press interviewed Lance Izumi, director of PRI’s Center for School Reform, on the subject of teacher salaries and performance pay. On June 19, Lance told the Orange County Register that increased education spending will not necessarily increase student performance. The Register also interviewed Lance on June 6 about merit pay, school choice, and the delay in implementing the state’s proposed high school exit exams. On June 22, PRI’s California Index of Leading Education Indicators 2000 was cited on the Larry Elder show, KABC in Los Angeles. Lance Izumi’s commentary on the Oakland School Board’s decision to block the creation of Mayor Jerry Brown’s Oakland Military Institute Charter School aired on June 27, on KQED, the Bay Area affiliate of National Public Radio. On June 28, the San Jose Mercury News interviewed Lance on California’s class-size-reduction program. Pam Riley appeared on “City Politics,” a San Francisco television show, on June 16 to discuss California education funding.

The May 29 Fresno Bee published “Gore’s plan for education plagiarizes past failures,” by Tom Dawson, assistant director of PRI’s Center for School Reform. The Washington Post mentioned PRI on June 19 in “California Teachers Get Raises,” by Jennifer Kerr, which ran in many papers including the New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, Arizona Daily Sun, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Raleigh News and Observer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Austin American-Statesman.

Environment

Steven Hayward, director of PRI’s Center for Environmental and Regulatory Reform, spoke on environmental trends at the American Enterprise Institute’s World Forum at Beaver Creek, Colorado, June 18. Attendees included several corporate CEOs and former South African Prime Minister F.W. DeKlerk. On June 15, Steve spoke on the issue of urban sprawl at a Heritage Foundation luncheon in Washington. Steve’s “The Paving of America” appeared in the Washington Times on May 29 and in many other papers including the Tampa Tribune, Albany Times, Las Vegas Review Journal, Akron Beacon Journal, and Huntsville Times. “Imprisoning city dwellers to nix sprawl,” by Steven Hayward, was published in the June 17 Free Lance-Star. In late May, Fred Barnes mentioned Steve’s work on sprawl in the Weekly Standard.

Chief Executive magazine published Sally Pipes’s “Capital Ideas” column in the July issue. Entitled “Less Yuck for the Buck,” it deals with the real facts about the state of our environment.

PRI was also mentioned by Mike Padgett in “Growth topic sprawls out on several Internet sites,” published in the Business Journal (Phoenix) on June 16 and the Arizona Republic’s June 13 “Reading Up On Urban Sprawl: A helpful list of books you can grow with.”

Enterprise and Opportunity

In June the California Senate Bipartisan Task Force on Homelessness included a recommendation by task force member Naomi Lopez Bauman, director of PRI’s Center for Enterprise and Opportunity, to create a charitable tax credit. A recent issue of Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI) cited Naomi’s briefing “Free-Markets, Free Choices II: Smashing the Wage Gap and Glass Ceiling Myths” in an editorial. Jennifer L. Crull of the Iowa-based Public Interest Institute also cited the same study in a recent op-ed.

“Social Security status quo is riskiest scheme of all,” by PRI Public Policy Fellow Joanna Elachi, appeared in the June 6 Houston Chronicle and ran in other papers including the Providence Journal and Abilene News Reporter. Nationally syndicated columnist Mona Charen cited PRI’s work on the pay gap and on government programs to promote women in science and engineering. Her article appeared in more than 50 newspapers including the Washington Times, San Jose Mercury News, and St. Louis Post Dispatch. The June 22 Reinbeck Courier mentioned PRI in “Equal Employment Opportunity of Gender Preferences?”

Events

On June 20, PRI hosted a dinner with John Stossel, a reporter for ABC’s “20/20”, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. After an introduction by actor Tom Selleck, Stossel addressed the subject of fearmongering and the crisis mentality in the media to more than 200 attendees. On June 9, PRI held its third annual orientation and awards ceremony for San Francisco Independent Scholars at the Presidio Club. Kip Schubert, SFIS program manager, and Pam Riley, SFIS director and associate director for coalition relations at PRI’s Center for School Reform, hosted the event for approximately 100 students.

Notables

“Cut Taxes to Spur Giving,” by Sally Pipes, appeared in the June Alternatives in Philanthropy. In June PRI’s Gwynne Coburn was a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute. On June 16 in Washington, Steven Hayward spoke on “The Liberal Tradition in American Politics” as part of a panel with Charles Murray and Prof. Alonzo Hamby at the Heritage Foundation’s conference on “American Politics and the Future of Constitutional Government.” “Saving Comrade Stalin,” by Lloyd Billingsley, about the reluctance of Hollywood to make movies about Communism, appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on June 18. The June Insider, published by the Heritage Foundation, mentioned Lloyd’s recent cover story in Reason. Sonia Arrison discussed public choice theory at a Liberty Fund conference in Victoria, Canada, June 15–17.