October 1999 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.

Events

PRI’s 20th anniversary dinner with Lady Thatcher on October 30 drew to the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco an audience of more than 700 from across the nation. With characteristic wit and resolve, Lady Thatcher recounted her battles against socialism, recalled her alliance and friendship with Ronald Reagan, and enthralled the crowd with a spirited defense of liberty based on morality and the rule of law.

Both Lady Thatcher and former California Governor Pete Wilson praised the work of Pacific Research, which awarded the grand prize in its seventh annual privatization competition to Operation Access, a group of Bay Area doctors providing care to the uninsured.

Workshops earlier in the day featured PRI’s Steven Hayward on doomsday scenarios, Steve Gross of the Wine Institute on regulations in the wine industry, Katrina Heron of Wired magazine about Internet privacy and related issues, and New Zealand politician Maurice McTigue on his country’s positive experience with privatization. In a luncheon address, Dr. Howard Fuller, former superintendent of Milwaukee public schools, delivered a stirring call for choice in education.

Education

"As always, PRI has jumped out in front on these important education issues," writes Mary Gifford, director of the Center for Market-Based Education at the Goldwater Institute, about PRI’s legislative template Expanding the Charter Idea. "Outstanding. . . it is exciting to learn other people look at charter schools as part of the ‘revolution,’ not just as a ‘reform’." Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com), a conservative news page, excerpted the charter template on October 12.

Expanding the Charter Idea was quoted in a September 30 article, "Growth of Charter Schools," by Jay Ambrose, which ran in the Rocky Mountain News, the Birmingham Post-Herald, Modesto Bee, Evansville Courier and Press, Daily American Republic, Salisbury Post, and many other newspapers nationwide.

The October California Journal published "School Bonds and the Two-Thirds Vote" by Lance Izumi, co-director of PRI’s Center for School Reform. On October 6, Fox News in Los Angeles interviewed Lance about California’s dropout rate, and on October 8, Lance debated Beverly Tucker, chief counsel for the California Teachers Association on "California Capitol Week," produced by KVIE-TV, the PBS station in Sacramento, and broadcast on PBS stations throughout the state.

On October 19, Lance Izumi and Pam Riley were in Washington, D.C. to discuss PRI’s series of templates on academic standards, charter schools, and school choice with Education Week, Education Daily, and Chester Finn, president of the Fordham Foundation. On October 20, Congressional staffers, Washington policy analysts, and representatives of state government attended a discussion of the templates with Lance and Pam at the Heritage Foundation. Lance and Pam also met with the editorial staff of the Washington Times.

On October 25, Lance discussed standards, teacher quality issues, and school choice with Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok. Also on October 25, Lance and Pam met with the editorial boards of the Orange County Register and Investor’s Business Daily. On October 26, Lance and Pam met with the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Daily News. Pam Riley was interviewed by KVI Radio in Seattle on October 8.

PRI also published Charter Schools and the Long Road to Education Reform by policy fellow Tom Dawson. Tom’s op-ed, "PACE report flunks," appeared in the Orange County Register on September 30. On October 30, Tom spoke to a group of students about school choice as part of Capitol Focus, a program that brings California school children to Sacramento to expose them to public policy issues.

On October 27, policy fellow Gwynne Coburn spoke to the Marin Republican Women about bilingual education and Prop. 227. On October 25, Gwynne was quoted in the Washinton Times, in "Home Snoops," an editorial about attempts to force teachers to monitor their students’ home environments.

Freedom and Technology

"Internet rating system unwieldy and unnecessary," by Sonia Arrison, director of PRI’s Center for Freedom and Technology, appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News on September 29, and in a number of other publications, including the Greenwich Times and the Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York.

"How visa limits hurt technology companies," by policy fellow Jessica Melugin, appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on October 13. Jessica’s "Time is on Microsofts’s Side" ran in the San Jose Mercury News on October 18; the Fresno Bee, Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, Rock Hill (SC) Herald, Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, WA), Island Packet (Hilton Head, SC), and Anchorage Daily News on October 19; and the Ventura County Star on October 20.

Enterprise and Opportunity

Due to popular demand, Free Markets, Free Choices: Smashing the Wage Gap and Glass Ceiling Myths, by PRI’s Naomi Lopez, was re-released in October. "Still Dancing On A Glass Ceiling?" by PRI President Sally C. Pipes appeared in Investor’s Business Daily on October 4. On October 19, KQED-FM, the National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco, aired Lance Izumi’s commentary on the U.S. Congress’s inability to cut corporate welfare programs.

An October 3 Orange County Register editorial, "The wrong prescription," about the health-care package California Governor Gray Davis recently signed into law, quoted Naomi Lopez. On October 4, Naomi discussed a recent U.S. Census Bureau report on health insurance coverage on KCBS in San Francisco.

Environment

Steven Hayward, director of PRI’s Center for Environmental and Regulatory Reform, has the leading essay "Twin Cities, Multiple Anxieties: The Social and Economic Trends Behind the Sprawl Controversy" in the fall issue of the American Experiment Quarterly. On October 28, Steve spoke on sprawl to the Central Coast Home Builders Association in San Luis Obispo. "We need shelter as much as food," by Dennis Brislin, quotes Steve in the September 26 Sunday News of Lancaster. The article also ran in the Patriot-News of Harrisburg.

Notables

PRI’s Sally Pipes, Steven Hayward, and Lloyd Billingsley addressed the October 14-15 Regional Meeting of the Philadelphia Society in Los Angeles. Gwynne Coburn and Tom Dawson attended on scholarships. "State Board of Education Cannot Waive Requirements of English Only Initiative, Court Rules," quotes Sally in the September 28 issue of StockSmart.