Commentary

Business & Economics

Can GOP quit weed whacking?

Sacramento – If the California Republican Party were serious about its oft-stated calls for limiting government, then it should be championing an initiative on the November ballot that would reduce government interference in our lives, increase the efficiency of law-enforcement, protect property rights and help fill the gaping hole in ...
Commentary

School choice is the key to improving education

Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2010 Throughout the nation, among the 20 private-school scholarship programs now in existence, many of the most successful have been aimed at special-needs children. A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster ...
Business & Economics

State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example

State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director In early June the California State Crime Lab Task Force voted to shut itself down. This unusual action sets a good example for other state entities, and for legislators looking to trim state government. Most ...
Business & Economics

Census Nonsense

Vol. 14 No. 07: July 6, 2010 Census Nonsense By Sally C. Pipes, President and CEO, Pacific Research Institute Some 2010 Census results are in, and Contrarian readers will be pleased to know that feminist organizations are already hard at work massaging the data to fit their tired narrative. This ...
Commentary

What Canada can teach the U.S. about education

Canadians, particularly those of conservative persuasion, love to compare Canada with the United States, which has a lot to learn in the key area of K-12 education. As the United States struggles with mounting deficits and debt, Americans would be well served to look north if they want to raise ...
Business & Economics

Police budget cuts won’t spike crime

SACRAMENTO – “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary,” observed the journalist, critic and satirist H.L. Mencken. Mencken perhaps would not have envisioned the ...
Commentary

Viewpoints: School test scores mask failure

With graduation season in full swing, the cover story in the June issue of Sacramento Magazine rates the 66 high schools in and around California’s capital. The ratings rely on the state’s school-performance scoring system which, unfortunately, masks a key reality. The “best” schools, largely in middle-class or affluent neighborhoods, ...
California

Should The State Decide How Many Nurses a Hospital Must Hire?

Under ObamaCare, those who believe the government should decide how much medical care you deserve, and how it should be delivered, are eager to impose their preferences nationwide. Nurses’ unions lead the charge, armed with a recent study that could use more examination than it is getting from politicians and ...
California

Costs Soaring After Bay State Health Change

Anyone wanting a preview of Obama-Care need just focus on Massachusetts, the state that provided the blueprint for Obama’s plan. It makes a great case for making haste in repealing ObamaCare. In Massachusetts, health care prices are out of control, emergency rooms are overcrowded, the government is at war with ...
Commentary

Making the Pieces Fit

New Study Finds Foster-Care Scholarship Program is an Academically and Fiscally Responsible Reform —Would Benefit Students, Public Schools, and the State— San Francisco— Today, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based public policy think tank, released a policy brief on improving education opportunities for foster-care children in California. Fostering Opportunity ...
Business & Economics

Can GOP quit weed whacking?

Sacramento – If the California Republican Party were serious about its oft-stated calls for limiting government, then it should be championing an initiative on the November ballot that would reduce government interference in our lives, increase the efficiency of law-enforcement, protect property rights and help fill the gaping hole in ...
Commentary

School choice is the key to improving education

Los Angeles Daily News, July 7, 2010 Throughout the nation, among the 20 private-school scholarship programs now in existence, many of the most successful have been aimed at special-needs children. A June 30 study by the Pacific Research Institute has shown that a scholarship program for California families welcoming foster ...
Business & Economics

State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example

State Crime Lab Task Force Shutdown Vote Sets Example By K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director In early June the California State Crime Lab Task Force voted to shut itself down. This unusual action sets a good example for other state entities, and for legislators looking to trim state government. Most ...
Business & Economics

Census Nonsense

Vol. 14 No. 07: July 6, 2010 Census Nonsense By Sally C. Pipes, President and CEO, Pacific Research Institute Some 2010 Census results are in, and Contrarian readers will be pleased to know that feminist organizations are already hard at work massaging the data to fit their tired narrative. This ...
Commentary

What Canada can teach the U.S. about education

Canadians, particularly those of conservative persuasion, love to compare Canada with the United States, which has a lot to learn in the key area of K-12 education. As the United States struggles with mounting deficits and debt, Americans would be well served to look north if they want to raise ...
Business & Economics

Police budget cuts won’t spike crime

SACRAMENTO – “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary,” observed the journalist, critic and satirist H.L. Mencken. Mencken perhaps would not have envisioned the ...
Commentary

Viewpoints: School test scores mask failure

With graduation season in full swing, the cover story in the June issue of Sacramento Magazine rates the 66 high schools in and around California’s capital. The ratings rely on the state’s school-performance scoring system which, unfortunately, masks a key reality. The “best” schools, largely in middle-class or affluent neighborhoods, ...
California

Should The State Decide How Many Nurses a Hospital Must Hire?

Under ObamaCare, those who believe the government should decide how much medical care you deserve, and how it should be delivered, are eager to impose their preferences nationwide. Nurses’ unions lead the charge, armed with a recent study that could use more examination than it is getting from politicians and ...
California

Costs Soaring After Bay State Health Change

Anyone wanting a preview of Obama-Care need just focus on Massachusetts, the state that provided the blueprint for Obama’s plan. It makes a great case for making haste in repealing ObamaCare. In Massachusetts, health care prices are out of control, emergency rooms are overcrowded, the government is at war with ...
Commentary

Making the Pieces Fit

New Study Finds Foster-Care Scholarship Program is an Academically and Fiscally Responsible Reform —Would Benefit Students, Public Schools, and the State— San Francisco— Today, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based public policy think tank, released a policy brief on improving education opportunities for foster-care children in California. Fostering Opportunity ...
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