January 2009 Volume 16 Number 1

New Year, New Hope for Tort Reform

January 06, 2009

By Patrick B. McGuigan

For the first time in Oklahoma history, Republicans will control both houses of the state Legislature when the House and Senate convene next month. This creates a dramatic new opportunity to enact "center-right" policies that never made it past Democrats who controlled the upper chamber for 101 years.

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What Can Brown Do for Youth?

January 06, 2009

 By Patrick B. McGuigan

Educator Deborah Brown shares gripping stories about kids from north Tulsa whose educational prospects have been transformed over the past two decades of her involvement in both private and charter schools, teaching mostly black children from desperately impoverished circumstances. She says if the resources were created to support her approach to schooling, she could double the number of children who benefit.

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Don't Bail Out the States

January 06, 2009

By Brian M. Riedl

State governments from New York to California are begging Washington to bail them out of a combined $48 billion budget shortfall estimated for 2009.

It's a terrible idea, on several counts.

For starters, it's a shell game. Sending federal aid to states wouldn't save taxpayers a dime because state taxpayers are also federal taxpayers. Hiking federal taxes to keep state taxes from rising is like running up your Visa card to keep the MasterCard balance from rising. Either way, you'll pay. All that changes is where you send your payment.

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Why School Systems Cannot Lose Weight

January 06, 2009

By Chester E. Finn, Jr.

There's plenty of evidence that state budgets are strapped these days, due to shrinking tax revenues from a faltering economy, etc. It's also clear that a number of school systems are feeling the pinch.

The question du jour is how, besides complaining and asking for more money, U.S. school systems are responding to the fiscal crush.

Not well, it appears. This is not surprising, because we've known for ages that they, like other public-sector entities, are really great at growing and adding but really bad at shrinking and cutting. That's because the conventional wisdom in educator-land is that any reductions are bound to damage the quality of schooling, maybe even the level of student performance.

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Adding Value in Higher Education

January 06, 2009

By Vance H. Fried

The cost of undergraduate education nationwide has skyrocketed over the last 20 years.

For example, the current cost at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State is now roughly1 $18,000 per student (not including room, board, and football).2 In-state students pay about $8,000 in tuition and the taxpayers pick up most of the remainder.

When I started on the Oklahoma State faculty in January 1987, costs were about $2,650 and in-state tuition was $834. Adjusting for inflation, those 1987 costs (in 2008 dollars) were $5,183 and in-state tuition was $1,643.

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Speech Codes Limit Campus Freedom

January 06, 2009

By Ray Nothstine

Millions of high school seniors have started the process of deciding which college or university to attend in the next academic year. And while many students will look at schools that reflect their interests and values, virtually none will be thinking about the school's speech codes or free speech zones. They should.

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Why I Am a Liberal

January 06, 2009

By Everett Piper

Words mean something. As human beings we stand alone in our use of language as our primary method of communication. We have confidence in our words and we resist any attempt to co-opt, twist, or manipulate their meaning.

Nevertheless, some words are used so frequently and frivolously that they suffer for lack of care, and as a result, their root, their origin, their intent, and their purpose are lost. Words like change and choice, green and gay, liberal and conservative. If left untended, words can be inexplicably used to defend concepts quite contrary and perhaps even opposite to that of their original intent.

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Ensuring That Only Citizens Vote

January 06, 2009

By Hans A. von Spakovsky

We may never know how many non-citizens voted illegally on November 4.

A report on FOX affiliate WFLD-TV in Chicago that aired just before the election showed how easy it is for non-citizens to register: They used a hidden camera in a DMV office to show a Chinese citizen illegally registering to vote as she obtained a driver's license.

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Where the Torch of Liberty Is Still Lit

January 06, 2009

By Brett A. Magbee

With much of the nation caught up in the drama of the financial calamity which is headlining all the news these days, it's good to know that there is a place where people aren't panicked, where a sense of calm prevails and free enterprise flourishes. It's a place where people believe in the reliability of the market to correct itself.

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Quote/Unquote

January 06, 2009

" ... which suggests that Mr. Edmondson is motivated more by politics than justice."
The Wall Street Journal, in a December 26 editorial (‘Still Oklahoma's Most Wanted') decrying Attorney General Drew Edmondson's continued prosecution of taxpayer activists under a law which the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down as unconstitutional last month. Gubernatorial candidate Edmondson "is angling for support from public employee unions and other special interest groups that oppose tax and spending constraints," the Journal notes. "But more generally, his continued prosecution of the Oklahoma Three sends a chilling message to others who might consider exercising their right to petition government. Read More >

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