Criminal Justice

Did poor school discipline policy help cause Parkland?

  Reports have surfaced that, despite a history of violent outbursts and assaults, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter was never referred to law enforcement. Instead, he was disciplined through school channels and eventually expelled. Schools should have the latitude to determine whether misbehavior warrants police involvement, but policy must always be motivated by public safety. This...

March 25, 2018

K-12 Education

Testimony before the Commission on Public School Finance

Chairman Brister and Members of the Committee: My name is Emily Sass, and I represent the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where I serve as the K-12 education policy analyst. Thank you for the invitation to speak today. We look forward to working with you to empower parents, students, and teachers for the best outcomes in...

March 22, 2018

K-12 Education

Correcting misguided education spending claims

  Education spending continues to be the buzz around Texas. As well it should be: Texas spends 52 percent of general revenue on K-16 education — more than on any other item in the state’s budget. Yet every year property taxes continue to skyrocket, and the cries for more money grow louder. If only the...

March 21, 2018

Economy

Let People Prosper by Reducing Occupational Licenses

Occupational licensing is a form of regulation that requires a person to register with the government, achieve training, pay fees, and often complete an exam before being allowed to perform a job or vocation. The intended goal of occupational licensing is to ensure public health and safety by mandating quality in a profession. However, the...

March 20, 2018

Economy

Strengthening Texas’ Rainy Day Fund

Chair Nelson and Members of the Committee: My name is Talmadge Heflin, and I am the director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan free market think tank based here in Austin. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on ways to strengthen the Economic...

March 20, 2018

Taxes & Spending

SPEAKING FREELY: ISD Official Jailed for Stealing, Taxpayers Will Still Have to Pay for Public Pension

A new report from the Texas Monitor is raising some serious questions about taxpayers and public pensions. In 2016, Carolyn Foster, Grand Prairie ISD’s former chief financial officer, was arrested and later convicted of stealing $600,000 from the district. That money was originally slotted to go toward “awards to teachers and other needs”, but instead...

March 19, 2018

Higher Education

UCF versus free speech: First Amendment demands justice for De La Haye

  Donald De La Haye, a former University of Central Florida student, was removed from the UCF football team and lost his scholarship because he posted popular YouTube videos. De La Haye was a model athlete and upstanding member of the UCF community. A marketing major, he also had a passion and talent for amateur filmmaking. Both...

March 19, 2018

Local Government

Texas is leading the charge to expose ObamaCare’s house of cards

  During an October 2016 speech, President Trump made this pledge regarding the Affordable Care Act, “My first day in office, I am going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability.” While Congress failed to act, a twenty-state coalition led...

March 19, 2018

Criminal Justice

Drug-free school zones costly, ineffective

  Tennessee’s criminal justice system is not short on laws that have good intentions with overly harsh sanctions. One example is the state’s drug-free school zone law. At first glance, one may think it is hard to argue with such a well-intentioned law. No one thinks we should make it easier for drug dealers to...

March 16, 2018

Local Government

Booker T. Washington’s example to better schools

  Imagine being a parent in Washington, D.C., and learning the school’s measures of success mean nothing — that graduation rates weren’t merely fudged, they were manufactured. Many students graduated who had missed half the school year in unexcused absences. According to an internal investigation, fully one-third of students graduated improperly. Obama-era education reforms in...

March 16, 2018

Criminal Justice

SB73 made ‘lemonade out of lemons’

  Governors from the around the country spend a lot of time competing for jobs and figuring out how to promote economic development so their state has more assets and fewer liabilities. Here in South Dakota, there is a symbol of economic transformation that stands out as starkly as Mount Rushmore. Earlier this year, S.D....

March 16, 2018

Criminal Justice

Our police need better training. Florida school shooting failures make this more imperative

  The 24-hour news cycle provides no shortage of incidents that illustrate the need for police reforms to our current system, the most recent and tragic example being the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After the shooting, shocking news broke that the school resource officer, who was armed, failed...

March 13, 2018