Just when you thought school spending couldn’t get any worse, this happens. Two weeks after signing a five-year, $1.6 million contract, Lancaster ISD’s superintendent was let go for unknown reasons—but not before being sent away with a severance package worth more than $2 million. The buyout is so massive that it threatens to “virtually clear...
COVID-19 continues to take a toll in the U.S., with more than 13 million cases and over 260,000 deaths. The rise in cases has led to interventions by state governments. Given that the health threat is real, we should learn from what has worked —and what has not. That means we must work hard on a...
Democrats are scrambling to explain away the inroads Republicans have made with minorities, as evidenced in the November election results. Instead of listening to the concerns of the Black and Hispanic voters who voted for President Trump — after years of being assured that Trump is one of the “most racist presidents” in history — Democrats are instead blaming...
My childhood involved times of frustration, disappointment, guilt, and depression. My teachers were often frustrated too—though at the time, none of us knew why. I was not diagnosed with autism until years after I graduated from college. I went on to earn a graduate degree in special education. What I learned in the classroom—both as...
During his successful run for the presidency in 2000, George W. Bush warned against “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Then-candidate Bush delivered his remarks at the 91st annual meeting of the NAACP on July 10, 2000. Bush added, “A great movement of education reform has begun in this country built on clear principles: to raise the...
The media got it wrong. Again. For months, we were told that Texas was turning blue. One outlet confidently assured us that: “the state is just as competitive as more traditional battleground states (and more competitive than some!)” Another commentator declared: “For the first time in 18 years, Democrats are seriously challenging Republicans’ political monopoly...
Connecting with people via video has become routine for many personal and professional settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing restrictions have increased the use of new video tools to maintain connections and streamline operations during uncertain times. Even entities reluctant to adopt modern technologies had to adapt to unexpected circumstances. Prisons serve as a...
The Fraser Institute is out with its new yearly assessment of Economic Freedom in North America. Fraser, based in British Columbia, Canada, ranks both nations and states internationally and in North America for their economic freedom, measuring factors such as tax rates, government spending, and labor laws. Fraser found that the top five states for economic freedom...
Direct Primary Care (DPC) is not really a new model for health care in Texas. Long before employer-based insurance (with the safety nets for the elderly and disabled, Medicare and Medicaid) became the standard, patients paid doctors for their care. There were no middlemen—only the patient and the physician, and they made the decisions. DPC...
An article appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Nov. 3—and was reprinted on the front page of the Nov. 8 Austin-American Statesman business section—with the title “Can clean energy plug hole in Texas oil patch?”. This article made us stop and think about some of terminology mistakes we make when we talk about energy....
The question I’m asked repeatedly now is what it all means. Vice President Joe Biden is projected to be the next president of the United States. President Donald Trump has not yet conceded; indeed, legal challenges are just getting underway in several states. We don’t know how those will play out. If I were to offer a simple observation,...
Shutdowns and stay-at-home orders across Texas due to COVID-19 have spiked unemployment, slowed tax receipts, and forced the permanent closure of 8,900 Texas businesses since March. This, from one of the most dynamic and fast-growing economies in the world. A return to previous success is possible, and necessary, by safely reopening Texas and promptly strengthening...