These men and women who labored for long hours with modest pay pushed my young mind in ways and directions that shaped me into the person I am today — and I will always be grateful for their efforts. If our lives are the work of many hands, then mine is very much the work of the extraordinary teachers in Glen Rose public schools.
There is a variety of opinions in the media these days regarding online learning. Depending on what you read, online education can appear to be either a cure-all or cancer. In an effort to cut through the smoke, here are the top eight established facts you need to know. 1) Online learning is here to stay. Since...
Dallas County Schools (DCS), a countywide district providing transportation services to the area’s school districts, is coming under intense scrutiny after a recent NBC 5 investigation into the district’s use and possible abuse of taxpayer dollars. According to NBC 5, DCS officials not long ago launched a side business financed with public monies that aims...
As Texans, we all know that people continue to move here. Just look around when driving to the grocery store or your favorite restaurant. In rural and urban areas, you not only see more people, but license tags from other states. A recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas highlights the large sum...
The 84th Texas Legislature will convene at noon on January 13, 2015. Legislators will then have another opportunity to determine the appropriate level of taxation to fund basic public necessities. The two primary types of taxes used to fund the bulk of state budgets nationwide are consumption (i.e. sales tax) and personal income taxes. Compared...
Who owns the water beneath your property? According to state law (as well as the Texas Supreme Court), you do. Yet all too often, local regulatory entities act as if groundwater belongs to them. Consider the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District. Unlike most regions of the state, permits to pump water in the Lost Pines...
The higher-education world was rocked three years ago by the publication of the landmark study of collegiate learning, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. Between 2005 and 2009, the authors tracked over 2,000 college students from both public and private institutions, measuring their fundamental academic skills in their first and fourth years with the...
When passing new laws regulating business, rarely do policymakers consider the unintended consequences. But they are always present. In this case, it has to do with a 2011 New York law aimed at regulating Airbnb—the service that allows people to rent out living spaces on a night-by-night basis as a sort of bed and breakfast—hence...
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bureau of Business Research recently published “The 2013 U.S. State of Entrepreneurship Index” highlighting which states were best at providing an economic environment for entrepreneurs to succeed. According to this Index, the top five states with “business startups and failures compared to population, innovation, and income” are North Dakota, California, New...
Sometimes it seems like the drought has gone on so long that I’ve forgotten what it’s like not to be under water restrictions. Where I live we are currently under “Stage 1” restrictions. Twice a week, on a day assigned based on my address, I wait for the clock to strike 7:00 pm, and then...
Judith Curry Presentation by texaspolicy
Robert Bradley Presentation by texaspolicy