It’s Gonna Cost You

What to Know: Fort Worth ISD won’t show a mom what her daughter will be learning in school unless she pays a Public Information Request fee of $1,267.50.

The TPPF Take: Public schools are government institutions.

“Transparency and accountability are part of the arrangement,” says TPPF’s Michael Barba. “It’s not oppression to ask that the City Council conduct its business out in the open. Likewise, parents have a right to know what information schools plan to use (and by what means) to provide a quality education to their children.”

For more on a parent’s right to know, click here.


Protect Wildlife!

What to Know: Wildlife groups have reached out to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, warning that planned offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Mexico could harm birds, shrimp and other wildlife.

The TPPF Take: The Texas Public Policy Foundation has already filed a lawsuit over this issue, regarding a planned offshore wind farm off Rhode Island.

“When the liberal environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, a coalition of U.S. senators led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and a conservative Texas institute like mine come together to question an ocean-based wind farm project, something must be fishy,” says TPPF’s Robert Henneke. “It’s important to get answers to these questions now. This remarkably diverse group of questioners won’t quit asking them.”

For more on offshore wind, click here.


America is Strong

What to Know: Austin Mayor Steve Adler says the city can “end homelessness” in three years.

The TPPF Take: That’s a bold and baseless claim.

“We will never end homelessness,” says TPPF’s Michele Steeb. “We can end homelessness for individuals every day, but new individuals will continue to find themselves homeless due to underlying issues such as addiction and mental illness, which Austin’s homeless policy ignores. Austin’s unsheltered homeless population rose 93% under this policy which remains fully in tact. Policy change is the only way to reverse Austin’s course, no matter what he claims.”

For more on homelessness, click here.