It’s Time
What to know: Writing in the Baytown Sun, Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain says it’s time to empower parents with school choice: “Parent Empowerment is not about undermining public schools, it’s about providing all families with access to quality education.”
The TPPF take: School choice is the civil rights issue of our time. We must empower parents with choice.
“In Texas, our public schools are still assigned based on a child’s address, which are still highly segregated along socio-economic and racial lines,” writes TPPF’s Mandy Drogin. “School choice removes those artificial boundaries and allows parents to make the decision about what is best for their child. School choice breaks down institutional barriers, like zoning, and lifts up the students stuck in bad schools.”
For more on parent empowerment and school choice, click here.
Unsustainable
What to know: Last week, the U.S. national debt exceeded $35 trillion for the first time ever and the cost to service this debt is immense. According to the Heritage Foundation, “In June, 76% of income taxes, the government’s largest revenue source, went just towards paying the interest on the national debt.”
TPPF Take: Federal debt is unsustainable. States must use the tools provided by the U.S. Constitution to impose fiscal discipline.
“It’s long past time to call an Article V Convention of the States to force fiscal restraint on the federal government. Any convention could consider imposing a balanced budget requirement, a strict spending limit, or a better debt ceiling with fewer workarounds. Truly, there are no shortage of ideas to get things under control,” says TPPF’s James Quintero.
For more on the national debt, click here.
Energy Doldrums
What to know: The Biden/Harris administration has canceled an offshore wind project planned for the Gulf of Mexico, citing a lack of interest from developers.
The TPPF take: Last year, the feds received exactly zero bids for leases off Texas.
“It’s another example of the Biden administration’s willful blindness when it comes to renewable energy, and particularly the undeniable disadvantages of offshore wind,” says TPPF’s Robert Henneke. “From environmental destruction to the deaths of endangered whales to the human costs, offshore wind continues to combine theoretical advantages with very concrete disadvantages.”
For more on offshore wind, click here.