Say What?!
What to know: A new report reveals that Austin spends big on public communications. As currently configured, the city’s sprawling communications operation spans “28 departments, 176 communications staffers and more than $10.4 million in reported marketing and communications spending over two fiscal years.”
The TPPF take: Austin should consolidate and cut spending.
“Austin’s communications operation has grown too big and costly. For the benefit of local taxpayers, the city should consolidate these systems and cut spending where duplication exists,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Getting control of spending is essential.”
For more on local spending, Click Here.
Mexico and Confrontation
What to know: Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says the U.S. is meddling in Mexican affairs, as U.S. authorities investigate two governors with alleged ties to the criminal cartels.
The TPPF take: Sheinbaum’s government is now on a collision course with U.S. policy.
“The Mexican president seems determined to worsen the crisis — and to do so in ways that place her and her regime in a no-win scenario. In the face of the American exposure of Morena’s long-standing partnerships with cartels, she has chosen confrontation with the United States rather than to adhere to her established doctrine of cooperación sin subordinación,” says TPPF’s Joshua Treviño. “It’s easy to feel sorry for Claudia Sheinbaum. But it would be a mistake to do so, because even if she did not incept the crisis, she has made it worse by every measure.” \
For more on Mexico, Click Here.
Grade Inflation
What to know: Fully 70% of Harvard University faculty voted to limit grade inflation by capping the number of A’s that can be awarded for each class.
The TPPF take: Maybe “grade inflation” isn’t just a right-wing conspiracy theory
“For decades, higher education reformers have warned that college grade inflation is ‘real, rampant, and ravaging our universities’—along with workforce competitiveness,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “And not only at Harvard. In the early 1960s, 15% of all college grades nationwide were A’s. Today, A’s constitute nearly 50% of all grades.”
For more on grade inflation, Click Here.