School Choice Works

What to know: Texas Tech economics Professor Alexander Salter writes in the Austin American-Statesman that data gleaned from other states shows parent empowerment works.

The TPPF take: It’s time for Texas lawmakers to empower Texas parents.

“Researchers have done important work demonstrating, by any reasonable standard, that school choice works,” says Salter. “Now it’s up to public servants to make it happen. By following the evidence, legislators can ensure that every young Texan can attend a safe, effective school.”

For more on parent empowerment, click here.


Meltdown

What to know: Britain’s National Health Service is melting down, with nurse and ambulance driver unions on strike, and wait times getting longer and longer.

The TPPF take: Single-payer health care systems, such as Britain’s NHS or Medicare-for-All, don’t work.

“The fundamental flaw of single-payer is that it increases demand (covering more people) while ignoring supply,” says TPPF’s David Balat. “Health care providers simply can’t afford to add more patients at the reimbursement rates the system can offer. That’s why we’re seeing rationing occur even now in Medicare and Medicaid.”

For more on single-payer health care, click here.


Reversing Course

What to know: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has acknowledged the truth about the homelessness crisis that plagues her city and many like it: She said that unless housing is coupled with treatment services efforts to address mental health and substance abuse, “I don’t care how much housing you build, we will not solve this problem.”

However, such services were wholly defunded under The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s policy experiment. Officials opined that by funneling all aid into permanent housing subsidies, homelessness would end in a decade… meaning this year. The TPPF take: Karen Bass is the first major city mayor to call out the inadequacy and failure of Housing First as a one-size-fits-all approach to homelessness. She will not be the last. “The ‘housing solves homelessness’ myth has not ended homelessness as promised. It has unequivocally devastated lives and communities and has squandered billions in annual taxpayer funding,” says TPPF’s Michele Steeb. “The data have clearly revealed that the one-size-fits-all approach to homelessness—Housing First—experiment did not work. We need to employ a human-first approach, one that addresses and funds the root causes of homelessness including trauma, mental illness and substance abuse disorder.”

For more on homelessness, click here.