Talking Parent Empowerment
What to know: TPPF’s Robert Henneke spoke with the Hill Country Community Journal about parent empowerment and school choice.
The TPPF take: It’s time to ensure that every Texas child has access to the right educational option for them—as determined by their parents.
“Private schools would have to be accredited with recognized national testing standards,” Henneke noted. “The ESA money could be used for textbooks or other costs or could be used to allow a student to go a half-day to school and the other half-day to an approved career training program. Vendors would be vetted and approved by the state of Texas.”
For more on parent empowerment, click here.
Government Doesn’t Know Best
What to know: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders recently introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act, which intends to reduce the traditional 40-hour workweek while promising workers “the same pay.”
The TPPF take: Government doesn’t know best. This one-size-fits-all mandate threatens to accelerate automation, slow productivity, and make the U.S. less economically competitive.
“If you wanted to wreck the American economy, then this is the type of federal legislation that you’d want considered. Forcing people to move to a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay would have a profoundly negative effect on productivity, job security, and competitiveness,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Federal policymakers looking to help the everyman should cut taxes, slash regulations, and get government out of the way of employers and employees.”
For more on the economy, click here.
Rural Health Care
What to know: Hundreds of rural hospitals are at risk of closing, a new report finds. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates are partly to blame
The TPPF take: Medicaid expansion is often touted as a solution to rural hospital woes. But the problem isn’t lack of coverage.
“With 92% of the public holding some sort of health care coverage, the Biden administration misses a fundamental point: The real problem is not a lack of coverage but a lack of access to care,” says TPPF’s Andrea Hitt. “The increasing rural hospital closures and physician shortages greatly undermine people’s ability to seek care. Residents in rural areas who now have to travel farther for care often face worse health outcomes.”
For more on ACA and rural health care, click here.