The Lottery, a new documentary about charter schools in New York City, is changing the debate on parental choice in education. Madeleine Sackler, a 27 year old graduate of Duke University and creator of the film, follows 4 students who have been entered into a lottery to be selected for one of the spots at Harlem Success Academy (a transformative system of charter schools that is catching the eyes of policymakers across the country.) The film will be screened today at 5:30 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. …
The Obama Administration is successfully orchestrating one of the largest federal overreaches into education policy since the Great Society programs of the mid-1960s. If this news is coming as a surprise, it’s because the Administration is maneuvering outside of normal legislative procedure, by way of Trojan-horse programs such as Race to the Top and the suggestive power of their “blueprint” to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. The Administration’s push for national standards and tests, which is moving quickly, is an historic federal overreach. By August 2, 2010, states must submit …
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared Sunday on Fox News and made it clear that he sees President Barack Obama as the key actor in international efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program: “There’s only been one time that Iran actually stopped the program and that was when it feared U.S. military action. So when the president says that he is determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and that all options are on the table, I think that’s the right statement of policy.” Prime Minister Netanyahu has made …
Almost seven full months into 2010, the Senate might finally get around to addressing the death tax. The death tax expired on January 1 of this year, but because of a quirk in the budgeting process it will rise from the ashes in 2011 with a punitive 55 percent rate and less-than-generous $1 million exemption level unless Congress acts soon. The long delay in the Senate has lead many to conclude that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) does not want to address the death tax at all this year …
As President Obama’s Oil Spill Commission met in New Orleans, Louisiana yesterday, they were met with an unexpected surprise. Drew Landry, a Lafayette native and singer-songwriter treated the commission to a rallying cry for the people of the Gulf, and some wise advice. The Huffington Post reports: “”We definitely need other solutions, going green — whatever it takes, man,” Landry said, addressing commission co-chair Bob Graham, a former Democratic senator from Florida. “We’ve got nothing. We don’t want to be a welfare state. There’s no point in that. We’re hardworking …
In the midst of a crisis in the Gulf, some Senators are making a final push to pass energy and climate legislation this year. Senators John Kerry (D–MA) and Joe Lieberman (I–CT) are introducing a scaled-back version of their original cap-and-trade bill but still want to maintain a carbon cap. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) wants to bring an energy bill up for debate the week of July 26 that addresses the oil spill response and a greenhouse gas reduction plan for utilities only. A draft leaked from Senator …
Last week the Obama administration began rolling out new campaign titled, we kid you not, “Yes, we did.” Did what exactly? Waste nearly a trillion dollars on an economic stimulus that by every objective measure has completely failed to perform as advertised? Then yes you did. A new CBS poll out today shows that 74 percent of Americans believe the Obama stimulus either damaged the economy or had no effect. Clearly the White House is on a different planet than the rest of the country. In another dispatch from Planet …
BATON ROUGE, LA — BP has yet to make a single payment from the highly publicized $20 billion claims fund negotiated by President Obama last month at the White House. The fund, which Obama hailed as a breakthrough, is supposed to provide $5 billion by the end of the year to those impacted by the oil spill. The Pelican Institute for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in Louisiana, reports that while BP has paid $162.7 million in claims since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, that money is not part of …
The team Heritage sent to the Gulf has been reporting on what they found during their tour of the Gulf states. Last Thursday, one member of the delegation, Distinguished Fellow Ernest Istook, interviewed Loren Scott, professor emeritus at Louisiana State University on President Obama’s oil drilling moratorium. Professor Scott has garnered some attention recently for his research in to the economic cost of the President’s blanket ban. His projections were featured prominently in a Christian Science Monitor story about the ban: But how much could the moratorium really affect local …
Still in the midst of a recession, the United States finds itself at a crossroads regarding which path will lead to economic growth and job creation. There are two choices: further government involvement and a stronger role for Washington—accompanied by higher taxes and heavier regulation—or the path of less government, free enterprise, and lower taxes. With a liberal President in the White House and both houses of Congress controlled by Democrats, it may seem that the country has made its choice already. However, polling done on behalf of the U.S. …
