Typically when the government and business get together, it’s the consumer who ends up paying. So when Washington, D.C.’s Department of the Environment (DDOE) teamed up with Patuxent Environmental Group (PEG) and other contractors to provide “free” energy audits, of course it didn’t end well for the consumer. But most residents didn’t realize that PEG would place liens on their houses for not paying for the audit. Let’s start from the beginning. For the past two years, the D.C. government has been contracting out to inspectors to investigate where homeowners …
A new study released this week by the Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences found that participation in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program “raised a student’s probability of completing high school by 12 percentage points, from 70 percent to 82 percent, based on parent reports.” The news is a victory for school choice and education reform advocates across the country. Patrick Wolf, lead researcher at the University of Arkansas School Choice Demonstration Project, said: These results are important because high school graduation is strongly associated with a large number …
While two brutal snowstorms pounded the Washington, DC, area, the government was busy wasting money to the tune of $100 million a day. Extreme weather conditions forced the government to close for four and a half days straight, costing tax payers $450 million in lost productivity, according to a Fox News report. Wondering how much $100 million really is for the government? Last spring, when President Barack Obama ordered his cabinet secretaries to cut $100 million in spending, Heritage’s Ken McIntyre took a look at what $100 million really means. …
From the opening scenes of “Tea Party: The Documentary Film,” one thing is perfectly clear: the “Tea Party” movement is not about Republicans or Democrats; it’s about ordinary Americans shocked into action by their government’s intervention in the market, Wall Street bailouts, and a path toward national health care. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2qil4Swcew[/youtube] That action took the form of a grassroots movement of men and women across the country, motivated to take back their government and make their voices heard to their representatives in Washington. In “Tea Party: The Documentary Film,” that story …
The Senate is currently considering legislation that would give the District of Columbia a voting member in the House of Representatives. The legislation is patently unconstitutional, which should end the debate at the outset. But it is important to note that it is unconstitutional not simply because it was written that way in a musty old 18th Century document. In this instance, the Constitution’s text is not an anachronism, something well suited for the late 18th Century but no longer applicable in contemporary times. The Founders certainly knew that the Constitution would not allow D.C. to have …
Under No Child Left Behind, thousands of public school students in the District are eligible to transfer out of their low-performing public school system into a better public school. But the Washington Post reports today that only 34 students have currently applied for a transfer. The story highlights both the limits of the NCLB public school choice option and the need for greater school choice options for D.C. families. Giving families the right to transfer their children out of low-performing public schools was one of the promising provisions of No …
The Washington Post calls out the D.C. government for its continued hostility towards the school choice movement: ANYONE LOOKING for a symbol of the contempt that D.C. officials show toward charter schools need go no further than 2501 11th St. NW. There sits the shuttered Meyer Elementary School. Three blocks away is a crowded charter school that desperately wants to lease the building. Instead, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration is turning the facility over to the Department of Public Works. The charter school wasn’t even allowed to state its case. …
With more than 100 House Republicans voting for a farm bill that betrays every conservative principle about governing, it is no wonder conservatives are disillusioned about Republican prospects this November. However, while liberals are already scoring victories for protectionism, judicial activism, and union power, there has been one bright spot for conservative ideas and policy: parental choice in education. Since liberals are currently in control of Congress, the biggest gains in education reform are happening in the states. Most recently in Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) signed a law creating …
