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The
Greatest Scandal
Wall Street Journal
The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal. The differences between the two
Presidential candidates on this could hardly be more stark. John McCain is calling for alternatives to the system; Barack Obama wants the kids to
stay
within that system. We think the facts support Senator McCain.
"Parents ask only for schools that are safe, teachers who are competent and diplomas that open doors of opportunity," said Mr. McCain in remarks
recently to the NAACP. "When a public system fails, repeatedly, to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of
their children." Some parents may opt for a better public school or a charter school; others for a private school. The point, said the Senator, is
that "no entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity."
Mr. McCain cited the Washington, D.C., Opportunity Scholarship Program, a federally financed school-choice program for disadvantaged kids signed into
law by President Bush in 2004. Qualifying families in the District of Columbia receive up to $7,500 a year to attend private K-12 schools. To
qualify,
a child must live in a family with a household income below 185% of the poverty level. Some 1,900 children participate; 99% are black or Hispanic.
Average annual income is just over $22,000 for a family of four. Read MORE!
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Government Is Our Problem
Bill Steigerwald
On Jan. 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address to a nation battered by high inflation, punitive taxes and a stagnant economy,
he said famously, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
"Yeah, right!" said all the sophisticated socialists in politics and media who assumed Reagan knew and cared as little as they did about limited
government, free market capitalism and individual freedom.
Reagan's libertarian rhetoric was better than his actual governance or his ability to derail or even downsize the speeding train of Big Government.
But his complaint about government is truer than ever.
Behind virtually every major social problem, financial crisis or corruption scandal that afflicts us lies the heavy hand or leaden foot of
government, which today in all its levels gobbles up more than 50 percent of our annual GDP and controls more of our lives than ever. Read MORE!
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OCPA FaxLine Report
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Price Controls: A Bad (Really Bad) Public Policy
By: Brett Magbee
Last week I reminded readers of FaxLine Report why the suggestion of returning to a national speed
limit of 55 miles per hour is a bad idea. This week another idea from the "tried it and it failed" collection is explored. (Policy makers apparently
like recycling bad policy ideas and we citizens fall for
it.)
Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist for the Gallup organization, pointed out on May 28th some interesting trends emerging among Americans. Over the past
year, the percentage of those surveyed blaming the oil companies for skyrocketing gas prices fell from 34% to 20%; the percentage pointing to oil
refinery problems fell from 16% to 9%; and those attributing the increase in prices to problems in the Middle East and the Iraq war fell from 13% to
8%. Meanwhile, support for drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas (now off limits) is 57%. Read MORE!
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Read
what's in July's issue of Perspective.
Read O-CHIP: Oklahoma's Comprehensive
Health Independence Plan.
August 28th:
Judicial reform talk with Andrew Spiropolous
September 18th: OCPA Liberty Gala with Ed Meese at the Tulsa Renaissance.
Please visit the events section of our website for more information.
OCPA has launched the second phase of our Capital Campaign. To learn more about how you can
get involved click here.
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