State Highway Projects Hit Roadblock

Nearly $83 million intended for highway projects has been delayed which may hinder multiple projects around the state; such as, the crosstown expressway in Oklahoma City and I-44 reconstruction in Tulsa. The problem affecting the budget is the fact that consumers are purchasing less fuel, therefore less federal tax money is being received on fuel purchases.

In the September 2007 issue of Perspective, Robert W. Poole, Jr. addressed the need for Oklahoma legislators to turn towards private enterprise as a source of capital for funding. Click here to read his interesting article entitled Enterprise Zone.

Markets vs. Monopolies in Education

By Andrew Coulson

Would large-scale, free-market reforms improve educational outcomes for American children? That question cannot be answered by looking at domestic evidence alone. Though innumerable "school choice" programs have been implemented around the United States, none has created a truly free and competitive education marketplace. Existing programs are too small, too restriction laden, or both. To understand how genuine market forces affect school performance, we must cast a wider net, surveying education systems from all over the globe. The present paper undertakes such a review, assessing the results of 25 years of international research comparing market and government provision of education, and explaining why these international experiences are relevant to the United States.

In more than one hundred statistical comparisons covering eight different educational outcomes, the private sector outperforms the public sector in the overwhelming majority of cases. Moreover, that margin of superiority is greatest when the freest and most market-like private schools are compared to the least open and least competitive government systems (i.e., those resembling a typical U.S. public school system). Given the breadth, consistency, relevance, and decisiveness of this body of evidence, the implications for U.S. education policy are profound. Read More!

Millennials Are the Future of Freedom

By Brett Magbee

America is divided between two ways of thinking about government, perhaps more now than at any time in our history. One reason for this division is generational. Conservative, free market thinkers have not done an adequate job of finding ways to communicate our ideas to the young. That leaves this important part of our population exposed as targets for anti-capitalists to teach governing ideas and philosophies that simply don't work in the real world -- ideas which will lead us away from freedom.

Recently, I was talking with some young college age students and realized my references to Ronald Reagan's public policy successes while president didn't connect.   I was at first puzzled and found myself backtracking a bit to explain further when I realized that these students weren't even born when Reagan was president. Nor did they know about the "malaise" our nation suffered through in the 1970's due, in part, to the failed big government policies of the previous Carter administration. My examples were, therefore, without much impact. It got me to thinking. . .

Just how do we reach out to the next generation and explain free market principles? In examining this important demographic, here's some initial thoughts: 1) We should start understanding what motivates youth and find ways to link their interests to free market ideas. 2) We should demonstrate in creative ways how the ideas of Bastiat, Hayek, von Mises and Freidman are still relevant today. 3) We should use the same technologies the youth use, to reach them. 4) We should network with them to work on noble, yet tangible goals. 5) We should keep messages compelling. 6) We should persist. Read MORE!