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June 25, 2010

It's Friday!

Quotable
- "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." -- James Madison

Education
- "Giving struggling students the option to attend private schools reduces stresses and costs on the public school system," says a recent Tampa Bay Tribune editorial on Florida's Tax Credit Scholarship. A recent study found 'public schools' performance improved when they were faced with the possibility of losing students to private schools. ... A legislative report estimated the corporate scholarships save taxpayers $39 million a year because the state would otherwise spend about $7,000 a year on each student. When federal and local taxes are also included, the figure is $12,000. The primary goal of the scholarship program is to give poor students more choices. But Figlio's findings indicate in education, as in commerce, competition improves performance."  (Georgia has a similar tax credit scholarship program.)
- Charter schools, which are public schools allowed greater flexibility in exchange for meeting certain academic performance measures, provide choice in education that makes the difference to many at-risk students. Watch this video from today's NBC "Today Show" to see what school choice can do. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/37896223#37896223

Economy
- Georgia's Constitution requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget each year. If  not for that, legislators could well have delayed  tough budget-cutting decisions until after the election. The U.S. Congress seems to have more leeway, unfortunately: Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced this week that the U.S. House of Representatives will not pass a budget blueprint in 2010. Georgians' saving grace is that, unlike at the federal level, Georgia's Constitution mandates that the state budget cannot exceed expected revenues and there is a limit on how much debt the state is allowed to issue. Source: thehill.com

Health
- More people are likely to turn to the emergency room for health care and they are likely to do so more frequently under the new health reform legislation. This finding is surprising because an oft-repeated argument for insuring the uninsured is that it will allow people to seek less costly and more accessible care elsewhere, says John C. Goodman, President of the National Center for Policy Analysis. Emergency room costs will increase for two reasons, says Goodman: About half the newly insured will enroll in Medicaid, and Medicaid patients seek emergency room care more often than the uninsured. While the newly insured will try to increase their consumption of care, the absence of any program to create more providers will force patients to turn to emergency rooms as the outlet for increased demand.  

Transportation
- Who's on the hook when toll roads fail? When the private sector is involved, the taxpayers are safe, says Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation. He cites an example of this risk-transfer in action in San Diego County, Calif. "The South Bay Expressway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy several months ago, after only two years in operation. Why? One reason is that its traffic projections were based on a continuation of the real estate boom that was under way in Southern California when the road was financed. When the housing bubble burst, and the economy tanked, so did traffic levels (and hence, revenue) on the new toll road. Its other problem is that its construction contractor went way over budget, and the firms have been fighting over who is responsible for the cost overruns. The only point that is not in contention in the toll road's bankruptcy proceeding is who will NOT be called on to bail the company out: the taxpayers. Because both construction risk and traffic and revenue risk were willingly taken on by the company and its investors, they are the ones who will take the losses."

- Visit www.gppf.org to read the Foundation's latest commentary, "Consumerism: the Cure for Health Care Ills," by Ronald E. Bachman.

Have a great weekend.

Kelly McCutchen

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