In case you missed it…

Sharon Rossie

The Nevada Policy Research Institute is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and you’re invited to our anniversary dinner!

We are exceptionally grateful for all the support we have seen for our mission over the years. For a quarter of a century we have fought tirelessly for a freer and more prosperous Nevada — and we couldn’t have done it without you.  

To help us celebrate, political humorist P.J. O’Rourke will be delivering the keynote address at our Anniversary Celebration on September 14th, at the Venetian | Palazzo.

Please mark your calendars, and help us celebrate this landmark anniversary! (Click here for details, or to register)

And may the next 25 years be as productive as the last!

Sincerely,

Sharon J. Rossie


In case you missed it in the news this last week:

 

Education Savings Accounts:

Isabella needed help learning English — help that her “5-star Exemplary Reward School” wasn’t giving her. Rita, Isabella’s mom, realized that something had to be done, so she looked at alternatives and found Nevada’s two new educational choice programs: Tax scholarships and Education Savings Accounts. With the tax scholarship in hand and her ESA application filed, Isabella was accepted into not one, but two of the most prestigious schools in Las Vegas. Today, she’s winning spelling bees and excelling in class — but all this progress could come crashing down if ESAs aren’t funded soon. “We’ve found the perfect fit. Without the ESA, without that $5,000 to help with tuition, what will be Isabella’s future?” (Read more)

 

ESA Oral Arguments:

ESA’s had their day in the Nevada Supreme Court. Parents arrived en masse to show support for the nation’s most inclusive and expansive educational choice program. Taliyah Johnson — a 14 year old who says ESAs are crucial to getting the education she deserves — shared her letter to the Supreme Court  with the crowd of supporters on the courthouse steps. (Read more) 

 

Labor unions:

Opting-out of a teacher union is no easy task. One teacher in Nevada has learned the hard way that the union cares more about collecting dues than they do about representing the interests of individual teachers. She tried to opt out, but failed to inform union bosses during the narrow two week window in July, and now must endure yet another year of inadequate, and unwanted, union membership. (Read more)

 

PERS:

“Public pension plans are inherently opaque, with PERS in a class of its own,” says Robert Fellner, Transparency Director for the Nevada Policy Research Institute. With the PERS board made up exclusively of PERS members, financially naïve citizen-lawmakers being bullied by unions and massive unfunded liabilities, it’s no wonder PERS is in so much trouble. So how did it get this bad? Let’s start at the beginning… (Read more)

 

Energy:

Start rationing your electricity use. If the EPA has its way, your electricity bill is about to skyrocket. A recent study by Heritage Foundation economists estimates that “green-energy” regulations will increase household spending on electricity between 13 and 20 percent over the next 20 years. (Read more)