In case you missed it…

 

The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel headlines NPRI’s Spring Celebration!

Save the date! On May 24th, NPRI’s Spring Celebration in Reno will host the amazing Kimberly Strassel as our keynote speaker. Kim — a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal and the author of The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech —routinely appears on nightly cable news programs as a guest and commentator. It’s going to be a great night, and tickets are now available. So don’t miss out! We hope to see you there. Click here to register.

 

Educational choice

The public education establishment endlessly calls for increasing per-pupil funding for public schools — claiming such increases would cure what ails the current system. Well, what if states could increase per-pupil funding without raising taxes or increasing public spending? The truth is, such a system already exists. It’s called school choice. In fact, as NPRI’s latest study demonstrates, if Nevada’s only funded school-choice program — Opportunity Tax Scholarships — were expanded to cover 5 percent of the population, the benefit to traditional public schools would be the same as a $116 million increase in funding. And it can all be done without a single dime in tax hikes or increased spending! (Read the study here.) As NPRI Policy Analyst Daniel Honchariw writes, “who could possibly be opposed to that?” (Read more)

 

National politics

Thanks to the budget deal just signed by President Trump this week, America now is an additional $2 trillion in debt just one year after Republicans took control of the House, Senate and White House. Many fiscal conservatives have criticized he budget deal for not only its massive size, but also because it funds partisan Democrat spending priorities — including a $900-million tunnel boondoggle in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s New York backyard. The final price tag for this week’s spending-splurge budget is a whopping $1.3 trillion — and that doesn’t even include entitlement funding or interest payments. (Read more)

 

Capitalism

It’s no secret that large numbers of millennials are neglecting to save for retirement. Some two-thirds don’t even have a savings account. A big reason is that student debt, rising healthcare costs and expensive housing are consuming more and more of the millennials’ paychecks. Additionally, many appear to believe they won’t actually need to save for retirement. Blaming capitalism for their current financial woes, many are betting that the USA will transform into a socialist worker’s paradise by the time retirement comes around. “Not only am I not saving for retirement,” one millennial told Salon, “I have never had a serious job, because I have thought capitalism would be f—-d by [the time I retire]…” Growing up is going to be tough for some of these folks. (Read more)

 

Cronyism

Facebook has been in hot water recently for a variety of reasons. There’s an unease among users over how their information is being used, the “newsfeed” and other features continue to disappoint expectations on a regular basis and First Amendment concerns continue to crop up as the tech giant attempts to deal with “fake news.” And so, in many ways, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now encouraging the government to begin regulating social media. His regulatory push is certainly less about preserving the “integrity” of his industry, and more about preserving the dominance of his tech empire. Nick Gillespie of Reason.com explains the pattern well, noting that “the ‘market entrepreneur,’ who makes a fortune by providing a new or improved service at a great price, almost inevitably evolves into the ‘political entrepreneur,’ who uses regulation and other connections to stay on top.” (Read more)

 

Continuing series on special education

Don’t miss the latest installment of Fixing Special Ed, NPRI Senior VP Steve Miller’s in-depth series documenting the abuse, law-breaking and deception that all too frequently still today characterizes public-school districts’ administration of special education. There’s a simple, cultural reason why public schools tend to ignore the needs and wants of special-needs students, and it’s an attitude that has been around since the 19th century. It’s also an important reason these families need an escape hatch from the de facto monopoly of government-provided education. (Read the series here)