School Teachers and the Crisis in Math and ScienceCenter for American ProgressTeachers who teach math and science should understand math and science. Here’s how to make sure they do. Does Limited Government Mean Abandoning the Poor?Heritage FoundationWe’re spending $1 trillion a year to fight poverty. It doesn’t work. Civil society could do a better job.…

Liberals love to talk about discrimination and racism. When they can’t prove racist intent on the part of individuals, they blame “institutional racism.” How do they know when institutional racism exists? When there is disparate impact. Thus, when a company in my home town like the (now departed) Circuit City promoted disproportionately more whites than…

Trying to take advantage of consumer unease over gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, Virginia Republicans are trying to reopen lease sales offshore the Old Dominion to oil companies. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor are trying to reverse the Obama Administration’s decision to delay a lease sale off the Virginia coast…

The Ryan Plan Would Whack Children, the Elderly, the Disabled and Pregnant WomenCenter on Budget and Policy PrioritiesRep. Paul Ryan’s plan to transform Medicaid to a program that guarantees coverage to one that would issue block grants to states would result in states distributing cuts to society’s most vulnerable groups. Election Day Registration in CaliforniaDemosEnacting…

A deteriorating balance of trade with Mexico since enactment of NAFTA in 1994 has cost the U.S. economy 683,000 jobs and Virginia 13,100 jobs, asserts a new paper by the Economic Policy Institute, “Heading South: U.S.-Mexico trade and job displacement after NAFTA.“ Before the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. enjoyed a small balance-of-trade…

The stereotype of “chocolate city and vanilla suburbs” is fast eroding, argues William H. Frey in a new report, “Melting Pot Cities and Suburbs,” based on data from the 2010 United States census. Minorities, especially Hispanics, are fueling population growth in a wider array of places, including suburbs in all parts of the country. Meanwhile,…

Are Community Colleges the Future of Higher Ed?John William Pope Center for Higher Education PolicyCommunity colleges, focused on instruction, deliver far more value than colleges and universities, which pursue multiple agendas. Cops + Professors = Better Law EnforcementRand CorporationThe Caruth Police Institute in Dallas: smarter policemen makes better crime fighters. Prison Inmates: Ideal Citizens (for…

Jamie Radtke, who is running for Jim Webb’s U.S. Senate seat, has criticized the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for recent decisions it has made relating to the Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project. Specifically, the board approved an underground station that would cost millions of dollars more than an above-ground alternative and agreed that anyone bidding on…

The killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden is a major victory for President Barack Obama, showing, once again, that maybe he is ready for the presidency after all. The last phrase is facetious because all the pundits, especially on the right side of the aisle, constantly raise questions about his experience, his world view and…

Obama’s New “Urban Manufacturing” PushThe Urban InstituteFederal policy needs to support state-regional initiatives to support Small Urban Manufacturing enterprises (SUMs), which are a major source of innovation and job creation. D.C. School Choice Works – with CaveatsThe Urban InstituteSchool choice programs in Washington, D.C., do provide disadvantaged students options to improve their educations, but they…

I have been fortunate to become friends with a remarkable young man, Awer Bul, who is a refugee from the southern Sudan. Born into the Dinka tribe, he was raised with a family of cattle herders. He remembers living happily and blissfully unaware of the outside world until the Sudanese civil war reached his village.…

Have tax-free municipal bonds outlived their usefulness? I would argue that they have. The tax exemption for municipal bonds has been around since 1913, when the federal income tax was established. Its purpose was to comply with the current thinking in constitutional law, which prohibited the federal government from taxing state or municipal financial instruments.…

(As published in today’s Washington Times). I have a vision of hell. There are no pitchfork-wielding demons flitting about, no lava pools vomiting pitch, no goateed Lucifer polishing his horns. The devil is dressed in a button-down shirt and gray suit. He is a GS-12 official for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and his minions…

In two actions destined to set blood to boiling and jugular veins to bulging on the left, Attorney Ken Cuccinelli is once again resisting the overreach of the imperial, I mean, federal government. First, the Cooch has asked the U.S. Office of Surface Mining to back off its aggressive regulation of surface mining. The agency…

The Benefits of Electric Power CompetitionNational Center for Policy AnalysisStates that have fostered electric-power competition have seen more capital investment, more adaptability to shifts in demand and fuel costs, greater innovation in services offered, and greater use of renewable fuels. Last time I checked, Virginia was re-regulating the electric power industry!