School Choice Advances (elsewhere)
Here’s a newsworthy item from the Wall Street Journal:
“In Little Rock, [Arkansas] new Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is following through on her reform promise after bringing on a member of Florida’s successful education team as her education secretary. On Thursday the state Senate passed a bill for education savings accounts on a 25-7 vote”.
Spirit of America
As some of you may recall, I have for several years offered my prime candidate for a nonpartisan nonpolitical charitable contribution: Spirit of America.
Nuclear Regulation's Perverse Incentives
One of my go-to guys on nuclear energy is Jack Devanney, now retired after forty years managing nuclear projects and wrestling with nuclear regulators. Here’s his latest insight:
California Truckers vs. Unions
Will Swaim has an article in National Review that alarms me. It’s about the state of California driving out independent truckers. This is especially relevant for me because 41 years ago I wrote candidate Ronald Reagan’s speech to an independent truckers convention in Illinois.
Germany’s Coming Electricity Shortfall
Here’s an important headline from Die Welt, a leading German newspaper. “Energy Transition Farce Continues in Germany: Regulators, fearing power outages, announce plans to ration power for environmentally friendly, state-promoted electric vehicles and heat pump.”
Senators consider 55mph speed limits, gas guzzler tax and “Saving the World”
The climateers on the Senate Natural Resource and Energy Committee – that would be all five of them, Democrats, handpicked – seem to be getting desperate that Vermont is falling behind its completely arbitrary path toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050. Already they are thinking up new ways to make Vermonters suffer to make us comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement, that practically zero other countries are complying with.
Facial recognition threat to privacy rights
Last month Kelly Conlon arrived with her daughter's Girl Scout troop to watch a performance at Radio City Music Hall, but she abruptly was denied entry. Why? Conlon works for a law firm that Radio City’s parent company had blacklisted. Conlon was found out for an even more surprising reason: the venue's use of facial recognition technology.
Governor Scott Endorses School Choice week
Last week Gov. Phil Scott issued an executive proclamation recognizing this week as National School Choice Week. Its key clauses were “it is important for parents in Vermont to explore and identify the best education options available to their children; and research demonstrates providing children with multiple education options improves academic performance; and School Choice Week is a national celebration recognized by millions of students, parents, educators, schools and community leaders for the purpose of raising public awareness of the importance of effective education options for children.
Sloppy Climate Change Thinking from the Washington Post
A January 9 article in the Washington Post exemplified the sloppy reporting endemic to the debate over what the enviros and the media call “climate change.”
ACLU Lobbying to End School Choice in Vermont
Montpelier – As the Vermont legislature gears up for lawmaking in 2023, a big issue in the education arena is what to do about Vermont’s 150-year-old school choice system known as “tuitioning” following the Carson v. Makin US Supreme Court decision. Makin ruled that if a state offers a school choice program, as Vermont does, it cannot discriminate against religious schools from participating in the program.