Daily Archives: June 27, 2012

In a new study titled “OECD Economic Surveys: United States,” researchers at the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) argue that the United States needs to make structural changes to its system of public schools or risk losing its economic competitiveness. I do not agree with a majority of the OECD recommendations, but theyContinue Reading

The Obama administration has launched a Race to the Top competition for school districts (RTT-D).  School districts will compete for $400 million in federal moola. Previously, only states could apply for Race to the Top (RttT) funds.  North Carolina received a four-year, $400 million RttT grant in 2010. Whiteboard Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting andContinue Reading

The top leaders in the N.C. House and Senate urged Gov. Beverly Perdue this morning to tell them whether she plans to sign their state budget plan, veto it, or allow it to become law without her signature. State House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, explained their positionContinue Reading

John Stossel doesn’t like racial discrimination any more than you do, but his latest column explains why discrimination in other forms can be a good thing. Even Bill O’Reilly lectures me that government should ban discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions. Most Americans agree with him. Who likes discrimination? Racial discrimination was one of theContinue Reading

Responding to several pundits’ recent arguments in favor of mandatory voting, Jonah Goldberg‘s latest column offers a different perspective on the idea. Let’s start with the repugnant part. One of the chief benefits of coerced voting, according to [former Obama budget director Peter] Orszag, is that it increases participation. Well, yes, and kidnapping drunks inContinue Reading

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute devotes his latest National Review Online column to the stakes associated with this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the challenged to the federal health care reform law. Americans respond positively to parts of the law that appear to give them more benefits or that help the disadvantaged, especiallyContinue Reading

Victor Davis Hanson‘s latest column for National Review Online dissects President Obama’s penchant for self-contradiction. A sign of an undisciplined mind is serial lapses into self-contradiction, or blurting out a thought only to refute it entirely on a later occasion. For a president to do that is to erode public confidence and eventually render allContinue Reading

• National Journal‘s Hotline ranks the North Carolina governor’s race the nation’s most likely to see a change in party control … meaning Pat McCrory would defeat Walter Dalton.   • Dalton on Tuesday issued a statement urging Gov. Bev Perdue to veto the state budget. “This budget deprives our people of opportunity and willContinue Reading