It’s Friday!
What they’re saying about the Foundation: Watch Nick Dranias of the Goldwater Institute credit the Foundation for helping educate Georgians about a Balanced Budget Amendment.
Quotes of Note
“I see, … and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. … It is but too evident that the three ruling branches of [the Federal government] are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic.” – Thomas Jefferson
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” – James Madison
Events
March 26: Join Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Kyle Wingfield and Eric Cochling, vice president of Policy Development at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, at the Foundation’s 8 a.m. Leadership Breakfast, “Georgia Legislative Roundup.” The discussion at Cobb County’s Georgian Club will focus on the 2014 Georgia Legislative Session and the General Assembly’s business on tap for 2015. This event is open to the public and is $25 to attend: Find out more and register at http://tinyurl.com/mqaeq9h.
Technology
Answer: $3.56 million. Question: How much would an iPhone have cost in 1991? Source: American Enterprise Institute
Energy and Environment
Pocketbooks and public health: The Environmental Protection Agency has announced tougher Tier 3 standards for fuel and vehicle emissions beginning in. The standards would cut sulfur in gasoline to 10 parts per million from the current 30 ppm and reduce tailpipe emissions. Energy companies, which predict a 10-cent-per-gallon gas price hike, say the regulations’ benefits are insignificant.
Education
Choice I: Congratulations to Centennial Place Elementary School, which is the first conversion charter school to be approved by the Atlanta Public School Board.
Choice II: Senior Fellow Eric Wearne wrote recently about a German family seeking asylum in the United states so they could continue to homeschool their children. The Department of Justice wanted to deport them. This week the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, but a reprieve came when the Department of Homeland Security has decided to stay the deportation order.
SAT I: The College Board is providing the first details of its newly redesigned SAT. Major changes to the college-entrance exam include an emphasis on citing evidence to support answers, coverage of fewer math topics, and a move to an optional essay section. According to Education Week, as described the new SAT appears to bear some strong similarities to the Common Core State Standards. Find a chart that outlines the planned changes to the SAT, and parallels to the Common Core, here.
SAT II: Soon, students will be able to prepare for the SAT by going on an online “SAT quest,” complete with custom practice problems, instructional videos, and tailored feedback offered by the popular nonprofit learning Web site, Khan Academy, in partnership with the College Board, which administers the SAT. This is described as an opportunity to level the highly competitive – and often expensive – playing field of SAT test-preparation. Founded in 2008, Khan Academy has 10 million users per month.
Taxes and spending
Going nowhere fast: The most important thing to know about President Obama’s $3.9 budget request is that it won’t go anywhere, according to the Reason Foundation, which calls it “an election-year wish list.” “It’s not intended to, and the White House isn’t even bothering to pretend otherwise.”
Breaking another promise, President Obama’s budget request allocates no funding to the crucial deepening of Georgia’s Savannah Harbor. Gov. Nathan Deal has vowed Georgia will go it alone. “Vice President Biden promised in the past year that we’d get this project done come ‘hell or high water,’ but it’s more accurate to say the administration is going to put us through the former to get to the latter,” Deal said.
Pre-K funding: President Obama’s budget would allocate at least $750 million for universal pre-school. “Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education,” the president said. “I am again calling on the Congress to make high-quality preschool available to every 4-year-old child.” In fact, research on the issue is inconclusive, at best. The Brookings Institution reports a study found pre-K had “no overall impact.”
Health care
Affordable? A 45-state study from the National Center for Public Policy Research found that there were more and cheaper options available on Web sites outside the health insurance exchange in 2013 than on healthcare.gov and state ObamaCare exchanges. Source: National Examiner
Media
Web site of the week: http://foundationofpatriotism.org is the Web site of the Georgia-based National Foundation of Patriotism, dedicated to increasing awareness of the meaning, message and mission of patriotism in America, and its relevance in the daily lives of its citizens.
Social media: View some of the photographs from our March 5 Annual Dinner, keynoted by Daniel Garza of the LIBRE Initiative, on the Foundation’s Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/p8np3au. The Foundation has 2,222 “likes” on Facebook, more than 1,150 Twitter followers, and has more than 43,000 views on the Foundation’s YouTube channel. Upcoming: YouTube coverage of the Annual Dinner!
The Forum: Benita Dodd’s Checking Up On Health this week shares another Whole Foods’ tale, more about ObamaCare enrollments and delays, and why hospital inpatient prices differ. Read this and other recent posts at georgiapolicy.org/category/the-forum/.
Visit www.georgiapolicy.org to read our latest commentary, “Concierge Care for the Little Guy,” by Jordan Bruneau.
Have a great weekend!
Kelly McCutchen and Benita Dodd
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