May 10, 2013
It’s Friday!
The Foundation’s Web site, www.georgiapolicy.org, is up and running again, with a few minor glitches still being worked on. We apologize for any inconvenience; please drop us a note at if you experience any difficulties.
Quotes of Note
“Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants” – Alexander Hamilton
“The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold on us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.” – Thomas Jefferson
“If our educational institutions – from the schools to the universities – were as interested in a diversity of ideas as they are obsessed with racial diversity, students would at least gain experience in seeing the assumptions behind different visions and the role of logic and evidence in debating those differences. Instead, a student can go all the way from elementary school to a Ph.D. without encountering any fundamentally different vision of the world from that of the prevailing political correctness.” – Thomas Sowell
Events
May 23: Education entrepreneur and turnaround expert Sajan George keynotes the Foundation’s May 23 Leadership Breakfast, “The Future of Education.” 8 a.m. at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. $25. For information and registration, go to www.georgiapolicy.org/?p=9155.
June 6: Michael B. Horn, co-founder and executive director of the education practice at the Clayton Christensen Institute, keynotes the Foundation’s June 6 Leadership Breakfast, “Customize The Class.” 8 a.m. at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. Horn will share how innovation can disrupt the factory-based education system and transform learning into a student-centric approach where all students can achieve their full potential. $25. Register at http://tinyurl.com/7ldaqnk.
July 11: Mark your calendar! Education expert Jay Greene will be the keynote speaker for the Foundation’s annual Friedman Legacy event, which will take place in Athens this year. Details to follow.
Opportunity
Got students? The Foundation officially launched its Student Outreach Scholarship (SOS) Program at the April 23 Leadership Breakfast. Tax-deductible contributions from Foundation supporters cover the charge for qualified students to attend events, giving them an opportunity to hear national speakers on free-market ideas and to network with Georgia’s business, community and political leaders. Find out how to apply and contribute at https://live-gppf.pantheonsite.io/?p=9167.
Education
The case for school choice: A new report reveals that middle-class America, usually thought to be on par with a world-class education, falls short in providing the educational quality that other developed countries provide. America Achieves analyzed the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results and a new internationally benchmarked pilot test involving 105 American high schools. It reports that middle-class U.S. students lag behind 24 countries in math and 15 countries in science. America Achieves concludes it’s not poverty but education standards dragging down students.
The academic case for school choice: Twelve empirical studies have examined academic outcomes for school choice participants using random assignment, the “gold standard” of social science. Of these, 11 find that choice improves student outcomes – six that all students benefit and five that some benefit and some are not affected. One study finds no visible impact. No empirical study has found a negative impact. Find out more about school choice results at the Foundation’s Web site.
Health care
Transparency clears the air: There is enormous variation among hospital charges for the 100 most common inpatient procedures, according to new data released by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. Hospitals have long guarded their prices in the name of competitive advantage, but the practice thwarts consumer-driven health care, which thrives on transparency in cost and quality. The data show that even hospitals across the street from one another or in the same neighborhood have drastically different prices, highlighting the challenges consumers face in valuing and paying for health care. Source: Washington Post
It’s just numbers: Linda Gorman notes in an article for the National Center of Policy Analysis that a recent study in Oregon shows that extending Medicaid to low-income adults did not improve basic clinical measures of health. “Given that, it is a bit hard to see how being uninsured can cause 45,000 premature deaths every year – a figure rivaling the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. That’s the number physicians for a National Health Program say die prematurely in America due to a lack of health insurance.” Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/d9yrb6s.
Taxes and spending
Y’all come on down! The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), one of the nation’s oldest free-market organizations, is dedicated to inspiring, educating and connecting future leaders with the economic, ethical and legal principles of a free society. FEE officially relocated its headquarters to Atlanta this week. President Lawrence Reed notes that the organization founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read has moved from New York, which was ranked last in the Tax Foundation’s list of business-friendly states.
Media and social media
Foundation in the News: Thursday’s edition of The Chattanooga Times Free Press quoted Benita Dodd and Dr. Christine Ries, a Foundation Senior Fellow, in an article on tax reform in Georgia.
Join us! The Foundation’s Facebook page has 2,040 “likes” at facebook.com/GeorgiaPolicy and 960 Twitter followers at twitter.com/gppf.
This Week in The Forum: Kelly McCutchen reports on, “School Choice: What Does the Latest Research Show?” Benita Dodd’s, “Checking Up on Health,” highlights genetically modified babies, a cure for gray hair and physicians’ response to the Affordable care Act. Find these and other posts in The Forum, the Foundation’s blog, at georgiapolicy.org/category/the-forum/.
Visit www.georgiapolicy.org to read our latest commentary, “A Lasting Solution to the Transportation Funding Dilemma,” by Kenneth Orski.
Have a great weekend.
Kelly McCutchen and Benita Dodd
FRIDAY FACTS is made possible by the generosity of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s donors. If you enjoy the FRIDAY FACTS, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to help advance our important mission by clicking here. Visit our Web site at www.georgiapolicy.org. Join The Forum at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org/. Become a fan of the Foundation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/gppf.
