A growing number of Congressmen are calling for Sen. Bob Menendez to resign after being charged for a variety of crimes, including bribery. Menendez and his wife allegedly received cash, gold bars, and other assets in exchange for the Senator’s influence. The calls for Menedez to resign are a classic case of the pot calling…
Like many states, Colorado has a state-wide ban on rent control. As is happening in other states, renters and housing activists are attempting to repeal the ban. In a recent opinion piece, two Boulder residents openly admit that they are nothing more than thugs, writing that Colorado’s ban on rent control means we cannot force…
The Rent Control Board (RCB) in Santa Monica, California has come up with a unique “solution” to the city’s shortage of affordable housing—force landlords to remove their properties from the rental market. The board wants to enforce a state law—the Ellis Act—that requires landlords who evict a tenant to leave the rental market for at…
California is poised to impose new regulations for fast-food restaurants. The regulations would raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour and create a council to govern fast-food chains and set guidelines for working conditions. Demonstrating his ignorance of the source of prosperity, when he signed an earlier version of the legislation, Gov. Gavin Newsome…
Several Texas school districts have filed a lawsuit to stop implementation of a new grading system for schools. Currently, 60 percent of students must pass the College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) test for a school to receive an A. The new standard would be 88 percent. School districts are claiming that they haven’t had…
When rights are ascribed to groups, conflicts necessarily result when non-members of the favored group become victims of the alleged rights. This is true no matter which group is favored, including parents. An illuminating example comes from Florida, where advocates of “parents’ rights” have achieved many legislative victories, including an expanded school choice program. Instead…
Stacy Davis Gates, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, is being criticized for enrolling her son in a private school while opposing school choice programs. Gates has defended her hypocrisy by claiming that she and her husband were forced to enroll their son in a “private high school so he could live out his…
Opponents of school choice frequently claim that those who support vouchers and similar programs are racist. As one example, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weigarten recently compared advocates of “parents’ rights” to the segregationists of the 1950s. Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Gates Davis has called private schools “segregation academies.” Both evade the fact…
A major criticism of school choice programs is that private schools receiving tax dollars are not held accountable to taxpayers. Indeed, a Texas House committee recently released a report that recommended that transparency and accountability be a part of any school choice program. If tax dollars are going to be funneled to private schools, the…
School choice programs empower parents to select the school that is best for their children. And those programs are creating a market for the education innovators. One example is OptimaEd, a Florida based company offering a virtual-reality school. Students at the school wear a virtual-reality headset off and on for about three hours per day….
Writing for the Socialist Alternative, Varun Belor laments the failure of Seattle’s City Council to pass a rent control ordinance. Belor notes that none of the council’s eight Democrats supported the bill, and for more than forty years the Democrat dominated state legislature has upheld Washington’s ban on rent control. Democrats, Belor claims are “stooges”…
A recent article on Common Dreams, a news website serving the progressive community, claims that a lack of supply isn’t causing the housing crisis. The article claims that the United States has a surplus of housing—3.5 million more housing units than are needed. Further, a surplus exists in nearly every metropolitan area in the nation….