First it was prohibition (subsequently repealed). Later came big tobacco. And big food, with McDonalds, under public pressure, announcing that you won’t be able to supersize your orders anymore. Now government officials (perhaps with trial lawyers not far behind) are after a new target: Big Joe. Mike Johanns, governor of Nebraska, isn’t content with overseeing that state’s multi-billion dollar budget and thousands of employees. No, […]
John LaPlante
About John LaPlante
Posts by John LaPlante:
Outsourcing Out of Control?
I’ve been meaning to write some things about outsourcing, or as it is sometimes called these days, off-shoring. I’ve also resisted doing so. One reason: it’s not exactly an issue of state-level policy, which I focus on here. There are plenty of other things to keep me occupied. Another reason: there’s not much that can be done about it. Sure, states can make symbolic gestures–no […]
TIME For Socialism
The February 2 issue of TIME hit a relative’s mailbox yesterday, where I picked it up while doing some housesitting. The cover story on the prescription drug controversy (motto: We want drugs, we want them cheap.) is an exercise in populism, economic ignorance, and socialism. To read the whole treatment online, you either have to be a subscriber, or read it through a library or […]
“Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”?
Today’s Wall Street Journal takes on the ultra-secularist grinches who are “trying their best to strip from our public squares any hint of what most Americans will actually be celebrating come Christmas morn.” The latest tactic: renaming Christmas trees as “holiday trees.” Not having an established church is fine, and solidly grounded in the Constitution. But the matter has gone to absurd lengths. As the Journal […]
Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News
This post doesn’t have much to do with policy, though it is about one of my favorite essays on higher education and status. Jay Nordlinger wrestles with this question: should you call a person with a Ph.D. a doctor, or is that an affectation? I’m thinking of this on the occasion of fellow policy guru David Hogberg earning his Ph.D. this week. (Look over to “Cornfield […]
Keeping These Teams is Too Expensive
In the run-up to Saturday’s election in Louisiana, one candidate for the state senate lambasted her opponent for supporting the use of taxpayer dollars to support the New Orleans Saints. According to ESPN, “she said the team needed defensive backs, offensive linemen and a backup running back more than state money.” I don’t follow the NFL that much, let alone the Saints, but she is right […]
Do You Know How Much Your Health Insurance Premiums Are?
The Kaiser Family foundation has a new edition of their annual report on employer-sponsored health benefits. Here’s a link (PDF) to the summary. The survey finds that the average premium per employee for single coverage is $3,383 per year; for family coverage, it is $9,068. For single coverage, employees pay $508 a year (15 percent of the total), with employers paying $2,875 (85 percent). For family […]
Do it for the teachers
Negotiations to bring 15 more charter schools to Michigan have hit an impasse. Meanwhile, 3,000 people protested the proposal outside the capitol. The Detroit Free Press said of the crowed “many of them teachers,” but I suspect the percentage was close to 100 percent, and if not teachers, then their allies in other unions or the education establishment.
Are schools for students … or teachers?
Michigan politicians are negotiating the expansion of the state’s charter law, a move that would allow another 15 charter schools in Detroit. The teachers union responds by … organizing a protest that draws so many teachers out of the classroom that the school system sends students home.
More charter schools in Michigan
An agreement has been reached in Michigan to expand the number of charter schools–currently maxed out at 150 (the existing cap)–by 135. Showing that school boards of existing governments schools are as much of an obstacle to reform as the teachers unions, the director of the Michigan Association of School Boards says that his group is “dead set against this. We’d be pouring more money down […]