Policy Review articles from May 1997

Policy Review archives from May 1997

San Francisco's Chinese wall.
May 1, 1997... In 1866, California enacted a racist law allowing the state superintendent of education to withhold funding from schools that enrolled Chinese children. More than a hundred years later, some schoolhouse doors are still closed to...

When saving doesn't pay. (high taxation of minors)
May 1, 1997... My daughter Lee pays taxes at a higher marginal rate than Bill Gates. She's not a trial attorney, nor a surgeon, nor a recording star. Rather, she's an 18-year-old with a ponytail, a part-time job, and a 4-H project, and she's going to college...

Mrs. Colehill thanks God for private social security. (Texas widow Wendy Colehill)
May 1, 1997... Opponents of plans to privatize the Social Security system often exploit the fear of the unknown. Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in October 1994, for instance, union official Gerald Shea criticized such privatization...

Teachers union faces a PAC attack. (political action committee)
May 1, 1997... Two months ago, in a quiet, rural corner of Washington, grade-school teacher Jeff Leer opened a startling letter from his union. "Dear Mr. Leer," the letter began. "I am the general counsel for the Washington Education Association...

Tough medicine for welfare moms.
May 1, 1997... Jay and his eight-months-pregnant wife, Connie, both former crack users, moved into a temporary apartment managed by the Interfaith Housing Coalition, an employment and housing program for homeless families in Dallas. Within a week, Jay had...

The quota czars. (racial quotas)(Cover Story)
May 1, 1997... The Civil Rights Act of 1964 "No person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subject to discrimination under any program or...

Family. Faith. Freedom: how conservatives can set the cultural agenda.
May 1, 1997... The paradox of American politics is that the country is shifting to cultural conservatism, yet the American people, and even many conservatives themselves, are deeply suspicious of the cultural message of conservative leaders. This is...

Don't read, don't tell: Clinton's phoney war on illiteracy.
May 1, 1997... President Clinton is to be congratulated for calling attention to a national disaster: the inability of 40 percent of American eight-year-olds to read on their own. Reading is the gateway skill. It opens the door to all other learning. It is...

There's no place like home. (privatization of Kansas child-welfare services)
May 1, 1997... The state of Kansas has turned its child-welfare services over to private nonprofits with one mandate: Don't let kids languish in foster care. More than 500,000 children will pass through America's foster-care system this year, double the...

The smart samaritan. (private charities)
May 1, 1997... Most private charities don't think very seriously about how to help the poor. Voluntary efforts will fail to improve on government welfare unless they learn from an earlier generation of poverty fighters. Government programs of social...

Take this job and love it. (entry-level jobs)
May 1, 1997... For more than 30 years, the federal government has been trying to figure out ways to get people to work. It spends billions of taxpayer dollars each year on job-training and placement programs with questionable results. For the past six...

Impeaching abusive judges.
May 1, 1997... Federal judges are about as popular today as auditors from the Internal Revenue Service. And for good reason. In case after case, federal judges are expressing contempt for democracy, overturning laws passed by state legislatures or...

Miss Americanizer. (early 20th century social reformer Frances Kellor)
May 1, 1997... The United States today has more foreign-born residents than ever before. While some Americans worry about our country's ability to absorb all these newcomers, others recall that previous waves of immigrants have successfully assimilated. Such...