• Reaffirming Tuition Deregulation: Guest Column (June 12, 2008)
  
  Following tuition deregulation, a four-year college education remains well
  within reach of even low-income Texans. Colleges must retain control over
  tuition so that they can continue to operate world-class learning and
  research institutions. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Taxing the American Dream: A LIFT Commentary on the Property Tax (June 2, 2008)
  
  The mortgage crisis is bad. The property tax crisis is worse. It is imperative that short-term property tax relief be coupled with a long-term plan to eliminate this intolerable and unjust tax. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Making the Grade: Texas Tuition Deregulation (June 2, 2008)
  
  Public universities must retain control over tuition rates. Deregulation has not negatively affected enrollment and has increased the flexibility of individual universities while having a positive effect on the quality of education being offered to students. Tuition deregulation has coincided with continued enrollment growth, particularly from low-income regions of the state. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Private Sector Does it Better: Guest Column in the Waco Tribune-Herald (May 26, 2008)
  
  After repeated episodes in which state workers have failed to do their job, the case for further outsourcing is stronger than ever. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Meeting Energy Needs: Innovation, not Opposition (May 12, 2008)
  
  Only through continued technological innovation by the private sector will Texas be able to meet future energy demand with affordable, reliable, and environmentally-sound electricity generation. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Voter ID: Supreme Court Gives State New Opportunity to Secure Elections (May 7, 2008)
  
  On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's photo identification law with a six-to-three ruling in Crawford v. Marion. The majority opinion, authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, invalidates volumes of spurious claims made by opponents of photo identification requirements, forever memorializing their constitutional weightlessness. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• No-match data program is aid, not apocalypse (April 4, 2008)
  
  President Bush's proposal to enforce existing immigration and labor laws has
  drawn the ire of businesses in Texas and nationwide. Yet with proper
  enforcement of federal immigration and employment law, there would be more
  jobs for unemployed Texans, lower public assistance costs for the state and
  a vastly decreased incentive for illegal immigration. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Tyler Morning Telegraph: Berman, Others Backing Voter Identification Bill (February 5, 2008)
  
  Vote fraud is real. Election integrity policies aimed at combating vote fraud do not have the claimed negative effects on voter participation. Given those facts, members of the TCCRI Election Integrity Task Force, including Task Force chairmen Leo Berman and Betty Brown, reiterate that they are "determined to protect the most basic and important right of our representative democracy, the right to vote." (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• TCCRI Statement on the Elimination of the M&O Property Tax (December 7, 2007)
  
  The Legislature must begin to explore ways to phase out and ultimately eliminate
  the Maintenance & Operations (M&O) property tax. Toward that end, TCCRI
  launched a Property Tax Task Force three months ago to examine available
  options over the Interim so that legislators are prepared to begin the
  necessary work of revitalizing homeownership while funding our schools
  through a fairer, broad-based system. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• CBS 11 News (D-FW): Some Non-Citizens Voting In U.S. Elections (November 26, 2007)
  
  CBS 11 News substantiates research conducted by the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute: non-citizens are on the voter rolls in Texas, and in some cases, they are illegally casting ballots. Click the above link to read the story and watch the video of the CBS 11 report. Also, see this updated chapter of the TCCRI Illegal Immigration Task Force report and this opinion-editorial, each on the imperative of ensuring that only qualified U.S. citizens be allowed to vote.
• Stateline.org: States Adopt Marriage Ed Courses (August 7, 2007)
  
  TCCRI and Phase II of the Families First Task Force played an integral part in recommending that couples be encouraged to undergo premarital education. See the final Task Force Report for more.
• The Legacy of Milton Friedman - Speech by John Colyandro - (July 31, 2007)
  
  On July 31, 2007, groups across the nation hosted gatherings to honor the late Dr. Milton Friedman. John Colyandro, Executive Director of TCCRI, delivered these remarks at the Friedman Legacy for Freedom luncheon in Austin. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• President Bush Nominates Diane Rath as Assistant Secretary for Children and Families - (July 9, 2007)
  
  Congratulations to Diane Rath, Chairwoman of the Texas Workforce Commission and TCCRI Board Member, on her nomination to serve as Assistant Secretary for Family Support at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  
  HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt says: "Diane has succeeded at the state level in creating opportunities for individuals and families in Texas," said Leavitt."I am confident Diane's state experience will be a tremendous asset at the national level." (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• ID Rule will Bolster Integrity of Elections - TCCRI Opinion-Editorial in
  the Austin American-Statesman (May 1, 2007)
  
  The illegal immigrant population in Texas is estimated to be over 1.6 million. With so many illegal immigrants residing here, and document fraud and identity theft increasingly linked to illegal immigration, their potential effect on election outcomes is too serious to ignore. Voter identification and citizenship verification fill a gaping loophole in election law. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Nothing so onerous about proving CHIP eligibility - TCCRI Opinion-Editorial in the Houston Chronicle - (March 7, 2007)
  
  One of the guiding principles behind the 1996 welfare reform [is] instructive in the Texas CHIP debates: Public benefits should not be permanent entitlements, but temporary programs to help those with genuine and demonstrable needs. Six-month eligibility helps CHIP to target its intended beneficiaries' legitimate and pressing needs. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Open markets will meet Texas' water needs - TCCRI Research Report - (March 6, 2007)
  
  Legislators must strive to protect both property rights and taxpayers' interests by resisting attempts to mandate a large-scale reservoir construction program since reasonable and cost-effective alternatives exist. Instead, efforts must focus on creating water markets. Water markets will shift the burden of maintaining and developing water infrastructure in the state from taxpayers to the specific utilities needing additional water resources and the private sector. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• The School Choice Imperative: Must parents accept failure and still pay high property taxes? - (February 22, 2007)
  
  Individual choice is commonplace in most government programs.  Medicaid recipients can choose where they receive treatment, just as TANF and food-stamp recipients can choose the stores from which they purchase goods. Public education stands out as a policy area in which the state constricts the ability of parents and students to choose the school they attend using state money. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• CHIP Application Form: Are Four Pages Really a Barrier? - (February 15, 2007)
  
  Lawmakers should not be taken in by those who claim that simple eligibility requirements somehow create "barriers" for those who apply to welfare programs such as CHIP. Enforcing eligibility requirements is necessary to ensure that only the genuinely eligible receive public assistance. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Saving Money, Saving Families - Final report of the Families First (Phase II) Task Force - (February 2007)
  
  The explosion of social welfare spending at the state and national levels is tied (almost) directly to funding for programs to ameliorate the effects of divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and the rise in the number of single-parent families. Pinpointing the precise amount of spending which results from family breakdown is difficult. Ultimately, however, the state, and society at large, must begin to value the family in order to reduce the fiscal cost of family dissolution. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
  
• Stoking Lucifer's Furnace - (February 12, 2007)
  
  Using environmental and health-based scare tactics as a means to achieve political ends is nothing new. The latest offender is the Texas Clean Sky Coalition, which is using obviously posed photos of dirty-faced children that might as well be stills from "Coal Miner's Daughter". Here's a suggestion for the Clean Sky Coalition: use coal to meet consumer energy needs rather than smudging the faces of child actors. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Universal Pre-K: More power to teacher unions; another attack on parental rights and responsibilities - (February 12, 2007)
  
  Universal pre-Kindergarten should be opposed because it would grow the ranks of the teacher's unions at the expense of parental rights and responsibilities . It is plain that the 'need' for universal pre-K is a manufactured one. The state can only ever play a secondary role to that of parents and family in the development of young children. Expanding pre-K usurps the role of the family. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Amarillo Globe-News Column: Texas supremes jeopardize our right to own property - (February 7, 2007)
  
  Eminent domain is government power in its rawest. Under no other doctrine - and where no crime has been committed - can government so directly limit or take away such an important individual liberty as the right to own property. With two decisions, however, the State Supreme Court has made eminent domain a cheaper and faster option for governments to choose. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Stop Climbing Debt Mountain: A new approach to financing school facilities - (February 6, 2007)
  
  Facilities funding should no longer rest on a rising mountain of debt, but be turned into an opportunity to unlock the value of existing assets and create new value for the system of public education. By shifting financing to the private sector, school districts will be able to construct new facilities without having to raise additional tax revenues, while they will also benefit from improved and more efficient management of their existing facilities. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)
• Summary of Recommendations to the 80th Legislature - (January 2007)
  
  In 2006, TCCRI released three major task force reports focusing on
  illegal immigration, property rights, and state taxation. In addition,
  numerous policy papers and research papers concentrating on issues ranging
  from health care to property rights were published by TCCRI throughout 2006.
  It is hoped that this document will be used as a resource for members of the
  80th Legislature to look for ways to meet the objective of implementing a
  conservative vision for government. (Click here for full article) (Click here to discuss)

“Mere unthinking negative opposition to the current of events, clutching in despair at what we still retain, will not suffice in this age. A conservatism of instinct must be reinforced by a conservatism of thought and imagination.”

— Russell Kirk