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About the Foundation
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan research institute guided by the core principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property rights, free markets and limited government.
The Foundation’s mission is to improve Texas
by generating academically sound research
and data on state issues, and by recommending the
findings to opinion leaders, policymakers, the media
and general public.
Learn more about the Foundation in our video, Ideas Into Action.
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Highlighted Research

| Thinking Outside the Cell | | Aligning Goals and Incentives in the Texas Criminal Justice System |
| This PowerPoint presentation was given to the Montgomery County Bar Association Luncheon and provides policy recommendations on how to align goals and incentives in Texas' system of criminal justice. |
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| Staggering Cost and the Benefit? | | Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act |
| The U.S. Senate's attempt to move this legislation has lifted the veil on the real cost yet ineffectiveness of ambitous federal CO2 reduction mandates. As the leading energy producing state, the Texas economy would be most adversely impacted. This brief offers a risk-benefit assessment of this unprecedented legislation and highlights the effects on Texas. |
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| Money Makes the World Go 'Round: And the Fed Makes Money | | Thinking Economically: Lesson 5 |
| Where our money comes from remains a mystery for most people. The answer would be much simpler if everyone conducted their transactions in cold hard cash. But we can start by applying the law of supply and demand. |
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| Texas' Higher Education System: Success or Failure? | |
| This report takes a look at the current state of Texas’ institutions of higher education and makes recommendations on how to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness by putting free market solutions in place that provide greater outcomes for the ultimate customers—students. |
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Visit the Publications section for all of our reports.
| Latest Commentaries

More Health Care Requires More Choices Giving consumers more choices would improve access to health care by providing individuals with more choices that would be affordable, regardless of insurance status. |
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The Importance of Business Friendliness A state (or a city or a county or a country) that wants to be loved, economically speaking, must make itself lovable, by implementation of business policies that business loves. |
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A Better Homeowners’ Insurance Market Awaits For most of the last 20 years, Texas regulators have battled the homeowners’ insurers, attempting to block “excessive” rates. The losers in these battles have been consumers, who have been harmed by the instability injected into the market by over-regulation. |
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Denying Dropouts a Second Chance? Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This sounds oddly familiar in the world of education policy. Throw more money at it and expect different results. |
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Staggering Cost But Questionable Benefit Lieberman/Warner’s unrealistic, exorbitant approach is an ineffective way to address risk of adverse climate change. Modest carbon taxes have fewer economic pitfalls. Accelerated development of carbon capture technology and of new energy sources with intensity comparable to fossil fuels is the most practical long-term approach. |
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Regents Must Tackle Cost Structure of Higher Education In their appointed capacity as leaders of these university systems, Regents can establish a new vision for Texas higher education that reorients these already strong institutions to be more competitive, more efficient, and more responsive to the students they serve. |
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Making Less Crime Pay A new British blueprint on prison reform could send ripples across the pond, leading Texas and other states to rethink the way they fund corrections. Following the lead of the U.K's Conservative Party, Texas could truly make less crime pay, given the freedom to innovate using the most successful programs. |
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More commentaries are found in the Newsroom.
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Recent Press Releases |

TexasPolicy.com |
Texas Public Policy Foundation 900 Congress Ave., Ste. 400 Austin, TX 78701 Phone 512.472.2700 Fax 512.472.2728 |
| info@TexasPolicy.com |
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| More school districts embrace spending transparency, according to Brooke Terry |
| - Budget & Tax News | |
| Solar energy not Texas' electricity solution, writes Drew Thornley |
| - "Planet Gore" - National Review Online | |
| Education needs of students more important than politics, says Brooke Terry |
| - San Antonio Express-News | |
| Texas Youth Commission reforms discussed at TPPF Effective Justice forum |
| - Abilene Reporter-News | |
| Broader sales tax could replace property tax, says Talmadge Heflin |
| - Marshall News-Messenger | |
| Public school establishment denies dropouts a second chance, Brooke Terry writes |
| - Brownsville Herald | |
| Talmadge Heflin: Legislature needs to hold back $5 billion of surplus for leaner times |
| - Amarillo Globe-News | |
| State regulations drive up cost of Texas health insurance, according to Kalese Hammonds |
| - Tyler Morning Telegraph | |
| Legislature needs to be careful with its spending, says Talmadge Heflin |
| - Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | |
| Brooke Terry: It is the teacher, not the certificate |
| - Wall Street Journal | |
| Students at low-performing schools deserve dramatic improvement in education now, writes Brooke Rollins |
| - Austin American-Statesman | |
| Homeowners everywhere are "really mad" about property taxes, says Talmadge Heflin |
| - Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | |
| Bill Peacock: Cities profit from excess fees |
| - San Angelo Standard-Times | |
| Innovation needed to assist dropouts, Brooke Terry writes |
| - San Angelo Standard-Times | |
| Drew Thornley blogs on the growing chorus for domestic oil drilling |
| - National Review Online | |
| Rising tuition symptom of unsustainable growth in higher education cost, says Brooke Rollins |
| - Tyler Morning Telegraph | |
| Marc Levin: Getting more out of Texas prisons |
| - Fort Worth Star-Telegram | |
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