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Connecting today’s news with the research & opinion you need.

The Best of Policy Orientation 2020

What to Know: There’s no liberal bias in the media—according to the liberal media.

The TPPF Take: The media’s chosen narratives—such as Texas being a backwards state—are often clung to long after they’ve been debunked.

"The story we tell is essential to making any policy reforms or changes reality,” says TPPF’s Alicia Phillips Pierce. “Texas is held up as an example of the success conservative governance can achieve. Yet, sometimes the narrative told by the media doesn’t seem to accurately reflect Texas’ accomplishments. Are conservative principles framed unfairly?"

Austin’s Big Transit Plan

What to Know: Austin leaders are proposing a $10.3 billion transportation plan, to include trains, buses and a tunnel.

The TPPF Take: Austin wants to address future needs with the technology of the past.

“Trains are an 18th Century solution to a 21st Century challenge,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “But already, exciting new technologies like autonomous vehicles and aerial autonomous vehicles are being tested in Texas. Why spend billions on old, outdated technology when newer, better options are almost here?”

Foster Care

What to Know: America’s foster care systems are damaging the kids who enter into them

The TPPF Take: The Texas Public Policy Foundation is leading the effort to reform foster care, beginning with a workable metric for measuring how well each state’s system is doing.

"The Right for Kids Ranking represents a sea change in how to assess state child welfare system performance,” says TPPF’s Andrew Brown. “By ranking states based solely on how well they do at meeting the needs of kids in foster care and showing how they measure up against other states, it is our hope that the Right for Kids Ranking inspires states to enact transformational reforms that give every child the opportunity to flourish.”