The Empire Strikes Back During National School Choice Week

• National School Choice Week begins Sunday after the school choice movement’s most successful year ever and with the promise of more momentum going forward. But not everyone is celebrating.
• A highly organized, well-financed coalition of two dozen national and local left-wing advocacy organizations, teachers unions, and associations of government bureaucrats have teamed up to fight back against parents who seek greater educational opportunities for their children.
• The left-wing coalition—under the anodyne-sounding name Partnership for the Future of Learning—is set to launch a disinformation campaign against school choice Monday, according to documents obtained by The Daily Signal.
• Predictably, the Partnership for the Future of Learning is pushing tired, one-sided, and debunked propaganda meant to scare families into believing that school choice policies are destructive, unaccountable, and (of course) racist.
• America’s public education system is failing our children. Rather than be stuck, parents deserve education options that best meet their children’s educational needs and align with their values.
• Parents should have access to a robust education system that meets their child's unique learning needs.

Schedule an Interview: Jason Bedrick

Fauci’s Memory Keeps Failing Him in 14 Hours of COVID-19 Testimony

• In recent and lengthy testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic behind closed doors, Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that he “did not recall” over 100 times.
• Nonetheless, following two days and 14 hours of a wide-ranging interrogation over Jan. 8 and 9 examining the federal government’s flawed response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci confirmed several vitally important points for the record:
• Fauci affirmed the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory was not a “conspiracy” theory. 
• Fauci’s testimony confirms that agency oversight of grants to taxpayer-funded laboratories overseas is poor. When questioned about the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)’s 2014 grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a controversial nonprofit that subcontracted coronavirus research to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, Fauci responded that he does not “individually approve grants.” 
• Fauci told the subcommittee that the social distancing recommendation was not based on any scientific data—confirming that America’s top public health officials, including Fauci, didn’t “follow the science.” 
• The key unresolved issue is the extent to which, if any, federal taxpayers’ money was funneled into Chinese gain-of- function coronavirus research, or lab efforts to enhance the power of the pathogen.

Schedule an Interview: Robert Moffit 

Senate Opens Door to Massive Carbon Tax Despite Critical Economic Concerns

• On Jan. 18, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted to send a proposed law to the full Senate that would require the federal government to conduct a study calculating the carbon emissions of a broad range of different products made in America and other countries. These include construction materials, plastics, and fertilizers—all vital to small businesses and corporations that power the economy.
• In taxing carbon dioxide, Congress would end up reducing energy use while, according to carbon tax proponents, raising revenue that might permit a reduction of income tax rates to compensate.
• But a carbon tax has four major disadvantages—it is inflationary and regressive, it causes regional disparities, it is complex, and it drives production offshore. America is stronger without it.
• A carbon tax would hurt the poor and raise domestic prices relative to the prices of many imports. It would be another add-on levy, with exemptions for political friends and punishments for enemies. The PROVE IT Act is a first step toward the tax, and Congress would be wise to reject the bill.

Schedule an Interview: Diana Furchtgott-Roth