1) Coveted Yass Prize Proves School Choice Is Working

Last week, we attended the Yass Prize annual celebration of educational excellence, that is going outside the boundaries of the government-education monopoly.  

This year's $1 million award - the "Pulitzer Prize for Education Innovation" - went to Chesterton Schools Network (CSN), which has opened 70 affordable classical high schools across the country, stressing a rigorous curriculum, character formation and a love of learning. Chesterton's model is so popular with parents and kids that it is on pace to expand to 150 high schools in states that allow education freedom.

"Chesterton's work reminds us why we champion and help finance entrepreneurs," says Janine Yass. "They bring joy, purpose, and excellence back to education."

It's all very inspiring, but it's also depressing to think the public schools spend twice as much per student and get far worse academic results. How sad that EVERY child can’t attend a school of this caliber.

2) How Much Does That MRI Cost?

Most patients don’t have a clue. Often the doctor doesn’t know either. That’s why an MRI can cost anywhere from $600 at one hospital to $6,000 at another one a few miles away.  

Think about how much money could be saved if people shopped around for the best deal,  like we do when we buy groceries or airline tickets.  

Thanks to the almost singlehanded lobbying by our friend Cynthia Fisher who runs Patient Rights Advocate, Trump signed an EO in his first term requiring price transparency at hospitals, clinics, doctor offices and pharmacies.  

Guess what? It isn’t working. Few health care providers are complying. Worse, the order goes ignored by the arrogant medical establishment with impunity. And prices continue to skyrocket.

Here’s our common-sense idea to force the medical industrial complex to start obeying the law lickity-split. If a patient can attest that he/she was never informed of the price of a medical service, the doctor, the hospital, the pharmacy doesn’t get paid -whether it’s for a pair of crutches, an X-ray, a prescription drug, or a C-section. The patient doesn’t pay a dime.

Sorry doc: No price transparency, no pay.  

3) Gavin Newsom Now Opposes a California Wealth Tax

Now we KNOW the California governor is running for president. He’s suddenly against tax increases.

In October, we reported that California progressives and public employee unions were preparing to place a "2026 Billionaire Tax Act" on the November 2026 ballot. It would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of residents and trusts of $1 billion or more. The top 1% already pay 40% of California’s taxes.

Newsom has raised lots of taxes as governor, but suddenly sounds like a former California governor - Ronald Reagan - in saying this latest confiscatory grab would be too much and accelerate the flight of business from the state.

We suspect that perhaps the real motivation is that Newsom realizes that a soak the rich tax hike makes no sense if it alienates the state's tech titans he plans to raise boatloads of money from for his presidential run in 2028. He's had Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in his corner in the past.

So he’ll wait until AFTER the election to start soaking the rich.

4) Dr. Oz to Walz: Clean up Fraud or No Federal Funding

The hospitals and doctors aren’t the only people ripping off the medical system and causing costs to skyrocket (see Item 2 above). The states are also bilking federal taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars, as we reported last week.

No governor is more guilty of this scam than Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

So we’d like to congratulate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who administers the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, for threatening to cut off federal aid to Minnesota if Walz's administration doesn't address what Oz calls the state’s "clear dereliction of duty."  

Oz has frozen enrollment in some abused programs and demanded Walz issue an action plan to prevent fraud: "Either fix this in 60 days or start looking under your couch for spare change, because we're done footing the bill for your incompetence."

We love this idea. But Dr. Oz: why stop with Minnesota? Any state, red or blue, that is caught defrauding federal taxpayers should be penalized by being cut out of the program.

5) Why Does the Fed Need 300 PhD Economists?

We’ve complained about this bureaucratic bloat at the Fed for years, and so we were pleased to see Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pick up on the theme:

My worry is that the Fed is turning into universal basic income for PhD economists. I don't know what they do. They're never right.... if you were to look at the central value tendency versus how they've done, it's shocking. It's shocking. I said, if air traffic controllers did this, no one would get in an airplane.

6) This Might Be a Way to Legally Muzzle the Trial Lawyers

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