It's Friday!

- "Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book." - Ronald Reagan

- Dollars, sense and toll roads: "Toll highways or lanes can do what restaurants and movie theaters do - use differential pricing to draw traffic to off-peak hours," says  columnist George Will, adding: "When taxpayers pay the gas tax, they do not know what they are buying - except 'Bridges to Nowhere' and other pork. When drivers pay a toll, they know exactly what they are getting - life's most precious scarce thing, time."

- In a March 11 ballot, 71 percent of Swiss voters rejected a single-payer health insurance plan. Currently, 87 private insurers offer health insurance in Switzerland. Source: Business Insurance 

- View the latest edition of Georgia Policy Review, the Foundation's newsletter, online at http://www.gppf.org/pub/Newsletter/Feb07.pdf. View recent Foundation events online at http://www.gppf.org/default.asp?pt=doc&doc=video

- Mark your calendar: On Thursday, April 26, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation hosts a Policy Briefing Luncheon featuring David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, the nation's oldest grassroots conservative lobbying organization.

- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." -  Voltaire

- With more than 50 percent of New Orleans students attending charter schools, Louisiana's largest private foundation plans to spend nearly $4.2 million to create a public charter school support network. The donation by Baptist Community Ministries is part of a growing movement nationwide where private organizations are investing in charter schools or charter school associations. "Folks who are coming from that entrepreneurial background, the charter concept really resonates with them," said Todd Ziebarth of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Source: Times-Picayune

- Old School: The New York State United Teachers, the state's largest teachers union, is actively campaigning against Governor Elliot Spitzer's proposal to raise the legal cap on charter schools to 250. The cap has been frozen at 100 for nearly 10 years. The New York City teachers' union, meanwhile, says it won't support the move unless Spitzer makes it easier for charter schools to unionize. Source: New York Sun

- Mission creep? The original intent of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) - PeachCare in Georgia - was to help low-income, uninsured children whose families earned too much for Medicaid but not enough to buy private coverage. "Low income" is legally defined as family income below 200 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL), or $40,000 for a family of four. Of the 14 shortfall states, seven have set SCHIP eligibility above 200 percent of the FPL, including Georgia, where income may be   "self-declared" and eligibility is set at up to 235 percent of the FPL - $47,000 for a family of four. Moreover, five of the states use SCHIP funds to cover adults. The General Accountability Office found, "Adults accounted for an average of 55 percent of enrollees in the shortfall states" in fiscal 2005. Source: Heritage Foundation

- "If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough." - Milton  Friedman

- Visit www.gppf.org to read the Foundation's commentary, "Gainesville City Schools: Creating a Culture of Success," by Dr.  Holly Robinson.

Rogers Wade 

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