Did you know that in the last ten years, over 600 Oregon children have received a “hand up” in their education through a privately funded scholarship program called the Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland? The program’s mission is to maximize educational opportunity for students from Oregon families whose income is low to moderate.

The Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland has a ten-year history of demonstrating . . . Read more!

Summary

When Cascade Policy Institute compared the Social Security Master Death List to the state’s voter registration rolls, we found over 1,100 active voters whom the government has reported to be deceased. Oregon’s new Secretary of State should take a hard look at the methods being used to keep voter registrations current and accurate. . . . Read more!

Summary

Wind power is touted as a “green” solution to Oregon‟s increasing energy demand. However, as a power source, wind is inconsistent and intermittent, requiring inefficient and costly backup sources. In addition, various negative environmental externalities make wind power far from “environmentally friendly.” . . . Read more!

Summary

Cascade Policy Institute submitted an innovative proposal to TriMet to cancel TriMet’s lowest performing bus routes and to use some of the savings to capitalize a loan fund to help finance car ownership for transit-dependent riders displaced by the bus line cancellations. . . . Read more!

On October 27, 2008, Governor Ted Kulongoski announced his Climate Change Agenda to aggressively mitigate the impacts of global warming and put Oregon on track to achieve his goals of reducing greenhouse gas levels. These goals will be hard to reach without having an energy source that can meet upcoming energy demand and produce emission-free electricity. Nuclear could be that energy source.

Energy consumption in Oregon has . . . Read more!

Summary

Advocates of plug-in vehicles profess that they will reduce air pollution, dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gases. But while plug-ins may be good for the environment, the subsidies and tax credits attempting to jumpstart the adoption of the electric car are misguided, unnecessary, and even unjust. . . . Read more!

Summary

The driver’s license was originally created to ensure public safety by setting driving standards. But when lawmakers treat the license as a “good citizen” trophy and suspend it for nondriving-related infractions, the consequences for low-income workers’ ability to maintain employment are serious. . . . Read more!

Today we are all aware of the candidate who won our highest office, the next President of the United States. But as I am writing this the week before, it is still a mystery to me.

Whoever is the winner of this race, the policies and regulations governing the State of Oregon remain the primary concern at Cascade Policy Institute. As a non-partisan public policy research organization, we deal with policy, not politics. We focus on the policies that affect our citizens’ economic stability and individual freedoms from a free-market viewpoint.

This is not a stance that throws us into . . . Read more!

Summary

Cascade Policy Institute commissioned a study of registered voters in Oregon, comparing the Social Security Master Death List to the Oregon Voter Registration List, and shared our findings with the Oregon State Elections Division. As Oregon votes entirely by mail, a clean list of persons legitimately entitled to vote is crucial to the integrity of elections in Oregon. . . . Read more!

Summary

The proposed renewal of the five-year levy that created the Portland Children’s Investment Fund (PCIF) in 2002 is on the ballot this November. While the non-profits receiving grants from the PCIF may have worthy missions, this program attempts to act like a private charitable foundation without actually being one, raising issues of accountability, among other problems. . . . Read more!

Summary

Wind power advocates claim that wind power is a cost effective source of energy. This is true at present only with market distortions caused by state and federal governments. Instead of imposing renewable energy technologies on consumers ahead of their time, let supply and demand guide their development and adoption by consumers. . . . Read more!

Ten years ago Oregon became the first state to vote exclusively by mail. How is it working? Cascade Policy Institute commissioned a study of registered voters in Oregon. We compared the Social Security Master Death List to the Oregon Voter Registration List. We matched first and last names with dates of birth and last known Oregon zip codes. We excluded any duplicate names and any questionable results.

We found 6,142 people on the voter rolls who were reported as . . . Read more!

Summary

The financial liabilities of social insurance programs in the United States in the near future are staggering, but the Wall Street meltdown has many Americans worried about “private” solutions. Around the world, other countries are replacing traditional pay-as-you-go schemes with hybrid arrangements of government social insurance programs and individual-based accounts, which may be a workable solution to the crisis. . . . Read more!

The U.S. Department of Education has released a report entitled “Preserving a Critical National Asset: America’s Disadvantaged Students and the Crisis in Faith-based Urban Schools.” Since 1999 nearly 1,200 faith-based urban schools have closed, displacing nearly 425,000 children.

The report states: “[T]he disappearance of these schools is having a tragic . . . Read more!

There was a time when large national banks were considered more stable and reliable than local financial institutions, but that is not always the case anymore. With a string of blockbuster acquisitions transforming the banking landscape, a huge share of American consumer deposits are now consolidated in three banking giants: Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. Consumers today are feeling uncomfortable about these big banks and have started shopping around for alternatives—like local credit unions. . . . Read more!

Summary

Absent serious structural reforms such as school-level competition, paying for performance in the classroom may be the best way to stimulate higher academic achievement among our K-12 public school students. . . . Read more!

Introduction and Executive Summary

This report examines the potential for using performance incentives to improve the K-12 classroom education experience. It uses principles derived from economic theory to identify what type of incentives might work and what form those incentives should take. The limited literature on performance incentive applications in K-12 education is then examined to see if the evidence is consistent with the economic prescriptions. . . . Read more!

Summary

Did lack of government regulation create the subprime mortgage crisis? Most likely, more regulation would have increased the problem. . . . Read more!

What happens to a ballot from the time you leave it at an official ballot drop site and the time it is counted? Many Oregon counties have used uniformed officers to transport your votes. But Washington County has used Kiwanis club members or volunteers to transport them. Cascade Policy Institute obtained a sworn affidavit from two women who were pressed into service in May to transport ballots in the trunk of their car. They never signed for them, and when they delivered the ballots . . . Read more!

In April 2007, the Supreme Court concluded that greenhouse gases (GHGs) meet the Clean Air Act’s definition of an air pollutant. Therefore, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been given authority to regulate all GHGs, including carbon dioxide from new motor vehicles. This decision may have profound effects on personal freedom in the United States.

The Clean Air Act did not authorize mandatory regulations to address global climate change, and . . . Read more!