Competition can make any system better, and the juvenile justice system is no exception. Whatever the agency running state lockups is called, what is most important is that it competes with local and private providers.

Citizens expect that the transportation user fees they pay—whether tolls, vehicle registration fees, or gas taxes—will be used to alleviate traffic congestion; that is simply not the case.

This unprecedented reach of EPA authority disproportionately hurts Texas because we are the nation’s leading energy producer, the most productive economy, and the second largest state population.

If the U.S. Congress succeeds in its push next year to end secret ballots in union elections – paying back Big Labor for its truckloads of financial contributions and personnel during the last presidential campaign – countless workers’ lives will become nightmares, pitting friends against friends. I know the hard way.

Bailout requests by numerous states have recently been a top news item, as everyone lines up behind the financial sector with their hands out. Rather than debate the wisdom of these bailouts, it is time to look at the states’ fiscal policies and see whom they hurt.

Legislators have the opportunity to give Texans the option of affordable, convenient health care by eliminating onerous state regulations. The question is, will they seize the opportunity.

As we move forward, Texas’ continued commitment to limited government, fiscal conservatism, and low taxation, both in times of excess and shortage, will only strengthen what is, arguably, the nation’s strongest economy.

In less than a year, many unanticipated developments have complicated the political dynamics of “ending the era of fossil fuels” through the enactment of carbon reduction mandates. Consider six such developments that may give pause to policymakers otherwise inclined to support these measures.

Texas’ renewable energy mandates – combined with the federal government’s generous tax credit for wind-energy production – have propelled the Lone Star State to the forefront of the wind-energy movement. Billions of dollars in capital investment have muted most criticism of wind energy’s rapid expansion, but only because Texas consumers have yet to realize the long-term price we will pay for everyone else’s short-term gain.

If a graffiti “artist” spray-paints your house or business, you could be the one who draws the attention of law enforcement.

We didn’t know the half of it, perhaps, when Arthur Laffer cut loose a few weeks back concerning Texas’ superiority over California as a place to do business.

Higher test scores, higher state accountability ratings, improved teacher morale, and lower teacher turnover prove that students are benefiting from teacher incentive pay in Texas.

Throughout our nation’s history, the size and scope of government has grown by leaps and bounds during times of crisis, financial or otherwise. The political class’ natural instinct is for government to rush to the rescue, particularly when an election is near.

U.S. energy policy has been supplanted by counterproductive environmental policy. Built on mandates, subsidies, trade restrictions, and bans on production, federal energy policy operates like slipshod energy central planning. Let ethanol compete in the market without government preference.

There is simply no one-size-fits-all solution for insurance prices, and attempts to impose one wreak more havoc on consumers than the supposed problem.

James Russell Wiggins, the late editor of the Washington Post, once said that “the more that government becomes secret, the less it remains free.” Thankfully, Texas is leading the way toward opening the workings of its governments, particularly when it comes to how they spend your tax dollars.

Clearly, the objective should be to provide access to health care for the uninsured in the most efficient way possible. The answer will not be easy. But Texas should look for new ideas and innovations and also promote what is already working here.

If public charter schools are really so bad, then why are tens of thousands of Texas students standing in line for admission?

The emotional linkage of alchemy and the more-money-for-public-schools movement is an unhappy one – a reminder that baseless and unwarranted faiths can be as stubborn as, well, education lobbyists, making their umpteenth pitch for another financial transfusion.

The truth is that creating the right incentives for faculty and students can help UT-Austin and other Texas higher education institutions to truly become more productive, not just more expensive.

Among other salutary things, Milton Friedman was a gentleman, not a scoffer. He trafficked in ideas, not the vituperation we see everywhere nowadays, from the internet to the campaign trail.

To this point, we have been successful in avoiding the pitfalls of nationalized health care. But putting more of our private health care consumers into government programs and granting the government more financial control over the health care market gets us closer to the Canadian model that even its architect says is in “crisis.”

When misguided environmental theory dictates energy policy, the result is high prices, unreliability, and inadequate supply. It is time to reverse course.

While Texas taxpayers are busy earning a living, taking care of their families, and paying their taxes, they deserve to know that their tax dollars are being used judiciously by the state and local governments that are spending them.

Giving consumers more choices would improve access to health care by providing individuals with more choices that would be affordable, regardless of insurance status.

A state (or a city or a county or a country) that wants to be loved, economically speaking, must make itself lovable, by implementation of business policies that business loves.

For most of the last 20 years, Texas regulators have battled homeowners’ insurers, attempting to block “excessive” rates. The losers in these battles have been consumers, who have been harmed by the instability injected into the market by over-regulation.

Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This sounds oddly familiar in the world of education policy. Throw more money at it and expect different results.

Lieberman/Warner’s unrealistic, exorbitant approach is an ineffective way to address risk of adverse climate change. Modest carbon taxes have fewer economic pitfalls. Accelerated development of carbon capture technology and of new energy sources with intensity comparable to fossil fuels is the most practical long-term approach.

In their appointed capacity as leaders of these university systems, Regents can establish a new vision for Texas higher education that reorients these already strong institutions to be more competitive, more efficient, and more responsive to the students they serve.

A new British blueprint on prison reform could send ripples across the pond, leading Texas and other states to rethink the way they fund corrections. Following the lead of the U.K's Conservative Party, Texas could truly make less crime pay, given the freedom to innovate using the most successful programs.

The push to end Houston's status as the largest U.S. city without zoning is once again underway. If Texans were paying attention to how good the Houston economy has fared over the years without zoning, we'd instead be seeing a lot of other cities trying to emulate Houston's decentralized approach to economic development.

American dependence on unreliable foreign sources for more than 60 percent of domestic oil demand, indeed, drives the price at the pump. With new policy, the United States certainly could increase domestic production of oil.

Cutting the telephone and cable franchise fees in half would reduce most consumers’ bills by another 3 percent or so, lowering Texas telecom taxes by more than $500 million a year.

A return to competition and personal responsibility will cure America’s health care crisis...if we let it.

Texas is the appropriate state to call for a change in federal ethanol mandates. The indirect costs of ethanol hurt Texans in the grocery store as well as key agricultural sectors of the state economy.

It goes with the robins and the roses – the bad news of what property ownership costs in a society that leans heavily, for the satisfaction of public wants, upon the owners of homes and businesses.

Who knew a “free” source of energy could be so expensive?

All too often, it takes cutbacks to force government to re-prioritize its core functions and correct its indulgences.

Characterized by the EPA as perhaps its most expensive rule ever, this 75-ppb standard begs for solid scientific justification.

Performance and results are commonly rewarded in the private sector via bonuses and raises tied to positive performance reviews. The same should hold true for education.

The only things that have skyrocketed since full deregulation took effect in January 2007 are consumer choice and competition.

As policymakers review the Texas homeowners’ insurance market, they should keep in mind that Texas insurers and Texas consumers are the proper parties to determine homeowners’ and windstorm insurance rates. Markets, not governments, will ultimately find the proper balance.

The "right" price, every time, is that on which a willing buyer and willing seller agree in an encounter perfected by the tender of a credit card or a handful of pennies. A buyer who doesn't want your Edsel won't be induced at any price to acquire it. A buyer, by contrast, who truly, deeply wants a certain doll will calculate need, resources, and the present or future availability of this wonderful contrivance. He'll buy if he wants; he won't if he doesn't.

Ultimately, Texas farmers and food vendors don’t profit from making their customers sick. In such very rare instances, they can face incredibly costly lawsuits. Instead of producing another crop of rules that stifle entrepreneurship and criminalize ordinary business activities, government should leave the field and let the market for food and flowers bloom.

Of course, a single mandate does not have a crushing impact on the cost of health insurance. However, researchers have found that the combined effect of the mandates drive up the cost of a basic health plan by nearly 50%.

Last month, dozens of Austin parents camped out on the cold concrete of the Austin Independent School District headquarters parking lot with one goal in mind: securing a better learning environment for their children.

Rather than being handcuffed to the past – to the detriment of the taxpayers – legislators charted a new course that emphasizes alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders while continuing to lock up violent and sexual offenders.

As the presidential candidates discuss their plans for the American health care system, they point their fingers of blame in several directions – toward insurers, toward employers, and even toward over-eaters and non-exercisers. But none of the leading candidates are pointing toward the main culprit – the government.

Combine inflated ridership projections and enormous cost overruns that have plagued rail projects like this across the country with the reality that people have not given up their cars en masse despite the construction of fancy rail lines, and the only promise taxpayers can count on is that this will require their continued and growing financial obligation for decades to come.

The purpose of a state accountability system is to evaluate school performance and provide that information to parents and the public so they can determine the quality of a particular school or district. The current accountability system fails in this regard and needs to be redesigned.

Energy production from fossil fuels, e.g., coal, oil and natural gas, is often blamed for many of the world’s environmental ills. But no one today was around to experience firsthand how dirty the world was before the invention of the internal combustion engine, when horses—and horse manure—were prevalent on city streets.