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The conventional wisdom has been that affluent neighborhoods with well-educated parents also have outstanding public schools. But a new book casts substantial doubt on that proposition. The book, “Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice,” was produced by the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy and can be downloaded from its website, www.PacificResearch.org. Here to talk about it is one of its authors, Dr. Vicki Murray, a Senior Policy Fellow for Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute.

While the American health care system is not a single-payer system as in Canada or the United Kingdom, government regulation in the health care industry is substantial. But do these federal and state regulations on the practice of medicine and the business of health care protect patients and consumers, or hurt innovation and competition in the marketplace? We pose these questions to David Hyman, professor of law and medicine at the University of Illinois and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.

Texas is one of many states locked in fierce debates over how to meet its future energy needs. In the last decade, Texas has shifted more towards natural gas as a fuel source for electric generation, but as natural gas prices have soared, so have electricity prices. Recent proposals to diversify our fuel sources by building new coal-fired power plants have met with spirited opposition over air quality and public health concerns. This week, we discuss the present and future of Texas air quality with Joel Schwartz, environmental consultant and a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a consistent and strong advocate for government transparency, especially when it comes to our tax dollars. The Foundation played an important role in the development of several spending transparency proposals during the 80th Texas Legislature. On the national level, one of the leading champions for fiscal transparency has been Americans for Tax Reform. ATR president Grover Norquist spoke at the 6th Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, and we caught up with him for an update on the progress around the country.

One of the biggest political stories of 2006 was the election of an African-American Democrat as District Attorney in Dallas County, which had traditionally been a Republican stronghold. Since his election, Craig Watkins has received national acclaim for identifying wrongly convicted inmates and increasing the involvement of crime victims and neighborhoods in preventing and responding to crime. Mr. Watkins was a panelist at our 6th Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, and he sat down for this conversation on the criminal justice process and the initiatives that he is undertaking in Dallas County.

Whether in the United States Congress or at the state level, the trend in health care policy has decidedly in the direction of a larger role for government. Voters say they want that, but should they? Looking at that question with us this week is Mary Katherine Stout, Vice President of Policy and Director of the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

2007 was an eventful year in Texas policy. This week, we are pleased to bring you a roundtable discussion featuring the policy team at the Texas Public Policy Foundation looking back at 2007 and ahead to 2008.

The Texas Constitution authorizes the Legislature to meet in regular session for 140 days in each odd-numbered year. So what do they do the rest of the time? Well, when they are fortunate enough not to be called back into special session, they are researching issues in preparation for the next regular session. Last month, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick issued interim charges to the various House committees, and we sat down with him recently to discuss those charges.

Last month, many Texas cable customers accustomed to seeing their Dallas Cowboys play couldn’t see the game against the Green Bay Packers due to an ongoing dispute between the National Football League and several major cable providers over carriage of the NFL Network. As the two sides remain deadlocked at the negotiating table, they have pressed their cases through vigorous and expensive public relations campaigns. And with this week’s Houston Texans game and next week’s Dallas game also affected by this dispute, the Texas Legislature is getting involved. On Monday, the House Regulated Industries Committee held a public hearing on this issue. Bill Peacock, Director of the Foundation’s Center for Economic Freedom, testified at the hearing, and you can find both his testimony and his latest commentary on the Foundation’s website at www.TexasPolicy.com.

In October, the TPPF board selected Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm as its new Chairman. The late President Ronald Reagan called her “his favorite economist” and the Wall Street Journal dubbed her “the Margaret Thatcher of financial regulation.” She began her career teaching economics at Texas A&M and served in high-level positions in both the Reagan and first Bush administrations - among them, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, and chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Besides her work with TPPF, she is also a distinguished senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. We are pleased to bring you a conversation with our new chairman, Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm.