Goldwater Institute

Questions have been raised about results of a polling survey cited in the material that had been posted on this web page.

Arizona’s heavily regulated, monopolistic electricity industry is ill-equipped to meet the state’s growing demand for energy. Nor is it well-suited to contain the higher costs that are likely to result from renewable energy mandates. Only by moving Arizona’s electricity industry closer to the ideal of an open and competitive market can the ingenuity of entrepreneurs be engaged to meet the increasing demand for electricity—the lifeblood of Arizona’s economy.

One of the most effective ways to measure a law-enforcement agency’s performance is by the percentage of crimes it solves, known in legal circles as its “clearance rate.” Criminal investigations can be cleared in one of two ways: by arrest or by “exception.” Clearances by exception must meet rigid criteria that the FBI has used for 80 years. Essentially, the perpetrator must be known to the police but cannot be apprehended due to special circumstances such as the suspect’s death. Although the criteria governing exceptional clearance are clear and objective, some law-enforcement agencies skirt the rules of exception to clear cases that do not meet the criteria, essentially declaring unsolved crimes solved to inflate the agency’s clearance rate. Clearing cases that have not been solved deprives crime victims of justice and may compromise public safety.

Each year, American public officials spend millions in taxpayer funds to pay for broadcast ads, billboards, and glossy brochures under the umbrella of public service announcements. These officials often feature prominently in the ads, yielding increased name recognition and favorability ratings — objects of exceptional value — for them.

Despite the fact that American students enjoy higher average family incomes and per-pupil funding, they consistently rank near the bottom in international examinations of high school achievement. Many researchers point to the United States’ poor practices of recruiting, training, compensating, and retaining teachers. The highest-achieving countries tend to recruit their teachers from the top 5 percent of university graduates; however, on average, American K-12 schools recruit from the bottom third.