Author Archives: Bill Hobby

Once again, Texas Education Commissioner Skip Meno and the State Board of Education deserve a round of applause. A few weeks ago, the Board adopted a much more rigorous set of high school course guidelines designed to better prepare students … Continue reading →

Texas could be facing a showdown with the federal government over the $5 billion plus Medicaid program because of a little-noticed portion of President Clinton’s budget bill approved by Congress last summer. The law requires states to seek recovery of … Continue reading →

Notes from a Curmudgeon People, or at least members of Congress, are concerned about violence on television. I have been, all of my adult life, a radio and television broadcaster. For about one-third of my adult life, I have been … Continue reading →

Want to see what the future of public education in Texas might be like? Take a look at what happened in Michigan last month. The Michigan legislature repealed all local school property taxes as of December 31, 1993. Those taxes … Continue reading →

With all the concern about the health care crisis, it has nearly escaped our attention that the patient shows signs of getting better. As all of us wait for Hillary Rodham Clinton to unveil the administration’s health care plan, costs … Continue reading →

Another legislative session is over and with it comes another state budget held together with band-aids, baling wire and bookkeeping tricks. It took all the ingenuity of our state leaders to come up with enough delayed payments, one-day transfers, cost … Continue reading →

You don’t hear much about workers’ compensation these days. That’s good news. Several years ago, workers’ compensation was ranked as one of Texas’ bigger business problems. Rates were skyrocketing, up 200 percent between 1985 and 1990. Insurance carriers threatened to … Continue reading →

Highly educated engineers and scientists can work just about wherever they want. So how to get them to work in a rural area just South of Dallas–even if the project is as important as the Superconducting Supercollider? One way is … Continue reading →

Media stories about environmental disaster abound in the modern world–oil spills, destruction of rain forests, holes in the ozone layer–but now the school finance crisis in Texas must be counted among them. Countless trees are being destroyed to provide the … Continue reading →

Should the cops practice medicine? Should the legislature pass laws that make you hurt? Senate Bill 370 does both of those things. It has worthy goals–saving money and minimizing fraud. But it would also make a lot of people suffer … Continue reading →