Powering America's future is at the center of today's public debate. And rightly so. Our economy can't keep growing without energy to power that growth. When it comes to meeting the growing need for electricity, Texas has shown that competitive markets are a viable alternative to the government-created monopolies of the past. This panel, featuring Rep. Phil Montgomery (Chairman, Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Energy and Utilities) and Dr. Robert Michaels (California State University, Fullerton), provides a national perspective on Texas' move to electric competition.

Powering America's future is at the center of today's public debate. And rightly so. Our economy can't keep growing without energy to power that growth. When it comes to meeting the growing need for electricity, Texas has shown that competitive markets are a viable alternative to the government-created monopolies of the past. Keynote speaker Rep. Phil King (Chairman, Texas House Committee on Regulated Industries) discusses what can be done to keep Texas down the path toward energy independence.

Public schools in Texas are struggling to attract and keep the best and brightest teachers in the classroom. In an effort to reverse this trend, school districts across the state are experimenting with the free market idea of strategic and performance-based compensation. Please join us as we discuss the philosophy, implementation, and results of Texas incentive pay models.

With special guest panelists:

Sen. Florence Shapiro - Chair, Senate Education Committee
Jerel Booker - Texas Education Agency
Keith Bryant - Former Superintendent of Lamesa ISD
Richard Kouri - Texas State Teachers Association

Texas groundwater law has become increasingly complex: common law landowner property rights, local groundwater district regulation and state administered groundwater management areas. Recent Texas Supreme Court Case and a Fourth Court of Appeal rulings raise important issues about the scope of the landowner's private property rights in groundwater. Join us as we discuss the critical legal question of who owns the water underground before landowners “capture” it.

With special guest panelists:

Lynn Sherman - Winstead Consulting Group
Ben Love - Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association
Gregory M. Ellis - Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts
Russel S. Johnson - McGinnis, Lockridge, & Kilgore, L.L.P.

Last session, the Texas Legislature took steps to increase accountability at the Texas Youth Commission, enhance staff training and redirect misdemeanants into community-based corrections. What has been the impact of these reforms, what roles should TYC and community-based correctional programs play going forward, and what priorities should guide policymakers as the 81st Legislature prepares to convene?

Our panel of experts discusses how Texas can leverage the increased public interest in juvenile justice and TYC to implement policies and practices that reduce recidivism, maximize educational and vocational outcomes, and control costs to taxpayers.

With special guest panelists:
Chairman Jerry Madden - House Corrections Committee
Joella Brooks - Southwest Key
Mike Griffiths - Dallas County Juvenile Probation
Richard Nedelkoff - Texas Youth Commission

Texas has enjoyed a strong economy and significant job growth in recent years, but will the new business tax hurt the state's business climate? What makes a state competitive and how does Texas stack up to the competition? How can Texas maintain a competitive advantage over other states and even other countries? Our panel of experts discuss how state fiscal and regulatory policies contribute to what makes a state an attractive place to live and work.

With special guest panelists:
Donna Arduin - Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics, LLC
Scott Hodge - The Tax Foundation
Dick Lavine - Center for Public Policy Priorities

Kerry Weems, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, discusses the latest projections on Medicare's unfunded obligations in this speech given at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Texas leads the nation in the generation of electricity from wind energy, but future transmission costs will run into the billions of dollars. Can wind provide the clean, reliable, and affordable energy needed to support our state’s economic growth?

With special guest panelists:

Paul Sadler: Executive Director, The Wind Coalition
Mike Sloan: Virtus Energy
Rob Bradley: Institute for Energy Research
Jeff Pollock: President, J. Pollock Inc.

Currently, Texas taxpayers spend more than $1 billion each year on early childhood education, with more than 60 percent of the state’s four-year-olds enrolled in government schooling. While some studies demonstrate benefits from early schooling, others have failed to find evidence of lasting academic impact. Join us for this important panel discussion as we discuss the costs and benefits of public pre-kindergarten and this emerging issue gaining significant interest in Texas and around the country.

The keynote addresses include Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Dr. Arthur Laffer, and Texas Governor Rick Perry (with introduction by former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm).

Panel discussions include: Health Care; Judicial Restructuring; Energy and Environment; Higher Education; Homeowners' Insurance; Immigration; Spending Transparency; Public Education; Eminent Domain; Bilingual Education; Privatization; Restorative Justice; Business Taxation; and Criminal Justice.

Approximately 30 percent of Texas adults have a criminal conviction. Ex-offenders who are employed are three-times less likely to re-offend and much more likely to pay restitution and child support. However, one reason some are unemployed or underemployed are state regulations that can be used to exclude them from over 150 different licensed occupations. Also, hiring ex-offenders can expose an employer to civil liability, and there is a lack of vocational opportunities in state and local lockups that correspond to available jobs in the economy.

Does Texas really have a shortage of math and science experts or do government restrictions prevent those experts from entering the classroom? Could reforms to the teacher certification process open the floodgates of qualified and willing math and science teachers?

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) was originally designed as an insurer of last resort for residents of Texas’ 14 coastal counties. However, low rates and lenient criteria for access to these subsidized policies have so greatly increased TWIA’s exposure to claims that Texas taxpayers are now on the hook for billions of dollars in the event of a major hurricane strike on the Texas Gulf Coast.

This Policy Primer will examine the causes and extent of the problem and discuss who should be responsible for bearing the costs of hurricane strikes. We will also explore long-term solutions for the future of windstorm insurance.

With special guest panelists:

Representative John T. Smithee - Chairman, House Insurance Committee

Jim Oliver - Director, Texas Windstorm Insurance Association

Seth J. Chandler - Professor of Law, University of Houston

Senator Mike Jackson - Co-Chairman, Joint Select Committee on Windstorm Coverage

Today, Texas has approximately 23 million residents. By the year 2040, that number is expected to swell to more than 43 million*.

Kris Heckmann, Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Perry, moderates the discourse between guest experts Geoffrey Segal of Reason Foundation and Matthew Tejada of TexPIRG, as we explore solutions for the infrastructure questions facing Texas over the next several decades.

Parents and students are increasingly seeking more access, choice and flexibility than the traditional one-size-fits-all public education model provides. Innovative educators and lawmakers are exploring ways to incorporate technology with virtual courses, allow parents to choose a school within the public education system, and provide students flexibility with part-time enrollment.

All of these changes provide consumers with alternatives to the traditional public school monopoly, while introducing competition that will raise the overall quality of public education.

July 31 would have been Milton Friedman's 95th birthday. Join the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and Americans for Prosperity, in conjunction with the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, as we celebrate the life and legacy of one of the great intellectual forces of the free market movement. With special remarks by Dr. Tom Siems, Senior Economist & Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Board of Dallas.

Panel discussions include: Tax and Expenditure Limits; Budgeting; Business Overcriminalization; Texas' New Business Tax; Electric Competition; Medicaid Long-Term Care; Appraisal Reform; Pre-Kindergarten; Telecommunications Taxes; Criminal Justice Budgeting; Math/Science Education; Higher Education; Health Insurance; School Choice; and Health Care Reform.

The keynote addresses include Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, ABC News' John Stossel (with introduction and remarks by TPPF board member Dr. James Leininger), former U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, and Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Approximately 50,000 juveniles are placed in detention facilities every year, and these placements cost Texas taxpayers over $96 million dollars. Some 4,800 of these youngsters are then incarcerated at the Texas Youth Commission at a per person cost of $55,932 per year, resulting in a total cost of over half a billion dollars per biennium, and the Commission has requested more than $100 million in exceptional items for the 2008-09 biennium.

While violent juveniles need to be secured to protect public safety, many of these youngsters are nonviolent drug and property offenders. Missouri has received national acclaim for shifting its focus from incarceration to community-based programs for juvenile offenders, resulting in less recidivism and lower costs.

This primer examined the lessons learned from Missouri and other jurisdictions and highlight bills filed in the 80th Legislature that would make similar reforms in Texas.

Massachusetts gained significant attention this year for its plans to reform health care in the Commonwealth. The plan has drawn praise and criticism from health care experts around the country, and many lawmakers have begun to consider whether or not Massachusetts should be a model for reform in their states.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation was pleased to welcome to the Lone Star State Mr. John Blundell, a key advisor to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and now director-general of the Institute of Economis Affairs in the U.K. Mr. Blundell focused on the urgency of remaining engaged in the "war of ideas." Also speaking was State Representative Bill Keffer.

An address by the Hon. Maurice P. McTigue at the Petroleum Club in Midland, Texas.

In every criminal prosecution today, it is the state versus the accused, but what about the individual victim of the crime? Do Texas crime victims deserve more rights, restitution, and most of all, a greater ability to influence prosecutions and sentencing? Are offender and victim rights really a zero-sum game, or can enhanced victim involvement lead to more restorative sentences and better offender outcomes?

In 1996, the United States Congress passed sweeping welfare reform legislation that fundamentally changed the welfare system across the country. Texas has often been recognized as a leader in welfare reform efforts and continues to look for new opportunities to fulfill these goals. This policy event explored the lessons of welfare reform around the country and in Texas. The panel discussed opportunities for additional reform, including models for improving other health and human services programs.

Over the last ten years, Texas has substantially reformed and improved its tort system. According to one recent study, this has resulted in Texas having the best tort climate in the nation. Many believe the next step in tort reform is to change the current system in which campaign activities and pressures can improperly influence the outcome of the judicial process. This primer examined the current system of judicial selection and discuss options for improving it.

The Legislative Budget Board has estimated the state will need another 14,000 prison beds by 2010—resulting in $1.24 billion in construction costs alone. With nearly half of the state’s prison population consisting of nonviolent drug and property offenders, this program explored alternatives for reforming offenders and restoring victims.

With the state legislature meeting in special session, efforts are underway to improve the efficiency of public schools. This primer identified ways for districts to cut costs, get better results, and show taxpayers how the education dollar is spent.

As the state prepares for a special legislative session on public school finance, this panel discussion examined Texas' current tax policies and provided insights on how to create a better tax plan to keep the Lone Star State on the road to economic growth and prosperity.

This policy primer explored the role of the state government in confronting illegal immigration. Speakers included Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, State Rep. Suzanna Hupp, State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, and Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, DC.

The keynote addresses include Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, and Texas Tax Reform Commissioner Chairman John Sharp.

Panel discussions include: Tax Fairness, Spending Limitations, Education Spending, School Choice, Teacher Pay, Eminent Domain, Telecommunications, Homeowners’ Insurance, Medicaid, Health Care, Transportation, Prison Alternatives, and Water.

Examining the intersection of the education and juvenile justice systems in Texas, this panel discussion will focus on Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs), which take in over 100,000 Texas students every year.

The Kelo decision by the U.S. Supreme Court exposes some fundamental weaknesses in Texas law when it comes to protecting property rights. Now that the federal protections have been stripped away by Kelo, the deficiencies in Texas law offer only limited protection for private property owners. This policy primer discusses the impact of Kelo on Texas and examine key aspects of eminent domain policy that will be deliberated when the 80th Texas Legislature meets in 2007.

This policy primer identifies key reasons why Texas policymakers and the education community should establish a professional compensation system (performance pay) for educators.

Wall Street Journal senior economist Stephen Moore unveiled his new report for the Foundation at events in Houston, San Antonio, Midland and Austin.