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Foundation for Economic Education Posts Commentary: Government Control in the Name of Sovereignty
DETROIT, Michigan, July 14 -- The Foundation for Economic Education posted the following commentary by Claudia Ascensao Nunes, president of Ladies of Liberty Alliance-Portugal:
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The Digital Euro's New Chapter
Government control in the name of sovereignty.
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For years, the digital euro was presented by the European Central Bank (ECB) merely as a modern and practical alternative to banknotes and coins. It has now been openly acknowledged that the project is intended to respond to the dominance of American payment companies. Visa and Mastercard process 61% of card payments in the euro area,
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DETROIT, Michigan, July 14 -- The Foundation for Economic Education posted the following commentary by Claudia Ascensao Nunes, president of Ladies of Liberty Alliance-Portugal:
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The Digital Euro's New Chapter
Government control in the name of sovereignty.
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For years, the digital euro was presented by the European Central Bank (ECB) merely as a modern and practical alternative to banknotes and coins. It has now been openly acknowledged that the project is intended to respond to the dominance of American payment companies. Visa and Mastercard process 61% of card payments in the euro area,according to the ECB's own data, and it is this dependence that Brussels intends to break.
On June 23, the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) approved its negotiating position on the digital euro legislative package by 43 votes to 14. Although this approval does not constitute the final law, a final agreement with the Council is expected by the end of 2026, with implementation projected to begin only from 2029 onward.
The project, which has historically been justified by the ECB as merely a matter of convenience compared with cash, was this time presented in a European Parliament statement as a genuinely European payment option, in an attempt to counter the dominance of major American payment companies, in what could represent yet another escalation of tensions in transatlantic relations. Visa and Mastercard's dominance of cross-border transactions in Europe generates billions of euros in fees; a significant reduction in that dominance would weaken the dollar, represent an economic loss for these American companies, and threaten one of Washington's soft-power tools. Whatever the outcome of this dispute between blocs, it is the European citizen who first bears the cost of the response chosen by Brussels.
This development reflects the increasingly protectionist approach that the European Union has adopted in the technological sphere, as seen with the Digital Markets Act and the recent Tech Sovereignty Package, making open competition and private innovation more difficult. Under the pretext of defending European sovereignty, Brussels has chosen to create centralized public infrastructures. But money is not infrastructure. It is the instrument through which the state and the citizen negotiate, every day, the boundaries of individual freedom. That is why, since the beginning of discussions on the digital euro, a particularly dangerous direction of travel has been emerging.
According to the negotiating position that has now been approved, it will not be citizens, but rather the European Commission, acting on a recommendation from the ECB, that will determine the maximum amount of digital euros each person may hold, likely around Euros3,000 (just under $3,500) with periodic reviews.
In addition, companies will not be allowed to maintain digital euro balances for more than 24 hours, except for accumulating received payments, which must be automatically transferred after that period.
This prevents businesses from using the digital euro as a treasury management tool, a liquidity reserve, or for routine payments such as suppliers and payroll. Through this rule, Brussels strengthens centralized state control and significantly reduces the usefulness of the digital euro for the business sector. Companies lose freedom and options.
Holding limits and restrictions imposed on businesses, while shocking to advocates of freedom, are not new. These ideas have been embedded in the digital euro project since its initial stages. In the legislative proposal presented by the European Commission in 2023, the ECB and Brussels explicitly acknowledged that limits would be imposed on the amount of digital euros each citizen could hold, under the familiar justification of "protection," in this case, protecting financial stability and preventing deposit flight from commercial banks. The novelty, therefore, does not lie in the principle but in its implementation. What was in 2023 an open possibility has now become a concrete decision, clearly made without regard for the wishes of citizens themselves.
These conditions follow the same logic of centralized control found in China's digital currency, the digital yuan (e-CNY). In the Chinese system, there is also the possibility of obtaining higher limits in exchange for surrendering more personal data and accepting less privacy, a model of "tiered privacy" in which freedom is always sacrificed and only the degree of submission to the state remains open to choice. Thus, in order to reduce dependence on American payment companies in the name of "European sovereignty," instead of strengthening private competition and liberalizing the market, Europe is importing the model of state control that China has refined.
Although the ECB publicly denies that the digital euro will be a programmable currency, these kinds of technological and centralized solutions always leave open the possibility that conditional functionalities may be built upon their architecture. Money can be made to expire, be conditioned, or be tracked, transforming it into a public-policy instrument far more powerful than cash has ever been. To combat an alleged external dependence on North America, Europe is creating an even more dangerous internal dependence, one in which money ceases to be an instrument of individual freedom and open markets, and instead becomes a tool of control and geopolitical rivalry.
In the end, the digital euro does not liberate Europe, modernize it, or make payments more convenient. It merely changes who holds control, shifting it from American private companies to European public authorities, and strengthens that control in the process. At its core, this project reveals a profound civilizational choice: money ceases to belong primarily to individuals, as the state assumes the power to define the limits of financial freedom.
Brussels not only threatens the freedom of its citizens, but also risks escalating transatlantic tensions. A direct challenge to the dominance of US payment giants and the dollar's global infrastructure is unlikely to be ignored passively in Washington. The more money is transformed into an instrument of public policy and geopolitical rivalry, the smaller the space becomes for individual freedom and open markets.
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Claudia Ascensao Nunes is a Portuguese writer and political commentator. She is the President of Ladies of Liberty Alliance - Portugal and a columnist featured in both national and international publications. Claudia collaborates with Young Voices and focuses on economic freedom, European policy, and transatlantic cooperation. She has over 20,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter), where she shares insights on politics, liberalism, and cultural issues.
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Original text here: https://fee.org/articles/the-digital-euros-new-chapter/
WLF Applauds SEC's Proposal to Rescind Climate-Related Disclosure Rules
WASHINGTON, July 13 [Category: Law/Legal] -- The Washington Legal Foundation issued the following news release:
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WLF Applauds SEC's Proposal to Rescind Climate-Related Disclosure Rules
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"The securities laws do not give the SEC a freestanding mandate to regulate climate policy, and the Commission agrees."
-Jay DeSanto, WLF Senior Litigation Counsel
Click HERE to read WLF's comment.
WASHINGTON, DC-Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) today submitted a comment letter supporting the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to rescind its 2024 climate-disclosure rules, which would
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WASHINGTON, July 13 [Category: Law/Legal] -- The Washington Legal Foundation issued the following news release:
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WLF Applauds SEC's Proposal to Rescind Climate-Related Disclosure Rules
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"The securities laws do not give the SEC a freestanding mandate to regulate climate policy, and the Commission agrees."
-Jay DeSanto, WLF Senior Litigation Counsel
Click HERE to read WLF's comment.
WASHINGTON, DC-Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) today submitted a comment letter supporting the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to rescind its 2024 climate-disclosure rules, which wouldhave exceeded the agency's authority and raised significant First Amendment concerns.
In March 2024, the Commission issued rules requiring securities registrants to disclose information about greenhouse gas emissions, climate-related risks, and the effects of climate phenomena on their businesses. The rules never took effect and were stayed pending litigation. On May 29, 2026, the Commission announced its proposal to rescind those rules.
WLF welcomes the Commission's proposal. In its comment, WLF argues that no provision in the securities laws authorizes the Commission to compel extensive disclosures on climate risks or metrics. WLF also warns that the 2024 rules would compel companies to make inherently speculative statements about climate phenomena, implicating the First Amendment's protections against compelled speech. As WLF's comment explains, the Commission's rescission will properly restore disclosure requirements to their core purpose-providing investors with material financial information.
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Original text here: https://www.wlf.org/2026/07/13/communicating/wlf-applauds-secs-proposal-to-rescind-climate-related-disclosure-rules/
Scleroderma Added to AMP AIM Research Project
DANVERS, Massachusetts, July 13 -- The National Scleroderma Foundation issued the following news:
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Scleroderma Added to AMP AIM Research Project
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The National Scleroderma Foundation is excited to announce that scleroderma will be part of the expanded Accelerated Medicines Partnership Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases (AMP(r) AIM) program.
The Foundation has partnered with the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and other government and advocacy organizations, to ensure scleroderma will be part of this incredibly exciting research opportunity.
"This project brings
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DANVERS, Massachusetts, July 13 -- The National Scleroderma Foundation issued the following news:
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Scleroderma Added to AMP AIM Research Project
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The National Scleroderma Foundation is excited to announce that scleroderma will be part of the expanded Accelerated Medicines Partnership Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases (AMP(r) AIM) program.
The Foundation has partnered with the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and other government and advocacy organizations, to ensure scleroderma will be part of this incredibly exciting research opportunity.
"This project bringstogether a network of researchers to tackle this extremely complex disease," Mary J. Wheatley, CEO of the National Scleroderma Foundation said. "We can leverage technologies through this project that we could never achieve through single investigator research initiatives."
The AMP AIM program is managed through the FNIH, with support from several institutes within the NIH and public and private partners. AMP AIM is a component of the Accelerating Medicines Program, which launched in 2014 to transform the way we develop diagnostics and treatments in the United States.
This marks an expansion of the original AMP AIM program and will allow researchers to conduct in-depth studies at the molecular level that will help us better understand the causes of scleroderma, why the disease varies so widely, and how different people are likely to progress and even what treatments may be most effective.
"The expanded initiative reflects a growing commitment across public, private, academic, and patient communities to accelerate progress in autoimmune disease research, which together affect more than 15 million Americans," said Meghan Pennini, Director, Translational Science, Inflammation and Immunity at the FNIH. "By using advanced tools to study cells and molecules, this program will help us better understand both the shared and unique biological processes that drive different autoimmune diseases."
"We believe this can be a key step towards gaining novel insights into disease processes and developing personalized medicine approaches for people living with scleroderma and other autoimmune disease," Dr. Carol Feghali-Bostwick, Chair of the National Scleroderma Board of Directors said.
The Foundation's Role
The National Scleroderma Foundation initiated and led the inclusion of scleroderma in the AMP AIM expansion, has committed significant funding to this program, and serves on the Steering Committee.
"This is the power of a national organization backed by a community that is committed to advocacy and driving the future of scleroderma research," Wheatley said. "We led the charge for this monumental project that will change the future of research and patient care."
Through this collaboration, leading researchers across top institutions will work together to study scleroderma at an unprecedented level of detail. By examining individual cells from patient samples, the team aims to better understand how the immune system, blood vessels, and scar-forming (fibrotic) processes interact to drive the disease.
The Foundation leveraged partnerships with research institutes across the country to help identify the research teams that will participate in this project. All the research locations have been recognized by the Foundation as Designated Scleroderma Research and Treatment Centers. The following institutions will be participating in the scleroderma disease team:
* Boston University Medical Center
* Hospital for Special Surgery
* University of Michigan
* University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
* University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Houston
* Yale University
By bringing together cutting-edge science, shared data, and a collaborative network of experts, this partnership represents a major step toward better treatment, and ultimately, a cure.
This is just the beginning of an exciting new era of scleroderma research. The Foundation will continue to provide updates as researchers uncover new information and reach new milestones in our understanding of scleroderma.
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Original text here: https://scleroderma.org/scleroderma-added-to-amp-aim-research-project/
Reason Foundation Issues Commentary: Louisianians Were Right to Reject Constitutional Amendment to Raise Teacher Pay
LOS ANGELES, California, July 11 -- The Reason Foundation issued the following commentary by policy analyst Steven Gassenberger:
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Louisianians were right to reject a constitutional amendment to raise teacher pay. Now, a new state task force should finish the job.
Amendment 3 was sold to voters as a teacher pay raise and a pension fix. It was neither.
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Louisiana voters soundly rejected all five constitutional amendments on the May 16 ballot, including, for the second time, a scheme to liquidate roughly $2 billion from three education trust funds for lawmakers to put toward the $8.5 billion
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LOS ANGELES, California, July 11 -- The Reason Foundation issued the following commentary by policy analyst Steven Gassenberger:
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Louisianians were right to reject a constitutional amendment to raise teacher pay. Now, a new state task force should finish the job.
Amendment 3 was sold to voters as a teacher pay raise and a pension fix. It was neither.
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Louisiana voters soundly rejected all five constitutional amendments on the May 16 ballot, including, for the second time, a scheme to liquidate roughly $2 billion from three education trust funds for lawmakers to put toward the $8.5 billionin unfunded debt the state owes the Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL), the pension fund for the state's public educators.
Amendment 3 was sold as a teacher pay raise and a pension fix. It was neither. As lawmakers reset the table for the next round of potential teacher compensation challenges, they should keep the TRSL system and its burden on employers and educators' pocketbooks in focus rather than lean on accounting moves for fleeting, short-sighted pay bumps.
In their May 26 joint press conference, Gov. Jeff Landry and Republican legislative leaders framed Amendment 3's failure as a loss for teachers, but it wasn't. Amendment 3 was always a financial maneuver dressed up as reform that did nothing to address the structural issues that led to TRSL contribution rates exceeding a third of a teacher's salary just to pay off pension debt. At the same press event, the group announced a new task force to secure permanent teacher pay raises by reviewing the state's Minimum Foundation Program (MFP)--the formula that determines how much state money each school district receives--with the aim of shifting responsibility for teacher pay from the state to local employers.
The previous pitch, now rejected twice by voters, first surfaced in 2022 and comprised three steps. First, the state would liquidate $2 billion from three constitutionally protected education trust funds. Second, the state would give the money to TRSL to reduce the pension fund's $8.5 billion debt to $6.5 billion. Third, the state would allow school districts to use the savings from reductions in TRSL debt payments to fund a permanent $2,250 pay increase for teachers.
Most people can understand the logic between steps one and two and the prudence of using cash to pay down debt. However, step three and turning the $2 billion of paid-off TRSL debt into permanent teacher pay raises was always rooted in speculation and actuarial gimmicks, specifically the manipulation of the actuarially determined employer contribution (or ADEC) rate that actuaries say is needed to keep the pension in line with funding standards.
Actuarial modeling by Reason Foundation's Pension Integrity Project--which has analyzed TRSL's finances for state lawmakers--shows that even with the full $2 billion applied, the TRSL funded ratio would only improve from 77.2% to 82.8%--and the system would remain deeply vulnerable to any market underperformance.
More importantly, the one-time infusion of an extra $2 billion lowers the ADEC rate from around 21% to 17%. That 4% difference is what lawmakers are calling "savings" that local employers can use for teacher pay increases. What they fail to mention is that the same modeling also shows the ADEC rate could still spike to 29% after a recession scenario. The supposed "savings" are not a sure thing. But the raises--which would be baked into employment contracts--would remain. Local school districts would get squeezed from both sides, and taxpayers would be left holding the bag with no structural reform in place to reduce future risk.
The $8 billion TRSL debt is real
TRSL's $8.5 billion debt is not an abstract accounting theory. Defined benefit pensions are constitutionally protected obligations on the state's books. Louisiana accumulates interest at TRSL's 7.55% assumed rate of return, one of the highest rates in the nation, every single year the debt goes unpaid.
To prevent that growth, voters in 1987 committed to funding the system annually at the ADEC rate. At that point, the employer contribution rate jumped from 10.3% of an educator's salary in 1988 to 17.2% in 1989. The rate peaked around 30% in 2015 when TRSL benefits were only half-funded and has gradually declined to near 21% in 2025 as the system's funding has improved.
TRSL administrators expect employer contribution rates to continue to fall over the next few years if investment expectations prove true. However, if the legislature and employers use the difference from the employer contribution rate reduction to TRSL each year as a resource to expand benefits, they would undercut those gains by adding liabilities on the back end. It amounts to adding miles to a marathon the state and its taxpayers have been running since 1988. The results will be more education dollars going to servicing expensive pension debt rather than educator take-home pay or classroom instruction.
What the MFP task force should do about TRSL
The two goals of the MFP task force outlined during the governor's May press conference were addressing growing administrative costs and issuing teacher pay raises in a way that allows local school districts that employ Louisiana educators to provide compensation adjustments directly. The task force has been handed a genuine opportunity, but only if it takes the full picture seriously. Finding permanent teacher pay raises within Louisiana's $13 billion education budget is a legitimate exercise--the dollars exist, and the current MFP formula's poor targeting of classroom compensation is a real problem worth fixing.
But allowing local school districts to increase salaries means school districts will also increase TRSL liabilities underwritten by the state. This is why the task force's mandate should not stop at teacher pay. It should explicitly address TRSL funding as a parallel obligation, not an afterthought.
The task force should recommend that any MFP reform include a mechanism to direct incremental employer savings--as the funded ratio improves and contribution rates decline--back into accelerated pension debt paydown rather than immediately reprogramming every dollar of rate relief into salary increases. This is not a novel idea: It is the logic originally embedded in Amendment 3, minus the gimmick of the one-time trust fund liquidation. Done through the MFP on a sustained, structural basis, it is actually more durable.
The task force should also address the assumed rate of return directly. TRSL's 7.55% assumption is a policy variable that shapes every contribution rate, every pension debt projection, and every discussion about what employers can "afford" to pay teachers. Aligning the assumption with the national median of 7.0% would produce a more honest balance sheet, a larger reported unfunded liability in the short term, but more predictable contribution rates, and a better chance at reaching full funding over time. That transparency is uncomfortable, but it is also necessary to finally address the lingering TRSL debt.
Finally, the task force must recognize that the TRSL benefit, as expensive as it has been for generations, serves only a fraction of the educators. According to TRSL's own assumptions, as few as 15% of new hires stay long enough to earn a full retirement benefit. In other words, the system withholds wages from the vast majority of educators to fund a benefit most of them will never collect. States like Michigan, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi let educators choose among retirement plans when first hired--including portable options that teachers can take with them if they leave the classroom after five years instead of 30. A choice allows educators the freedom to pursue their life goals without worrying that their retirement nest egg is being held hostage.
Employer contribution rates have come down significantly because the plan and legislative appropriators have made genuine progress on Louisiana's teacher pension debt--and that progress is exactly what's at risk if the MFP Task Force treats every dollar of ADEC rate relief as a permanent teacher pay raise rather than a financial buffer against the next market downturn.
Louisiana voters rejected Amendment 3 twice, not because they don't care about teachers, but because they have seen enough budget maneuvers dressed as reforms to recognize one on the ballot. The real gift of that rejection is an opportunity to do this right. A sustainable teacher pay raise and a solvent TRSL are not competing goals--they are the same goal, viewed on different time horizons. The MFP Task Force has until December 31. The deadline is not just to raise teacher pay--it is to prove Louisiana's leaders understand why those two goals are one.
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Steven Gassenberger is a policy analyst with Reason Foundation's Pension Integrity Project.
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Original text here: https://reason.org/commentary/louisianians-were-right-to-reject-a-constitutional-amendment-to-raise-teacher-pay-now-a-new-state-task-force-should-finish-the-job/
Reason Foundation Issues Commentary: Canada Offers Important Lessons for U.S. Air Traffic Control
LOS ANGELES, California, July 11 -- The Reason Foundation issued the following commentary on July 9, 2026, by senior transportation policy analyst Marc Scribner:
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Canada offers important lessons for U.S. air traffic control
Congress would be wise to consider air traffic control governance reform rather than doubling down on the unsustainable status quo.
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In the early 1990s, Canada's air traffic control system was plagued by chronic underfunding, rapidly depreciating facilities and equipment, persistent staff shortages, growing delays, and costs that were outpacing dedicated airline passenger
... Show Full Article
LOS ANGELES, California, July 11 -- The Reason Foundation issued the following commentary on July 9, 2026, by senior transportation policy analyst Marc Scribner:
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Canada offers important lessons for U.S. air traffic control
Congress would be wise to consider air traffic control governance reform rather than doubling down on the unsustainable status quo.
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In the early 1990s, Canada's air traffic control system was plagued by chronic underfunding, rapidly depreciating facilities and equipment, persistent staff shortages, growing delays, and costs that were outpacing dedicated airline passengerticket tax revenue. That might sound familiar because that is exactly what the United States is experiencing today.
But rather than accept an unsustainable status quo, Canada's political leadership implemented sweeping governance reform to air traffic control. A new Reason Foundation report by John Kefaliotis, an aviation professional with more than 50 years of experience in air traffic management, examines the Canadian air traffic control model and what United States political leadership can learn from it.
Originally a unit of Canada's transport ministry, much like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in the United States, air traffic control was spun off into an independent customer cooperative in 1996. The new nonprofit utility, called NAV CANADA, is entirely self-supported by cost-based user fees assessed on aircraft operators. There have been zero taxpayer subsidies since 1998. Nobody owns NAV CANADA because there are no shares. The NAV CANADA board of directors has 15 members whose backgrounds reflect stakeholder balance between commercial airlines, general aviation, employee unions, and the government.
NAV CANADA's reliance on dedicated user fees allows it to issue revenue bonds to pay for large-scale modernization all at once. Instead of slowly upgrading equipment over a decade or longer as taxpayer funding is appropriated, as is the norm at the FAA, new systems and infrastructure can be brought online in a year or two. For instance, NAV CANADA replaced its paper flight progress strips, used by controllers to track individual flights, with electronic versions at its 42 control towers by 2009. By contrast, as of the first half of 2026, the FAA has deployed electronic flight strips at just 17 of its nearly 300 towers, with no plan to equip all of them.
Under NAV CANADA, user costs have been reduced and are consistently lower than the FAA's. Consider the difference between the FAA and NAV CANADA on cost per instrument flight rules (IFR) hour in continental airspace, a common air traffic control cost-efficiency metric. The most recent available data from 2009 and 2023 show that FAA costs averaged 25% higher than NAV CANADA's during that 15-year period. The smallest cost disparity (8%) occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when air traffic cratered and the large fixed costs of air traffic control were spread over fewer aircraft movements. By 2023, NAV CANADA had recovered its sizeable cost advantage, with the FAA seeing 34% higher costs per IFR hour.
It is important to note that the FAA's higher reported costs significantly understate its inefficiency because these figures do not account for the fact that the FAA's facilities and equipment have not been maintained to modern standards, while NAV CANADA is constantly investing in the latest technology and maintaining its existing infrastructure.
Safety has also improved following the transition to NAV CANADA. A central purpose of air traffic control is ensuring safe separation between aircraft to avoid midair collisions, and air navigation service providers impose minimum horizontal and vertical separation buffers. NAV CANADA's reported five-year average rate of incidents involving a loss of separation between aircraft operating under IFR flight plans fell from 1.0 per 100,000 aircraft movements in 2022 to 0.47 in 2025. The FAA does not publish comprehensive annual or historical data on loss of separation incidents, and the agency was criticized in 2013 by the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General for failing to consistently collect, benchmark, and analyze these data.
Attempts have been made to overhaul air traffic control governance in the United States over the last 50 years with no success. The most recent effort came in 2017 with a proposal to convert the FAA's Air Traffic Organization into a NAV CANADA-style air traffic control utility. This move was endorsed by the FAA's controllers' union, all U.S. airlines (with the exception of Delta), and a group representing CEOs of the largest U.S. corporations. It faced strong opposition from general aviation (both private aircraft owners and business jets) and all federal government employee unions save the FAA controllers' union.
The opponents were successful in preventing reform, raising five principal objections to the NAV CANADA model: potential airline dominance of the structure; harm to general aviation and rural access; no specifically promised benefits to modernization from the plan; a giveaway of government assets; and a lack of congressional oversight. Kefaliotis examines each of these objections individually and finds them all unfounded or incoherent. He identifies the real objection to reform: a resistance by general aviation to paying for its use of the airspace.
While the 2017 reform proposal would have exempted all categories of general aviation from paying user fees, shifting the fee burden entirely to commercial airlines, it is worth considering what these users might pay if they were subject to NAV CANADA-style cost-based user fees. Kefaliotis notes that the roughly $150 annual per-aircraft fee charged by NAV CANADA for unlimited use of Canadian airspace is a tiny charge to owners of piston-engine aircraft.
With respect to private jets, it is true they would pay more than under the status quo, where they currently pay a minuscule fuel tax despite consuming a nontrivial share of air traffic control resources. But a NAV CANADA-style weight-distance user fee for private jets would be perhaps twice that of the current fuel tax. Put in context with total costs to operate these aircraft, user fees would likely range from about 3% to 4% of the hourly operating cost. This is hardly a threat to the viability of America's robust business aviation industry.
NAV CANADA is today the world's leading air navigation service provider and owes much of its success to its institutional design. The FAA currently finds itself in a position very similar to that of Transport Canada in the years before air traffic control was spun off into NAV CANADA. Congress would be wise to consider air traffic control governance reform rather than doubling down on the unsustainable status quo.
The full Reason Foundation report, "Changing America's Air Traffic Control Model: Learning from Canada," by John Kefaliotis, has much more detail and is available here (https://reason.org/policy-brief/changing-americas-air-traffic-control-model-learning-from-canada/).
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Marc Scribner is a senior transportation policy analyst at Reason Foundation.
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Original text here: https://reason.org/commentary/canada-offers-important-lessons-for-u-s-air-traffic-control/
Health Foundation: Latest NHS Performance Statistics Highlight the Challenges Facing Incoming PM
LONDON, England, July 11 -- The Health Foundation issued the following statement by Deputy Director of Policy Tim Gardner:
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Latest NHS performance statistics highlight the challenges facing incoming PM
Commenting on the latest NHS monthly performance statistics, Tim Gardner, Deputy Director of Policy at the Health Foundation, said:
'The latest monthly NHS performance figures show a health service continuing to operate under considerable strain.
'Waiting times for routine hospital treatment improved in May, with 65.6% of waits within 18 weeks, but the waiting list increased again to 7.28
... Show Full Article
LONDON, England, July 11 -- The Health Foundation issued the following statement by Deputy Director of Policy Tim Gardner:
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Latest NHS performance statistics highlight the challenges facing incoming PM
Commenting on the latest NHS monthly performance statistics, Tim Gardner, Deputy Director of Policy at the Health Foundation, said:
'The latest monthly NHS performance figures show a health service continuing to operate under considerable strain.
'Waiting times for routine hospital treatment improved in May, with 65.6% of waits within 18 weeks, but the waiting list increased again to 7.28million. There is still a long way to go to restore the 18-week standard, and our recent productivity analysis highlights the need for system-wide interventions to improve efficiency across all trusts.
'A&E waiting times and ambulance response times got worse in June, reversing the modest gains seen earlier in the year.
'The recent heatwaves have only added to the pressures on services, with the extreme heat leading to surges in demand and operational pressures from overheating wards and equipment failures.
'The NHS has achieved some important progress towards achieving the government's top priority of cutting waiting times for routine hospital treatment. However, turning around a struggling health service within a tight financial settlement means trade-offs are unavoidable, and our polling consistently shows the public are most concerned about general practice and A&E.
'The next prime minister may need to reassess and rebalance the NHS's priorities and focus more on improving primary care access, addressing bottlenecks in urgent and emergency care and delivering overdue reforms to social care.'
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Original text here: https://www.health.org.uk/media-office/press-releases/latest-nhs-performance-statistics-highlight-the-challenges-facing-incoming-pm
Children's Savings Accounts Are Reaching More Children than Ever, Now Programs Are Focused on Helping Families Use Them
WASHINGTON, July 11 [Category: Economics] (TNSrpt) -- Prosperity Now (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development) posted the following news release:
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Children's Savings Accounts Are Reaching More Children than Ever, Now Programs Are Focused on Helping Families Use Them
New Prosperity Now analysis finds Children's Savings Accounts reached nearly 8 million children and youth in 2025, up from 313,000 when Prosperity Now began publishing State of the Field reports in 2016.
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As Children's Savings Accounts (CSAs) reach historic scale, a new Prosperity Now report finds that the field's
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 11 [Category: Economics] (TNSrpt) -- Prosperity Now (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development) posted the following news release:
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Children's Savings Accounts Are Reaching More Children than Ever, Now Programs Are Focused on Helping Families Use Them
New Prosperity Now analysis finds Children's Savings Accounts reached nearly 8 million children and youth in 2025, up from 313,000 when Prosperity Now began publishing State of the Field reports in 2016.
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As Children's Savings Accounts (CSAs) reach historic scale, a new Prosperity Now report finds that the field'snext phase is increasingly focused on helping families claim, understand, contribute to, and use accounts over time.
The 2025 Children's Savings Account State of the Field Report captures a major shift in the field since Prosperity Now began publishing State of the Field reports in 2016. What was once a promising strategy reaching 313,000 children and youth has grown into a national field reaching nearly 8 million by the close of 2025. By the end of 2025, 129 active CSA programs were operating across 42 states and the District of Columbia.
Among surveyed programs, 57 percent provide benchmark incentives, 35 percent match participant savings, 19 percent offer deposit bonuses, 11 percent offer prize-linked savings incentives, and 11 percent offer enrollment incentives separate from initial seed deposits. Some programs reported incentives tied to financial education, opening personal savings accounts, school engagement, health behaviors, social engagement, and other activities that support children and families, suggesting that programs are using incentives not only to grow account balances, but also to strengthen family engagement over time.
"Children's Savings Accounts programs have spent years building the infrastructure, partnerships, and trust needed to reach families and reduce barriers to participation," said Marisa Calderon, President and CEO of Prosperity Now. "As the field continues to grow, the next challenge is making sure families can claim, understand, and use these accounts in ways that support education, career training, and long-term financial stability."
Drawing on Prosperity Now's national CSA field-tracking work and survey responses from 39 CSA programs serving more than 6.8 million participants, the report identifies several trends shaping the field:
* Automatic enrollment continues to drive reach. More than 6.75 million children and youth were served through automatic or opt-out enrollment models, representing 98.5 percent of participants in the surveyed programs. National field-tracking data show the same pattern across the broader field, with 85 percent of all CSA participants enrolled through automatic or opt-out models.
* Large-scale statewide programs continue to account for much of the field's growth. California's CalKIDS added more than 660,000 new participants in 2025, while Pennsylvania's Keystone Scholars program added an estimated 143,000 new accounts, according to program responses to Prosperity Now's survey.
* Account structure matters for scale. Programs using entity-owned 529 accounts served more than 6.75 million participants, or 98.5 percent of participants in surveyed programs with account-type data, underscoring the role of 529 infrastructure in helping CSA programs reach scale.
* CSA programs continue to reach children from households with low incomes. Among the 23 programs that provided participant demographic information, over 86 percent reported that at least half of their participants were from households with low incomes.
* Programs are using incentives to support engagement. In addition to seed deposits, programs are using benchmark incentives, savings matches, deposit bonuses, enrollment incentives, and prize-linked savings to encourage participation, account growth, and family engagement.
The report also shows that CSA programs are evolving alongside a broader youth asset-building landscape. While education and career training remain central goals for the field, some programs are exploring allowable uses connected to workforce credentials, professional development, entrepreneurship, and homeownership where permitted by account structure and program rules. As the broader landscape evolves, recent federal changes to 529 rules and emerging implementation questions around Section 530A Accounts will be important to monitor in future analyses of the CSA field.
Prosperity Now has tracked, studied, and supported the expansion of child asset-building strategies since the emergence of the CSA field. Since 2016, Prosperity Now's State of the Field reports have documented the growth and evolution of CSA programs through landscape analysis, practitioner engagement, and field-building efforts.
The 2025 Children's Savings Account State of the Field Report was developed with research support from Brandeis University and financial support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
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REPORT: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64f22f0478cf70a81b4dc7a9/6a4d6a98099f824f4cbe6291_2025%20CSA_State%20of%20the%20Field%20Report.pdf
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Original text here: https://www.prosperitynow.org/news-and-insights/childrens-savings-accounts-are-reaching-more-children-than-ever-now-programs-are-focused-on-helping-families-use-them
