NEWSROOM
From child protection to school finance, CPPP policy staff know the issues affecting low- and moderate-income Texans.
If you are a member of the media, e-mail CPPP Communications Director Brian Stephens at stephens@cppp.org or call 512-320-0222 x 112. After hours, please call Brian's cell phone at 512-565-0506.
Please see our Staff Page for additional e-mail addresses.
Press Releases, Statements, & Op-Eds: 2004
Texas Must Invest in Human Capital: Dallas Business Journal (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 12/27/2004
Recently in an interview with the Dallas Business Journal, the Governor touted the superior business climate of our state. He cited our relatively low taxes, tort reform, and the Enterprise Fund as magnets for business.
A Tale of Two Regions: Rural and Urban Kids Face Similar Challenges (Press Release)
Release Date: 12/9/2004
Children who live in rural and urban Texas often share the same kinds of problems, barriers, and disconnections, according to the City and Rural KIDS COUNT Data Book, just released by the Center for Public Policy Priorities and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Texas Ranks 5th in U.S. in Number of Low-Income Students Eating Breakfast at School (Press Release)
Release Date: 11/18/2004
Texas' School Breakfast Program serves the fifth highest number of low-income children in the United States, according to a new report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) in Washington, D.C.
Texans Can Do Math: Kids Are Missing From CHIP: Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 09/22/2004
The Children's Health Insurance Program has become a shuttlecock in the game of state politics. CHIP provides health insurance for children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to buy private insurance.
Comments on the 2006-07 Legislative Appropriations Request of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (Statement)
Release Date: 07/20/2004
Some Texans think that over time the state has significantly increased support for child protective services, and that CPS remains troubled due to bad management or policies. An objective analysis shows this to be untrue.
Comments on the Draft Integrated Eligibility and Enrollment Services Request For Proposal (Statement)
Release Date: 06/18/2004
The Center for Public Policy Priorities offers the following comments on the Draft Integrated Eligibility and Enrollment Services Request For Proposal (draft RFP) released on June 8, 2004.
State Proposes Slashing Spending by Another 5 Percent (Press Release)
Release Date: 06/17/2004
On June 16, the Legislative Budget Board and Governor's Budget Office issued instructions to Texas state agencies and public universities for their 2006-07 budget requests. Agencies have been told to ask for 5 percent less in General Revenue for the next two-year budget than they are spending in the current 2004-05 period.
Texas Reaching Only Half of Those Eligible for Food Stamps, Says New National Study (Press Release)
Release Date: 04/21/2004
Even while state budgets are tight and programs are being cut back to historically low levels, Texas could still take better advantage of federal dollars to serve the hungry and food insecure, says a study released today.
The Solution, if Robin Hood Was a TAKS Problem (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 04/3/2004
The Houston Independent School District is misleading parents and taxpayers when it blames Robin Hood for the district's money woes. For example, a recent posting on HISD's Web site claims it is losing $28 million and 124 jobs because of Robin Hood.
Don't Shortchange Public Education (Op-Ed)
Release Date: 03/30/2004
Our state is in the grip of a mental illness akin to anorexia nervosa, the relentless pursuit of thinness. Like an anorexic, who reasons that every calorie is a bad calorie, Texans reason that every tax dollar is a bad tax dollar. I invoke this metaphor not to belittle anorexia, which killed one of my cousins, but to warn that our relentless pursuit of low taxes is as sick and as dangerous.
Adoption Efforts at the Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services (Statement)
Release Date: 03/18/2004
We applaud the Speaker for his interim charge to this committee to study "ways to increase the adoption of special-needs children through efficiency in the Adoption Assistance Program." Increasing adoptions of special-needs children is of course a subset of a larger question: How do we increase adoptions? But special-needs children do present special challenges.
Foster Care in Texas and Other States Faces a Federal Financing Straitjacket, Says New Report (Press Release)
Release Date: 03/11/2004
As the effect of state budget cuts to various social services continues to surface in Texas communities, a report released today spotlights states' troubled foster care systems and how these systems could be improved if states had the flexibility to provide more foster children and their families with critically needed services such as mental health and substance abuse programs.
View All Newsroom Items by Year:
1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024