Education

Remembering Gideon Rosenbluth

Aug 18, 2011
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Below is the text of the obituary for Gideon Rosenbluth, a renowned progressive economist, and a past president of the Canadian Economics Association. Gideon was a long-time Research Associate of the CCPA, and served many years on our Research Advisory Committee. **** Gideon Rosenbluth January 23, 1921 ­ August 8, 2011 Gideon Rosenbluth died suddenly… View Article

Foreign trade issues playing out in BC

Jun 10, 2011
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Last week Premier Christy Clark took the unprecedented step of promising there would be public consultation regarding the Province’s position on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union. If this really happens it would be an important opportunity.  The current government has never allowed the public to have a… View Article

Hats off to you, Mr. McKimm

Feb 17, 2011
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In the mountain of material presented with the 2011 BC Budget (OK, much of it was an electronic mountain) there was one remarkable nugget of candor. Each ministry and agency is required to prepare a Service Plan that is published with the Budget.  These were initiated originally to provide more transparency in government work.  Over… View Article

Something for the toolbox

Dec 12, 2010
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 CCPA Research Associate Marvin Shaffer has written a book that deserves to be in the toolbox of people questioning decisions around government projects. The title of the book – Multiple Account Benefit-Cost Analysis: A practical Guide for the Systematic Evaluation of Project and Policy Alternatives – won’t have it jumping off the shelves in time for… View Article

Why incentive pay won’t fix education or health care

Oct 14, 2010
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It turns out — surprise! — that it’s really hard to measure quality in complex social systems and that employing simplistic quantitative measures can backfire. That’s the take-home message from a recent talk by UC Berkley economist and public policy professor Jesse Rothstein who came to SFU to present his latest research on using standardized… View Article

The Globe’s Report on Private Schools

Sep 15, 2010
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If there was truth in news reporting, the Globe’s “report” on private schools (Sept. 14) would be labeled a “special advertising supplement”. It is essentially a cheerleading exercise for private schools, funded by advertising from private schools, so you’ll find no news in this report. Which is too bad because the topic of private schools… View Article

Your Brain on Capitalism

Sep 7, 2010
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At least as far back as Sokrates, people have speculated on the relationship between psychology and politics. In the 20th century, Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm and members of the Frankfurt School (such as Herbert Marcuse) pioneered discussion about how individual dispositions affect one’s social and political ideologies. On the other hand, social psychologists like Stanley… View Article

The U.K. having problems with its P3s

Jul 27, 2010
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Britain, which led the charge for public private partnerships under both Conservative and Labour governments over the past decades, is now seeing problems with the projects. This month the new coalition government cancelled the controversial Building Schools for the Future program.  Michael Gove, the Conservative Secretary of State for Education said the P3 school program… View Article