Free Republic

Sky Harbor International Airport recently announced it will conduct a "disparity study" to determine whether it should increase the percentage of disadvantaged businesses-those owned by women or designated minorities-holding vendor contracts at the airport. Here's another idea: how about using a blind process to award concession contracts to the highest bidder? That would ensure equal opportunity while providing added revenues to the airport that could help offset the increased cost to travelers for security and other services. But that wouldn't achieve the airport's goal, described by the study consultant as ensuring that concession owners "reflect the diversity of available vendors...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently announced plans for a new curriculum for all Venezuela schools. Criticizing the old school model as "colonial, capitalist, and soul-destroying," Chavez promised a new model: "We want to create our own ideology collectively." Private schools will also be forced to embrace the new curriculum and those that don't comply will be closed or nationalized. Exactly what the new curriculum will contain remains unclear, but one can guess it will closely follow Chavez's ideology. The Associated Press recently obtained a copy of a Venezuelan university curriculum; it consisted of required readings from Karl Marx and Fidel...