| Reason Foundation | |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Robert W. Poole, Jr., Manuel S. Klausner, Tibor R. Machan |
| Established | 1978 |
| Mission | Advancing a free society by developing, applying, and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law |
| Focus | Public policy |
| President | David Nott |
| Chairman | William A. Dunn |
| Key people | Drew Carey, Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch |
| Endowment | $4,463,208[1] |
| Subsidiaries | reason.com reason.tv |
| Slogan | "free minds and free markets" |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Address |
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 400 Los Angeles, CA 90034 1747 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20009 |
| Website | reason.org |
The Reason Foundation is an American nonprofit think tank founded in 1978 that also publishes Reason magazine. Based in Los Angeles, Reason describes itself as nonpartisan and publishes a statement of values that can best be described as libertarian. It is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that, like other think tanks, produces papers and studies to support a particular set of values. According to its web site, they are "the values of individual freedom and choice, limited government, and market-friendly policies."
Reason Foundation's policy research areas include: air traffic control, American domestic monetary policy, school choice, eminent domain, government reform, housing, land use, immigration, privatization, public-private partnerships, urban traffic and congestion, transportation, free trade, globalization and telecommunications.[2] Affiliated projects include Drew Carey's Reason.tv videos, UrbanFutures and NewEnvironmentalism.org. Reason Foundation staff also regularly contribute to the Out of Control Policy Blog.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and The Wall Street Journal editorial board have strongly endorsed the Foundation. Friedman said, "Reason Foundation's tolerance, civility, and consistency in defending individual liberty make it a haven for believers in a free society of all shades of opinion;" and according to The Wall Street Journal, "Of all the nation's conservative or free-market policy groups, it may be the most libertarian among them, the Reason Foundation in Southern California, that ends up having the most direct impact on the actual functioning of government."[3]
Reason Foundation founder Robert Poole is an MIT-trained engineer and the author of Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980.[4] Cutting Back City Hall provided the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom.[5] Poole remains at Reason serving as an Officer on the organization's Board of Trustees and Director of Transportation Policy.[6]
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Robert Poole founded Reason Foundation and served as its president from 1978 to 2001.
Patricia Lynn Scarlett took over as president in 2001. Shortly thereafter Scarlett resigned to join the Bush administration as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the Department of Interior.
David Nott, a Stanford University graduate, has served as Reason Foundation's president since 2001.
According to Reason's website[7] the people serving on its board of trustees are:
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Reason Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization completely supported by voluntary contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations, and the sale of its publications.
The independent rating group Charity Navigator rated the foundation three out of four stars.[8]
Reason Foundation publishes the Annual Privatization Report, which reports on news and trends in U.S. outsourcing, privatization and public-private partnerships. Privatization Watch is another of the Foundation's privatization publications that is published three to four times per year. Innovators in Action is an annual publication that advocates shrinking the size and scope of government, usually through privatization. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens wrote columns for this publication in 2007.
Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report ranks each state's transportation system on cost-effectiveness and efficiency. Reason has also published a number of studies opposing costly rail systems in favor of buses and toll roads. The 19th Annual Highway Report was published in September 2010.
Reason Foundation's primary publication is Reason magazine, founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander, and was originally an infrequently published mimeographed magazine. In 1970, Robert Poole purchased Reason with Manuel S. Klausner and Tibor R. Machan, who set the magazine on a more regular publication schedule.[9] Reason is the monthly print magazine of "free minds and free markets." It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews.
Reason and Reason Online are editorially independent publications of Reason Foundation.[10] Reason magazine won three Los Angeles Press Club Awards in 2008.[11]
Reason Foundation co-founder Robert Poole "is credited as the first person to use the term 'privatization' to refer to the contracting-out of public services and is the author of the first-ever book on municipal privatization, Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980."[12] Cutting Back City Hall was massively influential, notably by providing the intellectual support for Margaret Thatcher's privatization efforts in the United Kingdom.[13] Thatcher wrote in Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2006, "State control is fundamentally bad because it denies people the power to choose and the opportunity to bear responsibility for their own actions. Conversely, privatisation shrinks the power of the state and free enterprise enlarges the power of the people."[14]
The Reason Foundation supports the privatization of (or, public-private partnerships for) almost all government functions. Leonard Gilroy, Reason Foundation's Director of Government Reform, describes privatization as "a strategy to lower the costs of government and achieve higher performance and better outcomes for tax dollars spent."[15] Gilroy also notes that "If badly executed, privatization like any other policy can fail. Taxpayers are no better off, and may be worse off, if a service is moved from a government agency to an incompetent or inefficient private business."[16] During his time at Reason Gilroy has collaborated with Reason Foundation's Vice-President of Research, Adrian Moore, to co-author two studies that are essential introductory pieces on privatization, they include: Local Government Privatization 101[17] and 10 Principles of Privatization.[18] Reason is known for seeking practical collaboration between the public and private sector, and has helped implement free market-based policy reforms across the United States and around the world.
Reason is engaged in a number of transportation policy endeavors.
Reason Foundation co-founder, Robert Poole, serves as the Director of Transportation Policy. Poole has been widely acclaimed for his work on transportation policy. According to The New York Times, "For 17 years, Mr. Poole has been the chief theorist for private solutions to gridlock. His ideas are now embraced by officials from Sacramento to Washington."[19]
The Annual Highway Report receives significant media attention each year for ranking all 50 states for quality and cost-effectiveness. The 19th Annual Highway Report ranked North Dakota as having the most cost-effective roads in the country, and Rhode Island as having the least cost-effective roads in the country.
The Galvin Mobility Project is "producing results that will end congestion as a regular part of life."[20] The Galvin Mobility Project has led to a prolific production of studies on the causes of congestion. One of the most noteworthy is the book "Mobility First: A New Vision for Transportation in a Globally Competitive Twenty-First Century" by Reason Foundation's Director of Urban Growth and Land Use Policy, Sam Staley.
Reason Foundation has strongly advocated for education reform - namely through expanded school choice initiatives. Reason's Director of Education and Child Welfare Lisa Snell authored a study in 2009 entitled Weighted Student Formula Yearbook 2009, which examined school districts using student-based "backpack funding."[21] Snell is also: "an advisory board member to the National Quality Improvement Center for the Children’s Bureau; on the charter school accreditation team for the American Academy for Liberal Education; and serves as a board member for the California Virtual Academy."[22]
In 2006, Reason Foundation issued a report debunking a municipal Wi-Fi project iProvo in Provo, Utah as financially unstable and ineffective at lowering Internet costs or raising broadband use.[1] iProvo proponents responded vigorously with a white paper rebutting Reason's conclusions.[2] In particular, the iProvo team noted that the author of the report, Steven Titch, "is a technology and public relations consultant with strong ties to Qwest Communications, an incumbent provider who has opposed the concept of iProvo from its infancy." Titch claimed that there was no conflict of interest.[3] Others have noted that Reason received a $100,000 grant from AT&T the previous year [4], although AT&T does not seem to be necessarily opposed to municipal WiFi.[5]
In 2008, Reason issued a follow up report titled, iProvo Revisited: Another Year and Still Struggling. According to Reason, the predictions in its first report had proven true: "iProvo's total losses are likely to exceed $10 million by the end of this fiscal year - and that figure doesn't include the $39.5 million borrowed to launch the project, most of which still needs to be paid back."[23] Reason called for the city to "cut its losses" and sell the network to a private company. Shortly after the 2008 report was issued, the mayor of Provo, Lewis Billings, who had been highly critical of the Reason reports, announced that iProvo would in fact be sold to a private enterprise, Broadweave, for $40 million.[24]
The Reason Foundation for many years denied climate change was being caused by human beings. But in 2005, Reason magazine's science writer Ronald Bailey wrote a column declaring that climate change is both real and man-made. He wrote, "Anyone still holding onto the idea that there is no global warming ought to hang it up. All data sets—satellite, surface, and balloon—have been pointing to rising global temperatures."[25]
In 2006, Bailey wrote an article titled "Confessions of an Alleged ExxonMobil Whore: Actually no one paid me to be wrong about global warming. Or anything else."[26] In the article Bailey explains how and why he changed his mind on climate change.
The Reason Foundation has been critical of the cost of the war in Iraq. Reason magazine's May 2008 cover story "Trillion Dollar War"[27] discussed the dubious ways in which the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been funded by Congress and the Bush administration. The majority of Reason magazine's staffers opposed the war, but a few—notably the Beirut-based contributing editor Michael Young—endorsed it.[28]
Comedian and The Price Is Right host Drew Carey serves on the Board of Trustees at Reason Foundation. According to an interview by Katherine Herrup of the New York Sun with Nick Gillespie (current editor-in-chief of Reason.tv), Carey initially proposed the idea for Reason.tv after reading Reason magazine for years. Carey then both appeared in and narrated numerous videos produced by Reason.tv.[29]
One of the collaboration's first projects, Carey's video criticizing the Drug Enforcement Administration's medical marijuana raids, received significant national attention. The Associated Press covered the video and included the following quote from Carey in their story, "I think it's clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it—safely and easily."[30]
Carey's video, "Footloose in Arizona", may have helped save a family restaurant in Arizona. The Arizona Republic reported, "Kick off your boots and get ready to two-step because dancing is now allowed at San Tan Flat. Pinal County Superior Court Judge William O'Neil overturned a decision from the county Board of Supervisors that said the country-Western-themed restaurant was operating an illegal dance hall by allowing patrons to dance to live music on its back patio.... The saga of San Tan Flat drew national attention, prompting commentary from actor Drew Carey and conservative Washington Post columnist George Will. The case also received several comparisons to the 1984 Kevin Bacon film Footloose, in which a small town bans rock music and dancing."[31]
Other Drew Carey videos for the foundation have promoted free trade; criticized the government's raids of local poker games; highlighted a ban on bacon-wrapped hot dogs in Los Angeles; detailed abuse of eminent domain laws; called for more toll roads to relieve congestion; argued for deregulation of organ donation (including kidneys and other organs); and called for immigration reform.[32]
Reason.tv produced a full-length documentary entitled Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey applying success stories from around the United States to "save Cleveland." Carey, a Cleveland native, described the series saying, “(He) would like everybody in Cleveland to have rich kids’ syndrome, where they feel guilty that they had all of these opportunities."[33] Reason Saves Cleveland can also be viewed broken up into six episodes:
"Reason Saves Cleveland" was awarded "Best Advocacy Journalism" at the 53rd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.[34]
Reason Foundation and a bipartisan group of over 30 other organizations asked all of the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates to sign a pledge promising that, if elected, they would deliver the most transparent presidency in history and guaranteeing the executive branch would adhere to the concepts of Open Government. The candidates who signed the oath were: Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Sam Brownback, former Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr, and John Cox.
Reason Foundation's Vice-President of Research Adrian Moore said of the oath, "The next president should be committed to transparency and accountability. Redesigning the federal government so that it is more accountable to taxpayers is a nonpartisan issue. Transparency will help produce a government focused on results instead of our current system, which is plagued by secrecy, wasteful spending and pork projects."[35]
Then-Senator Barack Obama echoed those sentiments saying, "Every American has the right to know how the government spends their tax dollars, but for too long that information has been largely hidden from public view. This historic law will lift the veil of secrecy in Washington and ensure that our government is transparent and accountable to the American people."[36]
Reason posted the signed oaths on its website.[37]
In 2006 the Reason Foundation sponsored a "Reason in Amsterdam" event with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar, and journalist Andrew Sullivan.[38]
In 2007, Reason hosted "Reason in DC" featuring The Price Is Right host Drew Carey, MTV's Kurt Loder, author and former judge Andrew Napolitano, Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon L. Smith, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and others.
In 2011, Reason is hosted its first-ever cruise event 2011 Eastern Caribbean Seminar Cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises' Solstice from January 30-February 6, 2011. The cruise featured "Reasons A-team of crusading journalists, sun-averse policy wonks, and assorted warriors for free minds and free markets."[39]
Reason Foundation also hosts an annual "Reason Weekend" for its financial supporters and friends.