Missouri’s Squandered Opportunity

Elias Tsapelas on Jul 23, 2025

Education

How Often Should Schools Close?

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the poor performance of Missouri’s schools; for recent examples, see here and here. […]

Understanding the Decline in Student Test Scores with Jim Wyckoff

Susan Pendergrass speaks with Dr. Jim Wyckoff about how national test scores, especially for the lowest-performing students, began falling well before the pandemic and what states can do to reverse the trend.

Missouri crime, St. Louis crime, perceptions of crime, broken windows policing, quality-of-life crimes>

State and Local Government

Waiting for Perception on Crime to Change Is Not a Winning Strategy for St. Louis

I’ve highlighted the progress St. Louis has made in reducing crime in recent blog posts. The improving data are positive […]

State and Local Government

In St. Louis County, Who Will Audit the Auditors?

A version of this commentary appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. When one thinks of no-show political jobs in Missouri government, […]

State and Local Government

“Just Let Me Write the Definitions”

In The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s legendary biography of Robert Moses, Caro describes how Moses was fully capable of getting […]

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State and Local Government

Statistics Shows Crime Numbers Converging for Major Missouri Cities

The violent crime statistics in the cities of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield tell a much different story today […]

Corporate Welfare

Sun Fresh’s Struggles Were Predictable—and Predicted

The Washington Post just published a story on the failure of the taxpayer-subsidized Sun Fresh grocery store on the corner […]

One Big Beautiful Bill Breakdown, Part II with Elias Tsapelas

Susan Pendergrass is joined again by Elias Tsapelas, director of state budget and fiscal policy at the Show-Me Institute, for […]

One Big Beautiful Bill, provider taxes, Medicaid reform, Missouri Medicaid, Medicaid federal match>

Medicaid Reform Incoming

Ready or not, big changes are coming to Missouri’s Medicaid program. Earlier this month, President Trump signed the “One Big […]

Department of Education, funding freeze, Missouri education, Missouri budget>

A Freeze in July?

As a former tutor at a Tennessee Boys & Girls Club, a recent headline caught my eye: the Boys & […]

St. Louis crime, violent crime, Missouri crime, crime rate decline, public safety in St. Louis>

State and Local Government

St. Louis’s Improving Crime Data

If you were to guess that St. Louis was the most dangerous city in Missouri, you would be correct. You […]

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