Page 178 – Show-Me Institute

Homeschooling, Centralized Education, and Bastiat

Posted on April 1, 2020January 13, 2026 by James V. Shuls

As my family and I practice social distancing, I’ve decided to take time to read some of the “must-read” authors in the free-market or classical liberal tradition. First up is Frédéric Bastiat. Many of his thoughts are salient for issues we are facing today.

Bastiat (1801–1850) was a French economist. In his most prominent essay, What is Seen and What is Not Seen, he explained how policymakers often tout the immediate effects of a policy but ignore what might have happened without the policy—what is not seen. This would later be known as the concept of “opportunity cost.” Whether discussing tax subsidies for sporting stadiums, tax-increment financing for development in flood plains, or a host of other issues, policy analysts at Show-Me Institute regularly follow in the tradition of Bastiat by explaining what is not seen.

In another of his popular essays, The Law, Bastiat explains that “the law is justice.” The purpose of the law is not to bestow rights or benefits on members of society, but instead: “Its function is to prevent the rights of one person from interfering with the rights of another.” His ideas on property rights and the purpose of the law help form the foundation of the classical liberal tradition.

Lately, I have been particularly intrigued by his essay Justice and Fraternity. I am an educator by trade. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in elementary education and my Ph.D. is in education policy. I have been a classroom teacher in public schools and I currently teach university classes for aspiring principals and superintendents. Through my experiences, I have developed some specific views on the purpose of education and what constitutes great teaching. Often, I find these views are not shared by others. Indeed, there are many ideas on the matter that are often incongruous with one another. This is one of the reasons I am so supportive of school choice; it allows individuals to explore the type of education they view as the best.

Others, however, are not sold on school choice. They believe the state should dictate what and how students learn. Oh, they may not say this directly, but consider what they propose. They want the government to dictate which schools children will attend. They want those schools to be accountable to government agencies and financed by funds from the government. They want the government to certify teachers who will teach government-approved content standards. In short, they want a heavily regulated and centralized system of education.

Now let’s suppose that there is one best way to educate students. Bastiat suggests in Justice and Fraternity that the best way to discover this one best way is through a decentralized system:

Obviously, if people could agree on the best possible kind of education, in regard to both content and method, a uniform system of public instruction would be preferable, since error would, in that case, be necessarily excluded by law. But as long as such a criterion has not been found, as long as the legislator and the Minister of Public Education do not carry on their persons an unquestionable sign of infallibility, the true method has the best chance of being discovered and of displacing the others if room is left for diversity, trial and error, experimentation, and individual efforts guided by a self-regarding interest in the outcome—in a word, where there is freedom. The chances are worst in a uniform system of education established by decree, for in such a system error is permanent, universal, and irremediable. Therefore, those who, in the name of fraternity, demand that the law determine what shall be taught and impose this on everyone should realize that they are running the risk of having the law direct and impose the teaching of nothing but error; for legal interdiction can pervert the truth by perverting the minds that believe they have possession of it.

There are two important points made here. First, that the rational self-interest of diverse groups of individuals is better suited to discover the best way to educate students, or at the very least to satisfy the desires of the most individuals. Second, instituting one method from on high via government agencies is a surefire way to mandate error. At present, we do not have the magical education bullet that will meet the needs of every child. Therefore, a centrally imposed system will by its very nature force some students into a system that doesn’t work for them.

Think about this as we move forward in the coming months. As schools remain closed, parents throughout the country will be taking on the new role of home educator. They will, undoubtedly be working to find the system that works best for them. These parents will need the support of teachers and schools, but they are most likely to find that system through their own trial and error. They do not need a government order that forces every family to conform to the same routines.

In my estimation, some of Bastiat’s essays should be required reading for high school economics students. Maybe I should work to impose that view on others.

Census Estimates Show St. Louis Population Falling . . . Again

Posted on April 1, 2020January 13, 2026 by Corianna Baier

While the world is facing a whole new set of problems with the COVID-19 crisis, the city of St. Louis continues to struggle with a problem it has had for years: population decline. The U.S. Census Bureau released new population estimates for 2019 and St. Louis hasn’t done so well in the past year, or the past decade for that matter. Could local policies be negatively affecting St. Louis’s population growth?

According to the new estimates, the city of St. Louis is getting close to dropping below 300,000 residents. The city’s 2019 population estimate is 300,576, down by over 2,800 from 2018. This isn’t a new occurrence, but rather a continuing trend—the city’s population has fallen by nearly 6% since 2010, shown in the graph below. St. Louis County also lost population, dropping by 1,014 from 2018 to 2019.

Other areas of Missouri are not experiencing this same trend. Right outside of the St. Louis area, St. Charles passed the 400,000 mark, adding 3,242 people in 2019. Many other areas also experienced growth, including Clay, Greene, and Jackson counties.

Though we can’t know for certain why people are moving out of St. Louis, Show-Me Institute researchers have written on population trends before, and much of what has been said still holds true. Policies that promote success and freedom for people and businesses can attract residents while those that place onerous burdens can deter.

Things like an earnings tax on residents and workers, high sales taxes, and stringent business regulations can create an unwelcoming environment. Additionally, poor school performance, high crime rates, and failed public projects can make St. Louis an unattractive option. If we want to reverse the trend, policymakers will need to address these issues. The sooner, the better.

Governor Approves Waivers Expanding Health Care Supply, Including License Reciprocity

Posted on March 31, 2020January 13, 2026 by Elias Tsapelas

Yesterday, on National Doctors’ Day no less, Missouri’s Governor took two big steps to bolster the state’s coronavirus response. The first grants license reciprocity for doctors from other states, which will immediately allow them to begin treating Missourians. The newly waived regulation applies to telemedicine as well, meaning that physicians in other states can now offer support to Missourians remotely. The second removes the onerous requirement that doctors collaborating with advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) be located within 75 miles of each other. Taken together, these measures greatly expand the ability of our nation’s health care providers to treat Missourians as our state deals with the COVID-19 outbreak.

My colleagues and I have written extensively about how Missouri could increase access to health care. One of the most crucial steps in a pandemic is allowing every competent health care professional from around the country that is willing to help in Missouri the ability to do so. License reciprocity does just that. Physicians from Illinois, Kansas, and elsewhere can now come to the Show-Me State—both physically and virtually—and begin their important work.

Waiving the distance requirement for collaborating physicians and APRNs will also significantly improve access to care. Previously, for APRNs to prescribe and treat patients in Missouri, they had to collaborate with a licensed physician that was within 75 miles. As the number of Missouri counties with positive coronavirus cases increases by the day, allowing health care providers to move around and serve each corner of the state without restriction is paramount. This change will both help contain the virus and improve access to care across Missouri.

Perhaps the biggest concern with the coronavirus outbreak is that it could overwhelm Missouri’s health care system, and it is good news that the governor has acted quickly to better prepare our state. But this is just the beginning, and there are still a variety of areas where removing unnecessary government barriers would strengthen Missouri’s response. The Show-Me Institute will keep shining a light on these important policy changes as our state navigates these trying times.

How Can We Make Sure Missouri Students Can Still Learn?

Posted on March 31, 2020January 13, 2026 by Abigail Burrola

At the start of the school year, no one expected a pandemic to put the school year on hold. But now all of the state’s districts and charter schools are temporarily closed. While some students may not get any schooling before the start of the next school year, others are transitioning to online learning. As schools have closed, there has been a wave of concern regarding student’s ability to access technology such as computers or quality internet in order to continue learning online.

The best way to address this concern would be via an emergency tax-credit scholarship program. This tax-credit scholarship program could function much like a regular tax-credit scholarship program. Individuals and businesses donate to a scholarship-granting organization (SGO), and the SGO distributes the money to students who qualify based on the program requirements (the attached infographic has more detail on how the funding works). An emergency tax-credit scholarship could be awarded in cases such as the current pandemic, or in other cases such as natural disasters or even when individual families go through crisis.

Unfortunately, it seems very unlikely this type of program will pass this year. This is an important lesson about being proactive. If Missouri already had a tax-credit scholarship program, it would have been much easier to get kids the help they needed in a crisis. Instead, schools and districts are left scrambling to try and make something work without the resources required.

Tax-credit scholarships would help give families the ability to purchase the materials students need to keep learning even if it’s not in a traditional brick and mortar school. Lack of access to the internet or a computer are real barriers to learning for many students, but tax-credit scholarships could help fill that gap. Missouri can better prepare for unforeseen circumstances if only we would get a little creative.

Look Around and See the Market at Work

Posted on March 30, 2020January 13, 2026 by Corianna Baier

We are truly living in an unprecedented time. Social distancing is difficult (to say the least) for people and businesses alike. A slight glimmer of hope is that market freedoms are allowing businesses to try to adapt to these new circumstances.

Here are a few market adaptations that I’ve observed in the past week:

Food delivery services, once just a convenience, have now become a saving grace for people and businesses.
Workplace messaging platforms and virtual conference calls are becoming more popular and helping to maintain some normalcy while many of us work from home.
Many St. Louis breweries and other companies are using their facilities to make hand sanitizer and delivering it to those who may need it.
Local bakeries are creating at-home decorating kits to deliver both a sweet treat and an activity for kids.
The importance of certain technological advances, such as self-driving trucks and delivery robots, has become much more apparent. On top of other benefits, these innovations could increase our delivery capacity while reducing human contact.

I’m sure that many more innovations and adaptations such as these can be seen across the country. In general, we can see that certain sectors of the market have become critical features of everyday life while other companies are coming up with new ideas to keep business alive.

You cannot predict what will happen in this world, and that’s why we need the free market—it allows people to pursue ideas and adapt when situations change. Small, innovative changes certainly will not counteract the economic effects of this crisis and we shouldn’t trivialize the economic hardships to come, but we’re lucky that our free-market system allows for these small adaptations to lessen the blow.

What the Heck Is Happening Out There?

Posted on March 27, 2020January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

In the midst of a pandemic, it’s hard to say exactly what’s going on. But here is a bit of what is going on in public education. Nationally, just about every public school is closed—some for another week or so and some until the end of the year. In Missouri, some districts are closed until localized social distance orders are lifted (April 22nd for St. Louis City and County), while others are on extended spring breaks. The governor has ordered that all schools remain closed until at least April 6th.

At the state level, eight governors have issued executive orders, proclamations or initiated coronavirus task forces. At least seven state education departments have offered statewide guidance, with California’s being an excellent example. Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has a webpage with information related to COVID-19. DESE has also issued administrative guidance to all superintendents regarding school funding, attendance waivers, and the cancelation of Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) testing. Links to information on virtual instruction are provided, but it is left up to districts and schools to determine whether they will use them. Two of the statewide virtual learning programs, Launch and the Missouri Virtual Academy, currently only say that short term-enrollment is “possibly available.”

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington has been painstakingly building a database of district COVID-19 responses. The plans range from detailed and specific like Miami’s “comprehensive district learning plan that includes online learning curricula and teacher support, technology device and WiFi access provision, and supplemental resources for special populations” to simple and broad, like districts in Pennsylvania that have essentially cancelled school for the rest of the school year. St. Louis Public Schools doesn’t appear to have much of a plan right now. It is “considering” sending homework assignments to students through the mail, the approach that Kansas City Public Schools is also adopting.

So, what does all of this mean? We’re in uncharted territory and everyone is creating their own map. Districts and states that were prepared will have a much easier time providing their students an actual education. Florida, for example, already requires every high school student to take at least one of their courses online and is currently providing $200 stipends to the first 10,000 teachers who pass their virtual education training program. Those that have not embraced virtual education, like Missouri, are either going to have to figure it out very quickly or punt until the end of the school year.

The Show-Me Institute will be monitoring it all very closely and looking for best practices and lessons learned for when we eventually emerge from this crisis.

Increasing Access to Health Care in Missouri During a Pandemic – and Beyond

Posted on March 27, 2020January 13, 2026 by Show-Me Institute Staff

Now more than ever, it’s critical to remove unnecessary obstacles that prevent Missourians from accessing health care. Here are five ways Missouri could increase access to health care during the coronavirus pandemic.

Audit the Kansas City Water Department

Posted on March 26, 2020January 13, 2026 by Patrick Tuohey

Water rates in Kansas City may soon go up, according to two ordinances just passed out of the city council’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee. Ordinance 200168 would increase water rates by five percent and Ordinance 200169 would increase sewer rates by two and a half percent. These are just the most recent increases in a years-long spike in city-run utility costs.

A 2017 KCPT documentary detailed the effect of the increases in water rates—240 percent since 2000—on many Kansas Citians, and the apparent inability—or unwillingness—of local leadership to do anything about it. All of this is due to a settlement with the EPA, which cited Kansas City for multiple violations of the Clean Water Act and forced the city to agree to extensive upgrades to its water and sewer system.

Taking the violations and the need to address them at face value, it is still fair to ask what is going on with the water department. How is it spending its money and are there opportunities to be more efficient? Here there might be an opportunity. In its 2019 endorsement of Quinton Lucas’s mayoral effort, The Kansas City Star editorial board quoted Lucas as saying at a prior candidate debate, “I’m not just open to a conversation on a state audit; I think we need a state audit of the water department.” This is welcome, especially since the previous mayor denied requests by the Missouri State Auditor to conduct an audit of the water department.

It may very well be that the city-run water department is a model of efficiency and that these frequent increases are necessary. If that is the case, there may be other opportunities to address rising costs in a way that does not so burden those among us who are at the most risk of losing service. Mayor Lucas, the city council, and indeed those at the water department should all welcome an audit, be it by the Missouri State Auditor, a private and completely independent firm, or both.

COVID-19 Highlights Need for Telehealth

Posted on March 25, 2020January 13, 2026 by Elias Tsapelas

As confirmed cases of coronavirus across Missouri continue to climb, there are concerns that the coming influx of patients may overwhelm our state’s hospitals and clinics. But even with the obvious focus on COVID-19, many people still need access to health care even though their illnesses may be less pressing. One tool that could help ease the burden on our hospitals and clinics is telehealth.

Telehealth (or telemedicine) refers to the practice of receiving health care remotely using telecommunication technologies. Telehealth allows patients to access a doctor or provider through their phone or computer in instances where physical interaction is not required. Accessing services remotely would have the dual benefit of reducing the strain on Missouri’s health care infrastructure while also allowing higher-risk individuals to stay at home to avoid potentially contracting the coronavirus. Unfortunately, there are various laws and regulations preventing telehealth from being more widely used.

Most forms of health coverage, including Medicare and Medicaid, cover telehealth services in at least some circumstances. But the restrictions placed on where telehealth services may be accessed and who can provide them have drastically limited the potential benefits. For example, providers must be licensed to practice in the state where the patient is located. This causes problems in areas that closely border another state, and also limits the number of providers able to help across the country, as the current demand for health care varies greatly from state to state.

Additionally, payers such as Medicare restrict access to most telehealth services by requiring the patient live in a geographically underserved area AND that the services be accessed at a limited list of locations. In many cases, the approved locations for accessing care are either doctor’s offices or hospitals, which defeats much of the purpose of telehealth. This means that elderly Medicare recipients who live in higher population areas (which are the areas that have thus far been hardest hit by COVID-19) may not ever be eligible to receive care through telehealth services. And even if these patients were eligible, they would need to potentially expose themselves to the virus by going to a clinic or hospital to receive the care instead of accessing it remotely. Both of these restrictions make accessing health care services harder than it needs to be.

There is some good news, though. This week, Governor Parson announced that he will be waiving regulations that restrict providers from other states from using telehealth to treat Missourians. The federal government appears to be following suit by signaling it may attempt to make telehealth more accessible. Coronavirus has emphasized the need for laws governing health care to not discriminate based on geography. Allowing patients to receive care remotely represents an important step that could both improve health outcomes and contain COVID-19. State and federal policymakers should move swiftly because these changes cannot come soon enough.

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