Celebrate Educational Freedom: A Lesson from Florida

Posted on by James V. Shuls

I recently learned that Florida was ranked first on the 2025 ALEC Index of State Education Freedom. That ranking did not surprise me. What surprised me was who posted it—the Florida Department of Education (DOE). The Florida DOE and the state’s education commissioner were celebrating the state’s ranking.

Florida’s embrace of educational freedom is no accident. It reflects decades of policy decisions prioritizing parental choice and innovation. From robust charter school laws to universal education savings accounts, Florida has created an ecosystem that empowers families to choose what works best for their children. It’s no wonder it tops the list.

Missouri ranked fairly well at 14th overall. The Show-Me State was bolstered by its strong showing in homeschooling (tied for first) and virtual education (tied for third). These are bright spots worth celebrating. However, Missouri was dragged down by an F grade in open enrollment laws. While some districts allow students to cross attendance boundaries, there is no statewide policy ensuring families have this option.

This is a missed opportunity. Open enrollment doesn’t just give families more flexibility; it also encourages schools to improve by fostering healthy competition. States like Florida understand this, and their success is a model worth following.

As a longtime advocate for school choice, I’ve been skeptical of Missouri’s new Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) commissioner, Karla Eslinger. Her record as a member of the legislature and her statements since taking the helm haven’t exactly signaled a bold embrace of educational freedom. However, she has an opportunity to change that perception.

If Commissioner Eslinger wants to demonstrate that she’s serious about putting students first, she should champion policies that expand educational freedom—especially open enrollment. By working to eliminate the barriers that restrict families to specific districts, she could transform Missouri’s education system and move the state up the rankings.

Florida’s celebration of its success on the ALEC Index shows the power of leadership and vision. Missouri should take note. If we want to improve outcomes for students, we must stop clinging to the status quo and embrace educational freedom. Let’s aim for the top of the list and ensure every child in Missouri has access to the education they deserve.

Missouri Public Schools Have a Very Serious Reading Problem

Posted on by Susan Pendergrass

Test scores on the Nation’s Report Card were released on January 29th, and Missouri faces a dire future if we don’t right the ship. The Nation’s Report Card is a biannual assessment given by the U.S. Department of Education. The same assessment is given to students in every state and the framework remains the same. So we can use these scores to compare states to each other and over time.

The 2024 results indicate that 4 in 10 Missouri 4th graders scored below the Basic level on the assessment. What does that mean? According to a researcher from the University of Virginia, “students performing below NAEP Basic level have less vocabulary knowledge and less world knowledge, which would limit their inferencing and comprehension capability.” Another researcher describes it thusly: “Below Basic on the NAEP means that a student is performing below the minimum expected level of academic achievement for their grade, indicating a lack of foundational skills and inability to demonstrate even basic mastery of the subject matter being assessed.”  The 42 percent of Missouri 4th graders who scored at below Basic last year are most likely now in the 5th grade trying to figure out what the heck their textbooks in any subject are trying to teach them.

Here is how the performance of Missouri 4th graders has changed over time.

This graph shows scale scores (NAEP is on a scale from 0 to 500). While Missouri was hovering just above the national average until 2017, we then began a steep slide that is barely leveling out.

But scores everywhere have declined because of COVID, right? Not so. In 2024, we outperformed just five states—Oregon, Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Here is the same chart for Mississippi.

Twenty six years ago, we outperformed Mississippi by 16 scale score points. Now, it’s ahead of us by seven.

What will Missouri look like in 15 years, when almost half of 25-year-olds are barely literate? We have a new governor and a new commissioner of education. Perhaps these questions should be put to them.

Pruning Missouri’s Bureaucracy: Lessons from FGA’s Report

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

A new report from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), Reducing Government Headcount: Proven Strategies for Reducing Bureaucracy While Improving Services, offers a clear blueprint for streamlining state governments while improving outcomes. Missouri could greatly benefit from these proven strategies.

The report highlights the success of reforms in states like Florida and Texas, which reduced government headcount without sacrificing services. Key recommendations include hiring freezes, targeted evaluations, and using technology to eliminate redundant processes. “Automation has allowed states to do more with less, improving services while reducing the need for additional staff,” the report notes—insights Missouri could apply to areas like its Medicaid program.

Unlike across-the-board cuts, targeted workforce evaluations allow states to focus on performance and eliminate inefficiencies. The report stresses: “By focusing on core services and shedding nonessential roles, states can strengthen public trust and improve outcomes.”

For Missouri, adopting these strategies could mean smarter spending, better services, and a government that prioritizes taxpayers over bureaucracy. This isn’t just about cutting jobs—it’s about focusing resources where they matter most.

Along with the Institute’s Missouri’s Free-Market Policy Guide and the 2025 Blueprint, the FGA’s report is a must-read for policymakers who want to ensure Missouri’s government is smarter, not just bigger.

The Surveillance Society Is Here

Posted on by David Stokes

A version of the following commentary appeared in the Columbia Missourian.

I love science-fiction movies that portray a future, usually bleak, society. Thankfully, the predictions generally have not been borne out, yet. Los Angeles in the 2020s is a much nicer place than was predicted in The Terminator and Blade Runner. I appreciate futuristic settings where the all-powerful government maintains a sense of incompetence, like in Brazil. The byzantine bureaucracy in the future’s all-powerful dictatorship may be more sinister, but I doubt they will become more capable.

There is, unfortunately, one aspect of society that classic dystopian movies and novels did get correct: the surveillance state we live in. Still, one big difference remains between the surveillance state we have today and the one predicted in 1984 and other works. Instead of it being secretly imposed on us by the national government and the military-industrial complex, we have largely brought it upon ourselves with Ring Cameras, Life 360 phone apps, etc. It’s more Truman Show or Rear Window than Blue Thunder.

Which brings us to the expansion of Flock camera systems throughout Missouri. Flock camera systems are license plate readers along roads that connect into criminal databases. They alert police when a car involved in a crime is located. Columbia is just the latest city to contract with the company to install such a system throughout the city. The city council approved the plan in 2024, and they are currently being installed. These Flock plate readers are becoming ubiquitous in towns, counties, and subdivisions. Supporters, including the Columbia police department, claim the cameras will both help solve and deter crimes. Opponents are concerned about privacy violations and potential abuses.

As an opponent of these cameras, I will readily admit the claims about crime are true (although perhaps overstated) and that some good comes from these cameras. I am glad the murderer of the CEO in New York City was caught using the power of the vast surveillance system (much of it on private property) in Manhattan. I am also happy that the cameras can help solve many, lesser crimes.

I rarely read about supporters of the cameras acknowledging their opponent’s concerns, however. Even with the safeguards from abuse that Flock and local police have put in place, including a limited time that it maintains the data and a focus on the plate rather than the driver, these systems undoubtedly will be abused by some. For example, a police chief in Kansas used the system to stalk a former girlfriend.

Just as concerning is the troubling idea that your car is being tracked incessantly as you simply travel around. I am aware there is no “legal” right to privacy in public settings. That doesn’t make this kind of tracking right, though, and being concerned about such systems doesn’t make you a conspiracy theorist.

More legally secure but even more morally troubling is the embracing of Flock systems by private neighborhoods. If there is anything more terrifying than giving your local busybody homeowner’s association head some sophisticated tracking equipment, I have yet to see it. Imagine Tom Cruise in Minority Report, but this time it’s a Karen who’s angry about a high school party. Just because you don’t have a right to privacy when driving in someone else’s subdivision does not justify that subdivision tracking your comings and goings along (usually) public streets.

Nobody, including me, wants local government to be a partisan debating society where every decision is put through a philosophical prism. However, I wish that more of the part-time local officials around the state would have some type of larger political philosophy instead of just doing whatever the city manager or police chief recommends. These license plate readers and similar systems may be legal, but that doesn’t mean they are right, and the speed at which the entire system is expanding around Missouri is frightening.

Caged birds are safe but hardly free. Politicians at every level need to push back against the expansion of the surveillance state. The pursuit of happiness includes the ability to exist without being tracked. At this point, we may get to 1984 yet. The best we can hope for is that it is more like Idiocracy than Soylent Green.

Eternal Vigilance in the Fight for Educational Freedom

Posted on by James V. Shuls

It has been said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. I was reminded of this as I watched Bill Mattox, senior director at The James Madison Institute, address a public school board in Florida. In Missouri, many of us look to Florida as a model for school choice. It seems Florida has accomplished what we could only dream about.

After Mattox made some initial remarks about the benefits of school choice, he was then peppered with questions from school board members and a superintendent who appeared fundamentally opposed to school choice. Even in a place that seems to have achieved great success in advancing school choice, foes of educational freedom will not go gentle into that good night.

This exchange serves as a reminder: the fight for school choice is never truly over. Even when significant progress is made, opposition persists. Opponents may be fewer in number, but they remain steadfast in their efforts to slow or reverse the momentum. Their resistance, often cloaked in concern for “public schools” or “equity,” is a testament to the very reason school choice exists: the one-size-fits-all model does not work for every child.

In Missouri, we’ve seen promising developments, like the expansion of the MOScholars program. But as Florida demonstrates, no amount of legislative success guarantees a permanent victory. Achieving reform is just the first step. Protecting those reforms requires sustained effort and ongoing engagement with policymakers, educators, and the public. If we want to ensure every child has access to an education that fits their needs, we must remain vigilant, steadfast, and ready to defend the principles of freedom and choice at every turn.

Eternal vigilance, it seems, is not just the price of liberty but also the cost of ensuring that every child’s potential is realized.

Missouri Must Do Better at Controlling Spending

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

A version of the following commentary appeared in the Springfield News-Leader.

Elections and inaugurations are a time for reflection and a recommitment to principles. As Missouri prepares for the new administration of Mike Kehoe, it’s worthwhile to consider the performance of his predecessors—especially on issues relating to fiscal management of taxpayer resources.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian-minded think tank based in Washington, DC, rates the fiscal performance of governors. The good news is that Governor Mike Parson is not the worst governor in the United States, but he’s the worst one who claims to care about limited government.

Cato has issued its report every two years since 1992. The report methodology, available online here, issues a letter grade based on each governor’s success at restraining spending and tax increases. Parson earned a D grade in 2024. Author Chris Edwards wrote, “Parson has been a tax reformer, but he has dropped the ball on spending control. The general fund budget has jumped from $10.5 billion in 2022 to an expected $15.6 billion in 2025, a 49 percent increase in just three years.”

The D grade placed Parson 40th of the 48 governors rated. Florida governor Ron DeSantis was ranked 19th and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin came in 15th. Parson was closer to Minnesota governor and recent vice-presidential caudate Tim Walz, who came in last. Of Missouri’s neighbors, governors of Iowa, Nebraska, and Arkansas each earned an A grade, ranking 1st, 2nd and 4th respectively. Even Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker and California’s Gavin Newsom outperformed Parson, placing 32nd and 35th respectively.

If one uses Republican party identification to denote a preference for small government and low taxes—and that is arguable these days—Parson’s 40th-place ranking stands out even more. It made him the worst-scoring Republican in the nation. And 2024’s score is not a fluke; Parson scored a D in 2022 and a C in 2020.

Parson doesn’t just compare poorly to other current governors; he scored poorly compared to past Missouri governors. Parson’s letter grades surpass only those of Mel Carnahan (scoring D, D and F) and Robert Holden (F). Parson even seems to score worse than Jay Nixon, whose scores were B, C, D, and D. (If you’re wondering, Matt Blunt was the best scoring governor since 1992, earning Missouri’s only A in 2006 and a B in 2008.)

Note that the report’s methodology changed for the 2008 report but has remained the same since. Previous iterations relied on many more variables, but the outcomes are unlikely to have been much different.

Missouri’s total spending has practically doubled in the last five years, including not just the general fund, but other dedicated state funds and federal money. That total spending jumped from $27 billion in 2019 after Parson’s first year in office to a little more than $50 billion for 2025. It now costs three times as much to run Missouri as it did in the Carnahan and Holden administrations!

Parson’s profligacy stems from the decisions he’s made since the federal government’s COVID relief funds flooded Missouri’s budget with billions of dollars in one-time cash. States were given considerable discretion on how to use much of the relief funding, not to mention the state tax dollars the federal cash freed up for other uses. Unfortunately, Parson, with the help of Missouri’s General Assembly, fell victim to the allure of so-called free money.

Today, Missouri’s budget is littered with what were once temporary initiatives that never ended and now receive permanent funding. Or, perhaps worse, formerly federal obligations that are now borne by state taxpayers.

Key among these includes Parson’s decision to use state funds to maintain the higher childcare subsidies the federal government subsidized during the COVID pandemic, now costing state taxpayers at least $70 million annually. Parson also failed to meaningfully manage Medicaid spending. Missouri’s lackadaisical approach to checking program recipient eligibility, after the federal government lifted its COVID-era ban on the practice, has likely cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars thus far.

In addition, Parson increased state employee pay by 7.5% plus an additional 3.2% cost of living increase last year. These raises were paid for with a temporary influx of state funds, but because the increased pay was not made commensurate with employee reductions, the higher salaries will require new permanent funding sources and will increase the obligations of the already underfunded state pension system.

Governor-elect Kehoe has a difficult job ahead of him administering government and working to attract more families and employers to the Show-Me State. Unfortunately, his predecessor has done him—and the people of Missouri—a great disservice by failing to properly manage taxpayer funds.

Banning Smartphone Use in Schools with John Ketcham

Posted on by Susan Pendergrass

Susan Pendergrass speaks with John Ketcham, legal policy fellow and director of cities at the Manhattan Institute, about his Model Legislation to Restrict Smartphone Use in K–12 Public Schools. They discuss the growing concerns over smartphone use in schools, its documented negative impacts on students’ academic performance and social development, how the proposed legislation aims to create a more focused educational environment, and more.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts 

Listen on SoundCloud

Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

The Gang that Couldn’t Plow Straight

Posted on by Scott Tanner

There’s an old warning that “the plural of anecdote is not data.” But there sure are a lot of anecdotes regarding the City of St. Louis’s alarmingly ineffective performance in clearing ice and snow from the streets after the recent (although, at this point, not all that recent) snowstorm.

I live in the Central West End neighborhood of the city, and my street (to the best of my knowledge) was never plowed. For the better part of two weeks, I was not able to move my car. As of this writing, the trash in the dumpster in my alley has not been picked up since before the storm—a storm that began on January 5.

For one thing, the inability to clear the roads created much more serious problems. Some people have had to rely on friends or family just to get groceries. Mail delivery in the city has essentially ground to a halt. Most pressingly, impassable streets create difficult scenarios for emergency services. There are stories of people who need medical help and live on streets that ambulances can’t currently reach.

It is fair to point out that this was a big storm, and probably an unusually difficult storm to deal with. Freezing rain falling right before a lot of snow is a headache. But this was also not some once-in-a-century storm. We had about 10 inches of snow and some ice—Midwest cities ought to be prepared to deal with storms like that occasionally.

A KSDK story noted that $600,000 was cut from the city streets department for snow removal, but city officials have explained that this money was mostly for salt, and that the city already had stockpiles of extra salt because of recent mild winters.

This isn’t a story about resources. It’s a story about incompetence.

Predictably, we’re beginning to see finger-pointing and recriminations. The mayor blamed residents for leaving parked cars in the path of snow plows. The director of the streets department claimed she was getting “incorrect information” regarding the situation. Leaving aside the morality of throwing your staff under the bus, this claim does not pass the smell test. Figuring out street conditions is not a difficult feat of intelligence gathering—this is not like trying to gain information about a nuclear program in a rogue nation. If you step outside pretty much anywhere in the city, it’s apparent. Or you could check any of the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of posts on social media detailing the situation.

The city seems to be conceding that it screwed up, and that something needs to change. Officials have signaled that the longstanding policy of not plowing side streets might be changing. The city also resorted to hiring outside contractors to help clear the ice.

This is a great example of the wisdom in my colleague Patrick Tuohey’s pleas that Missouri cities focus on providing basic services. Instead of addressing crime or maintaining infrastructure, the City of St. Louis seems eternally fixated on shiny objects like economic development subsidies that don’t work or expanding train service that very few people use. People don’t want to live in a place that can’t provide an adequate level of essential services—and residents are voting with their feet. How long is it going to take city leaders to figure this out?

Missouri is Shrinking

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

In each decade of the past 50 years, Missouri’s population growth has failed to keep pace with the nation. From 2004 through 2023, Missouri had the 11th-worst decline in population share. As a result, Missouri lost a congressional district due to the reapportionment after the 2010 Census.

Our two biggest cities—the economic engines of the state—have failed to grow as well. The City of St. Louis is emptying out, dropping from 622,236 in 1970 to 301,578 in 2020, though the larger metropolitan area has absorbed much of that loss. Kansas City saw dramatic population drops in the 80s and 90s, though recent growth has brought us up to over 500,000 around where we were in 1970. (Even still, the Kansas suburbs have been growing at a much higher rate than the city proper for decades.)

U-Haul publishes a migration index each year. For 2024, Missouri ranked 28th for growth.

Where is everyone fleeing to? The largest beneficiary of Missourian departures is Kansas—which is not a surprise to those of us here in the eastern part of the state. Kansas’s suburbs offer better schools, seemingly better-maintained infrastructure, and lower crime. Second is Illinois, with Texas, Arkansas and Florida rounding out the top 5 destinations.

(Aside: Yes, Florida and Texas have better climates than Missouri, but so do plenty of other states. Florida and Texas also have no state income tax. The Tax Foundation reports that low-tax states saw greater population growth than high-tax states.)

Missouri’s portion of the national GDP is shrinking as well. We produced 2% of the nation’s GDP in 1997. Today we produce only 1.5%.

Missouri’s leaders, at the state and local level, must decide if they are satisfied with our slow and steady decline. If they aren’t, what are their plans to reverse it? It can’t be more of the same, where we have driven up housing costs through foolish energy policies, or failed to deliver basic public safety. It certainly cannot be a continuation of former Governor Mike Parson’s profligate spending.

The Show-Me Institute has some ideas, thank you for asking, and most of them are about helping Missourians by getting government out of the way of families, businesses and entrepreneurs.

Not everyone will agree with our proposals. That is fine. But every leader should be asked: if not these policies, then what is your plan for reversing Missouri’s glide path to oblivion?

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