Page 388 – Show-Me Institute

Video: Interdistrict Choice for Students in Failing Schools

Posted on May 4, 2015May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

In June of 2013, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a state law that allowed students in unaccredited school districts to transfer to nearby accredited districts. The student’s home district would be responsible for making tuition payments and providing transportation. Using data, firsthand accounts, and structured interviews with school district superintendents, this paper examines what happened in response to the transfer program. Specifically, it examines how the districts responded. In all, more than 2,000 students transferred from the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts, roughly a quarter of the total student population. These students transferred to two dozen area school districts. Except in isolated cases, evidence suggests that these students were largely absorbed into receiving school districts without causing much disruption. For the unaccredited school districts, however, the transfer program had a profound impact on school finances.

Read James Shuls’s recent paper on this subject:

Updated Reports: Missouri Fast Facts 2015

Posted on May 4, 2015May 5, 2026 by Michael Rathbone

The Show-Me Institute is proud to present Missouri Fast Facts for 2015. These Fast Facts booklets cover a variety of topics and contain useful information that people can reference without having to scan through 100-page reports (that’s our job). Want to know by how much Missouri’s public pensions are underfunded? Just check the Pension Fast Facts for an answer. Want to know how Missouri highways are funded? Take a look at our Transportation Fast Facts.

These booklets are packed with information, but if you want to know more about any of the topics they cover, please visit our main website, showmeinstitute.org.

Promise Zone Just the Latest of Many Development Zones for Saint Louis

Posted on April 30, 2015May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

This week, the Obama Administration announced that parts of Saint Louis City and North Saint Louis County would become the latest federal “Promise Zones,” a designation that will put these areas in the front of the line when it comes to getting federal poverty aid and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding. While there is hope that the zone can be a catalyst for change in Saint Louis, this is hardly the first time the Saint Louis region has become part of a federal zone or the target of HUD aid.

Creating special zones to channel development is not a new concept in Saint Louis. Much of the city is part of a federal “Empowerment Zone,” which gives distressed areas tax incentives and federal grants. East Saint Louis is already part of an Empowerment Zone and an “Enterprise Community.” Saint Charles became a federal “Renewal Community” following flooding in the 1993. In addition, areas of North County have Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) status (the entirety of the city and county are FTZ eligible), which qualify some businesses for customs-free imports. Much of the city and parts of the county are in “HUBZones,” which are designed to give federal procurement preference to small businesses in distressed areas.

Even at the state level, the Saint Louis area has special development zones. Much of Saint Louis City is an “Enhanced Enterprise Zone,” which provides state tax credits to certain types of businesses setting up in certain areas. Nearly 100 census tracts in the Saint Louis area are designated as distressed communities, making businesses eligible for large tax credits through the state’s Rebuilding Communities program.

Aside from special zones, the Saint Louis area has been the recipient of just about every type of development aid that HUD has available. In the 1990s, the state received $15 million in Section 108 grants to spend on housing. In the late 1990s, the city received $20 million in Community Development loans and $2 million in Community Development grants. The city spent that money on the Renaissance Center hotel, which turned out to be a financial disaster. More recently, HUD gave a grant for the planning of the Lemay Community Center. The only major HUD programs the Saint Louis region has not benefited from are those targeted at rural areas and arson/terrorism.

When we consider that Saint Louis City, North Saint Louis County, and East Saint Louis have, since the early 1990s, benefited from exactly the kind of federal attention the “Promise Zone” would bring, it is difficult to conclude that adding yet another zone is part of the answer. Given the continued “disinvestment” in these targeted areas over the last 20 years and the growing evidence that such zones do not generate progress, it may be time to consider other policy solutions to combat economic decline.

Some Good Economic News (Well, at Least About Cost of Living)

Posted on April 30, 2015May 5, 2026 by Rik W. Hafer

Economic data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) last April continued to show that income in Missouri just isn’t increasing very rapidly. The data also provide some good news: It is cheaper to live in Missouri than almost any other state in the union.

The BEA now adjusts nominal incomes at the state level for price-level differences across states. This is made possible by the development of regional price parities (RPP). Basically, the state RPPs measure geographic differences in prices; that is, comparable costs of living. The 2014 release marks the first time these series are being recognized as “official” statistics. What do the new data tell us about Missouri?

The chart below shows that growth in Missouri’s real personal income for 2011-12, the most recent years for which the data are available, falls in the next to lowest quintile of states. We have eight other low-growth cohorts, including neighboring states Nebraska and Kentucky. But the vast majority of states (and most of our neighbors) experienced faster growth in real personal income compared with Missouri.

The income data is disheartening. But the evidence about Missouri’s cost of living compared to other states strikes a definite positive note. The chart below shows that Missouri’s RPP in 2012 places it near the bottom of the ranking. And being at the bottom of this ranking is good news for a change. This means that the general level of prices in Missouri is below the national average and lower than all but three states.

Translation: While Missourians’ real incomes still are not rising as fast as we’d like, the cost of living in Missouri is less than nearly every other state. Maybe the BEA’s next release of this data, scheduled for July 1, 2015, will provide positive news on both fronts.

Paper Release-Interdistrict Choice for Students in Failing Schools: Burden or Boon?

Posted on April 29, 2015May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

Today, the Show-Me Institute is releasing my latest paper, “Interdistrict Choice for Students in Failing Schools: Burden or Boon?” The abstract of the paper is below:

In June of 2013, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld a state law that allowed students in unaccredited school districts to transfer to nearby accredited districts. The student’s home district would be responsible for making tuition payments and providing transportation. Using data, firsthand accounts, and structured interviews with school district superintendents, this paper examines what happened in response to the transfer program. Specifically, it examines how the districts responded. In all, more than 2,000 students transferred from the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts, roughly a quarter of the total student population. These students transferred to two dozen area school districts. Except in isolated cases, evidence suggests that these students were largely absorbed into receiving school districts without causing much disruption. For the unaccredited school districts, however, the transfer program had a profound impact on school finances.

I invite you to check out the full paper by clicking here.

Missourians Take to the Skies With Increasing Numbers

Posted on April 28, 2015May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

In 2014, total airline passengers grew at Missouri’s largest airports by just over 1 percent, reversing the losses over the past two years and giving those airports almost 11.6 million departing passengers (enplanements). This mirrors national trends, as total U.S. airline passengers grew at around 2.5 percent in 2014.

The fact that air traffic grew faster in the rest of the nation than it did in Missouri could be taken as meaning that Missouri is lagging the rest of the nation in growth. But in reality, most of Missouri’s airports—including Kansas City International (MCI), Springfield-Branson (SGF), Joplin Regional (JLN), and Columbia Regional (COU)—grew faster than the national average, in the case of Springfield, Joplin, and Columbia much faster (at 8.4 percent, 11 percent, and 16 percent, respectively). Springfield’s recent growth may be enough for it to regain its small hub airport status, which SGF lost following the recession. The performance of Missouri’s largest airport, Lambert-St. Louis International (STL), dampens the state’s overall numbers. Despite a concerted push to get more flights, STL’s passengers actually decreased by about 0.6 percent last year.

The poor performance of STL compared to other airports in Missouri and nationally may be in part due to a relatively weak recovery in the Saint Louis area. It is well understood that underlying economic conditions mostly determines total airline traffic in large cities. However, Saint Louis did see some positive economic growth in 2014, along with a large increase in employment.

Another factor that may affect STL’s ability to gain both flights and passengers is cost. STL’s cost per enplaned passenger, at almost $15, is about three times the costs at MCI or SGF. Higher costs can mean fewer or more expensive flight options, dampening demand. STL’s elevated prices mainly stem from massive debt taken on to build a new runway in the early 2000s, planned when the airport was still a TWA hub.

STL’s leadership, unlike those at another Missouri airport, see the airport’s high costs as a major hurdle toward increasing traffic and are taking aggressive steps to bring in more revenue and rein in costs. This includes leasing out unused land to local businesses and attempting to attract more national and international cargo shipments.

Whether or not these strategies will succeed is as yet unknown. But perhaps the lesson from STL’s experience for all Missouri’s cities is that if their airport provides what it needs at a low price, it will be in the best position to contribute to, and benefit from, better economic growth.

Show-Me Forum: Government Unions: Restoring Accountability

Posted on April 28, 2015May 5, 2026 by John Wright

In 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court threw out 60 years of precedent when it decided that the constitution creates collective bargaining rights for government employees. Since then, public agencies, like school districts and cities, have struggled to make sense of their rights and obligations under this rapidly changing body of law.

At this forum, Policy Researcher John Wright discusses some of the key labor issues affecting government workers. He highlights many of the loopholes, oversights, and ambiguities in existing law that harm the transparency of our public institutions and make it harder for citizens to hold their government accountable.

More Progress on Ridesharing in Kansas City

Posted on April 27, 2015May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

In the last year, Kansas City has been slowly but surely opening up to ridesharing companies. The city government’s initial response to the entry of Lyft last March was negative, with officials acting almost offended at the idea that: 1) existing taxi regulations were not up to date, and 2) a company would dare to start operating without their prior approval.

Since that time, the city has made progress. Officials have given up the pretense that ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft need only apply for a permit; the city has now overhauled their entire for-hire vehicle code. When Uber and others argued that some new regulations needlessly required city-managed background checks and yearly driver registration fees, the city recently amended the code once more.

This is not to say that the city would not be served by further reductions in regulation. While ridesharing regulations are much improved, existing taxi regulations have been left largely untouched. If Kansas City persists with a lightly regulated ridesharing market and heavily regulated taxi market, it risks the destruction of the traditional taxi business model. However, some taxi industry leaders are behind the most recent compromise, which could mean that taxi companies feel they can compete with Uber given the current regulatory setup. (Alternatively, it could mean that new ridesharing regulations will turn out more restrictive than they now appear.)

These caveats notwithstanding, Kansas City officials deserve credit for their progress on this issue. Their efforts certainly contrast favorably with policies in place at the other end of I-70, where regulators seem committed to keeping ridesharing expensive and unavailable in Saint Louis.

Power Play: State to Give Special Electricity Deal to Favorite Business

Posted on April 27, 2015May 5, 2026 by Michael Rathbone

Have you ever taken a look at something and thought to yourself, “Wait a minute, I don’t think you’re using that right”? Kinda like that scene in Tin Cup when Kevin Costner uses a shovel instead of a 3 wood when golfing. Well, it appears that the Public Service Commission (PSC) has decided to get in the economic development game.

The PSC serves to regulate utilities in the state so that Missourians receive safe and reliable services while the utility companies charge rates that allow them to earn a reasonable rate of return on their investments after they recoup project costs.

However, the PSC recently instructed its staff to prepare an order granting Noranda (an aluminum company in Southeast Missouri) a reduced rate on the electricity it consumes. The reasoning behind this decision is to allow Noranda to save on costs so that it can improve its financial position and avoid financial difficulties in the future.

This is yet another attempt by the state to help improve Noranda’s bottom line. Noranda already pays the lowest electricity rates in Missouri. Since it is the largest consumer of electricity, I can understand why that would be the case (bulk discounts for large purchases aren’t uncommon). However, the state also specifically passed legislation that allows Noranda to shop for its electricity provider. No other person or business in the state has such a privilege.

Now the state wants to lower Noranda’s rates even further. Why? That’s simple: to save jobs, which is a noble sentiment, but this is not the role of the PSC. This order amounts to the government picking winners and losers, just through a different means than what we’re typically used to seeing.

I want Noranda to stay in business, but it’s not the PSC’s job in order to guarantee that. If we work to keep the cost of doing business low in Missouri, everybody, including Noranda, will benefit.

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