Page 438 – Show-Me Institute

On a Scale of 1-10, It’s 15

Posted on September 24, 2014May 5, 2026 by Michael Rathbone

Dollars an hour, that is. There is a continuing push in Saint Louis and other cities throughout the country to improve the pay of low-wage workers. That is a noble sentiment and I, for one, hope that wages do go up. In fact, I want wages to go up for everybody. However, increasing the minimum wage is the wrong way to go about it.

If proponents are successful in raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, there will be a lot of pain. First, such an increase will cause job losses. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimated that if the minimum wage went up to $9 an hour, 100,000 jobs would be lost. If the wage went up to $10.10 an hour, the number of jobs lost would increase to 500,000. If the CBO is correct about job losses, one shudders to think about how many jobs would be lost if the minimum wage went up to $15.

Is the loss of so many jobs worth the increase in wages for those workers who manage to keep their jobs? That’s a question for proponents to consider. They also should consider the fact that many people who work for minimum wage are not poor. Why mandate raises for them while risking job losses for the same people wage-hike proponents are trying to help?

There is a better way to help poor families. Both the CBO report and Professor David Neumark’s 2012 study on the minimum wage find that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a better alternative for helping poor families than increasing the minimum wage.

The EITC is a refundable tax credit that provides direct cash assistance to low-income families. The tax credit is more effective at helping poor families because it is specifically targeted toward them. The minimum wage is not. For example, a teenager working a minimum-wage job whose father is a corporate attorney and whose mother is a surgeon would receive the same monetary benefit as a single mother of two working at McDonalds. That would not be the case with the EITC. If Missouri and other states really wanted to help poor families, expanding the EITC would be a more effective tool than increasing the minimum wage.

Trucks on Missouri’s Highways

Posted on September 23, 2014May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

The Show-Me Institute recently hosted a panel discussion on the future of transportation funding in Missouri. An audience member asked what percentage of Missouri interstate traffic consisted of trucks. While that question received no direct answer at the time, an analysis of MoDOT’s average daily traffic maps indicates that trucks make up a significant part of interstate traffic.

MoDOT collects data on how many total vehicles pass over certain sections of the state highway system on an average day, including the interstates. In some areas they also publish the number of trucks that pass over the same section of road. Here is a chart showing truck traffic on I-70:

Total truck traffic on I-70 ranges between 7,600 and 24,000 vehicles per day on the observed segments, which on some parts of I-70 accounts for over 40 percent of total daily traffic, dipping to around 10 percent in the Saint Louis metropolitan area. Combining this data allows us to estimate that truck traffic averages 22 percent of all traffic on I-70.

The story is much the same for the other interstates in Missouri. Truck traffic can range above 40 percent of total traffic in rural areas, usually dipping to between 10-20 percent of total traffic in urban areas. The estimated percentage of total traffic from trucks across major interstates in Missouri is as follows:

For most interstates in Missouri, truck traffic averages more than 20 percent of total traffic along the length of the highway. The exception here is I-64/40, likely because it runs almost entirely through urbanized areas in Saint Louis City, Saint Louis County, and Saint Charles County.

However the numbers are sliced, trucks make up a significant portion of interstate highway traffic in Missouri. And with the average truck doing hundreds, if not thousands, of times the damage the average car does to highways, it may be reasonable to consider funding mechanisms through which shipping companies and residents can jointly invest in highway improvements.

I Am Somebody … Who Has a Choice

Posted on September 22, 2014May 5, 2026 by Brittany Wagner

“In this class, we learn about government; the three branches are legislative, executive, and judicial,” said De La Salle student Trinity with an air of confidence as she gestured to drawings on the classroom’s white board.

Trinity, a school ambassador, led a tour through De La Salle Middle School, a private Catholic school that serves low-income, predominantly African-American students. The school, funded largely through charitable donations, is inspiring—high class participation, positive atmosphere, and flexible grouping by ability. The most impressive quality, however, is that the students forge their own educational paths: “I want to go to Incarnate Ward,” Trinity said.

Trinity, like her peers, is highly tuned in to the various high school options available to her. Her fellow eighth and seventh graders are required to attend high school prep classes once a week, introducing them to both public and private options in the St. Louis area.

Like many other middle schools, De La Salle’s students explore colleges and careers and learn skills that will allow them to be successful in high school. The difference is that students at De La Salle decide which high school fits their own educational agenda, instead of just hoping that the school down the street will fit their personality, goals, and abilities.

“What are you looking for in a high school?” I asked Trinity.

She thought for only a moment. “Diversity,” she said.

Other students expressed different characteristics. “I want to attend a high school with a high average ACT score,” said one student. “I want to attend a school with a good sports program,” said another.

After students graduate from De La Salle, counselors continue to check in once a quarter to ensure students are adapting well to the educational environment they have selected. Individualized goal setting, family involvement, and graduate follow-up have made all the difference.

The high school graduation rate for De La Salle students is 98 percent. This is an impressive statistic considering the graduation rate for the surrounding area is 76.39 percent or less, according to IFF. The typical variables that affect graduation rates are race, income, and family status. One other variable should be considered—educational choice.

De La Salle students are beating odds because they are in the driver’s seat. Being somebody—the school’s mantra—is about choice, and De La Salle students are not just choosing high schools, they’re also choosing success.

Name One Branch of the U.S. Government

Posted on September 20, 2014May 5, 2026 by Brittany Wagner

For an immigrant seeking U.S. citizenship, this might be just one of the 100 questions he or she would be required to answer correctly. Shockingly, one-third of Americans can’t pass the citizenship exam, and a majority of high school students would not be able to pass the test. In response, a group has launched an effort to make passing the citizenship test mandatory for Missouri students.

The effort is expected to receive bipartisan support, as research shows there is an increasing lack of civic responsibility in American citizens. Mandatory testing may sound like the answer to instilling values in Missouri students, but it’s not, and here’s why:

Storing information in long-term memory does not happen overnight. It’s not uncommon for students to engage in “binge studying,” as opposed to studying for shorter amounts of time over a longer period, which is more likely to lead to long-term memory storage. Thus, a 10-question multiple choice test in which students study for one hour prior to the test will not necessarily produce value-driven Americans.

This is not to say that civics education is not important, but there are other outlets to reform that may have more of an effect. In fact, research indicates that schools of choice increase civic values and responsibility. Students who attend private schools tend to be more politically tolerant and have increased political participation, knowledge, and voluntarism.

The United States implemented No Child Left Behind mandatory testing more than a dozen years ago. It is clear that simply testing students does not magically improve student learning. Why would we expect it to work for civics? Let’s consider alternatives like school choice programs before we implement more mandated tests.

If we want students to value liberty, why not start with liberty in education?

Light Rail Never Sleeps: The Saint Louis Edition

Posted on September 19, 2014May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

Recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that St. Louis Metro would receive a TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant to build a new MetroLink Station between Boyle Avenue and Sarah Street. The $10.3 million grant covers most of the total cost ($12.9 million) of the project, which includes ancillary items like bike paths along with the station.

The St. Louis Streetcar project, which did not receive a TIGER grant, has garnered less attention. The plan would have built a 6.9-mile streetcar system from downtown Saint Louis to the Central West End, at a cost of $270 million (likely a low estimate).

You may not have heard much about this project, because Metro never mentions adding streetcars in its Long-Range Transit Plan. Their long-term improvements are focused on expanding MetroLink or adding bus rapid transit, but not adding a streetcar network. Nor was the project part of East-West Gateway’s (the Saint Louis metropolitan planning agency) Regional Transportation Plan when it was released in 2011 (it was added in 2013). City leadership did not discuss the plan until it was suddenly to receive tens of millions of dollars from the ill-fated Amendment 7.

The downtown streetcar is primarily the creation of Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, an organization whose membership is mostly made up of corporate representatives and whose budget comes from property taxes collected from a Community Improvement District (CID) located downtown. They created the plan and lobbied the city to submit the TIGER grant application. Although the process used to create the streetcar plan did not come from city residents, the methods of payment would have. The proposed methods of payment included a Transportation Development District (with accompanying sales and property taxes), Tax Increment Financing, tax credits, and parking fees.

Those new taxes and fees would have been a hard sell for a transportation mode that shadows the MetroLink and does not provide rapid transit. However, Saint Louis residents should be upset that non-elected corporate representatives were promising residents’ local tax dollars in order to get a piece of residents’ federal tax dollars. This episode also should be a warning that local non-governmental organizations have the ability to push forward wasteful civic projects with taxpayer money.

The Faux Moral High Ground

Posted on September 19, 2014May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

Bre Payton of Watchdog.org has a great piece today about the Normandy/Francis Howell transfer situation. She tells the story of Paul Davis, a Normandy parent whose autistic 16-year-old son benefited from transferring to the Francis Howell School District last year. Davis says, “The transfer program shouldn’t have ever been taken away. We were thinking our lives were going to get better, and then all of the sudden they pulled the rug out.”

Despite having the rug pulled out, Davis and other parents are pushing to make sure their kids receive a quality education. They are being fought at every step. The Francis Howell School District has told parents that they are only allowed to return if they get a court order that states the district must accept the student.

The Francis Howell School District justifies their actions by taking what I have called the “faux moral high ground.” The Watchdog elaborates:

Francis Howell officials have said they don’t want to drain Normandy’s coffers, since Normandy was required to cover tuition costs for students to attend schools in other districts.

“Sending some students to outside school districts depletes the resources for the larger student population who remain in the unaccredited school districts,” Jennifer Henry, communications manager for Francis Howell, said in an email to Watchdog.org.

As I explain in the article, “Because districts are allowed to set their own tuition rates, they could easily charge Normandy less if they were truly concerned about depleting Normandy’s funds.”

This situation reminds me a lot of what Howard Fuller, civil rights activist turned school choice supporter, said about Harriet Tubman. He asked, “Did Harriet Tubman want to end the system of slavery? Of course she did. But until that happened, she woke up every day to try to save every single slave that she could.”

Wanting to fix the schools in Normandy is a worthy goal. For now, we should provide students a quality education elsewhere.

I encourage you to check out the entire Watchdog piece here.

Policy Forum: A Discussion About The Common Core State Standards

Posted on September 18, 2014May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

You may have heard of Common Core–the Common Core State Standards–but what are these standards for primary education and are they appropriate for Missouri? This panel of educational experts discuss their pros and cons.

Just How Bad Was Springfield’s Airport Bus?

Posted on September 17, 2014May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

Recently, CBS News in Springfield reported that Springfield-Branson Airport lacks any type of bus service, forcing airport employees and travelers to rely on vehicles or private taxi service. The report claimed that the reasons for the lack of service are that Springfield City Utilities is facing decreasing transit budgets and that the city requires bus routes to have at least as many passengers as their operating costs. In reality, transit spending in Springfield is on the rise, and fare revenue accounts for a mere 14 percent of bus operating costs.

Transit agencies in Missouri often blame service cuts on reduced budgets, even after spending has rapidly increased. The same is true in Springfield, where transit spending has steadily increased, not decreased, over the last half decade.

As the chart above demonstrates, the amount City Utilities spends on operating its bus service has increased 70 percent from 2004 to 2012. Total spending, which includes capital improvements, has increased even faster. If City Utilities cannot afford more bus routes, it’s because it has been unable to control costs, not a falling budget.

Also, City Utilities does not require that “the number of passengers equal the expense of the route.” The percentage of operating costs of all bus routes covered by all fare revenue is only 14 percent. Springfield’s bus system had 1,598,366 boardings in 2012, but its operating costs were in excess of $7 million. Passenger fares do not even cover a quarter of the bus system’s operating costs, much less half.

The decision to not offer bus service to Springfield-Branson Airport may be justified. It is possible that past service to the airport had fewer riders and greater financial losses than other routes. If that is the case, City Utility officials should say that. They should not misleadingly argue that they have falling budgets or that city buses must match passengers with costs.

Educational Innovation from the Top Down

Posted on September 17, 2014May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

Is placing centralized power in the hands of government bureaucrats always a bad thing, or is it possible that centralized power can help facilitate market reforms? That is the question I explore in my latest case study, “Decentralization Through Centralization: The Story of the Recovery School District.” In the paper, I look at Louisiana’s Recovery School District, the nation’s first all-charter school district.

Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has been granted significant authority to intervene in local public schools. With this power, BESE has put in place strong centralized accountability measures that rate individual schools. When a school is identified as academically unacceptable, BESE can close the school and utilize the school building. Through the Recovery School District, BESE can operate a school in the building or authorize a charter to use the space.

Unlike most government agencies, however, BESE and the Recovery School District have used their authority to encourage an educational market built on choice. Essentially, they have used centralization to create, quite possibly, the most decentralized school system in the country.

Louisiana’s Recovery School District is an intriguing model to consider for Missouri. I encourage you to check out the paper and explore how this type of system might work in the Show-Me State.

The work of the Show-Me Institute would not be possible without the generous support of people who are inspired by the vision of liberty and free enterprise. We hope you will join our efforts and become a Show-Me Institute sponsor.