Page 468 – Show-Me Institute

Show-Me with McGraw Monday Mornings 550 KTRS

Posted on January 6, 2014May 5, 2026 by David Stokes

In the February 24, 2014, segment with McGraw Milhaven, David Stokes talks about the tax-exempt status of hospitals.

David Stokes’s previous appearances with McGraw Milhaven:

on the recent privatization of the gift shop at the St. Louis Botanical Garden (2/17/14)
on his new case study which documents examples of privatization from across the state (2/10/14)
on new credit card parking meters in St. Louis and the ongoing legislative session in Missouri (2/3/14)
on government subsidies in St. Louis (1/27/14)
on a government subsidy that Kirkwood turned down (1/13/14)
on the horse-drawn carriage industry (1/6/14)
on the St. Louis land bank–the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) (12/23/13)
on the Affordable Care Act (12/16/13)
on a proposal to give $150 million in corporate welfare for Boeing (12/2/13)
on a proposed South County connector a toll road (11/25/13)
on property tax exemptions for non- and for-profit nursing homes (11/18/13)
on the failed vote to unincorporate Uplands Park (11/11/13)
on the vote to unincorporate Uplands Park and a ballot measure to increase taxes in the Pattonville School District (10/21/13)
on the privatization of mail delivery (10/7/13)
on St. Ann’s permanent speed trap (9/30/13)
on the Zoo-Museum Taxing District (9/23/13)
on the proposed tax subsidy to move Laclede Gas two blocks (9/16/13)
on the defeat of a tax subsidy for Walmart in Ellisville (9/9/13)
on tax subdies (TIFs) to Bass Pro (9/3/13)
on the closing of Augusta Bottom Rd and municipal liability (8/26/13)
recounts his role in exposing the taxi-cab scam (8/19/13)
on the defeat of a tax increment financing (TIF) proposal in Crestwood (7/29/13)
on how St. Louis county schools will incorporate transfer students from failing districts (7/15/13)
on students in failing schools have the opportunity to switch schools (7/8/13)
on St. Louis city’s fee and licensing of street performers (7/1/13)
on patronage jobs in the St. Louis Treasurer’s office (6/24/13)
on user fees for photographers at St. Louis county parks (6/17/13)
on reforming city manager rules (6/10/13)
on zoning and its alternatives (6/3/2013)
on speeding tickets, parking meters, and why we should get rid of the penny (5/28/2013)
on the recently completed legislative session (5/20/2013)
on property assessments (5/6/2013)
on Missouri’s alcohol distribution laws (4/29/2013)
on sales taxes (4/22/2013)
(3/25/2013)
(2/11/2013)
on the funding of Missouri roads (2/4/2013)
(1/28/2013)

Traditional vs. Alternative Teacher Licensure: What Does The Data Say?

Posted on January 6, 2014May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

The journal Educational Policy recently released my latest academic paper, “Teacher Effectiveness: An Analysis of Licensure Screens.” My co-author, Julie Trivitt, of the University of Arkansas, and I examined whether teachers who were traditionally certified are more effective than teachers who were alternatively certified, as measured by their ability to increase student achievement on Arkansas’ standardized tests. Traditionally certified teachers typically graduate from colleges of education and have student teaching experience whereas alternatively certified teachers often enter the classroom with little to no classroom experience. What we found might surprise you— the two groups of teachers performed at very similar levels.

How could it be that teachers who have gone through education programs and student teaching are no more effective than teachers with little to no experience? It seems a large factor in teacher effectiveness is a teacher’s academic capability. In our sample, there were significant differences between the traditionally and alternatively certified teachers in this regard.

The individuals entering the profession via an alternative route score higher on licensure exams. This is not out of the ordinary. In New York, “only 5 percent of newly hired Teaching Fellows and TFA teachers in 2003 failed the LAST [Liberal Arts and Sciences Test] exam on their first attempt, while 16.2 percent of newly hired traditional teachers failed the LAST exam.”

Opponents of alternative teacher licensure programs often lament that the new teachers will be “experimenting” on students. There is certainly something gained from experience, but the academic literature consistently shows that the difference between traditionally and alternatively certified teachers in terms of effectiveness is negligible.

Trivitt and I concluded that “Quality teachers simply cannot be identified exclusively by their licensure route or exam scores.” Therefore, there are really only two options: “improve licensure screens to the point that we can identify teacher quality very accurately or allow schools to use reasonable screens and identify quality teachers in practice.” To me, the latter sounds like a better policy — let local schools hire the individuals they think are the best for the job, regardless of certification.

Start The Conversation With The New School

Posted on January 4, 2014May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

The New School: How The Information Age Will Save American Education From Itself
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Encounter Books, 2014

The New Year provides a time for people to set new resolutions and to strive for new achievements. That is why it is a fitting time for Glenn Harlan Reynolds, founder of Instapundit, to release his latest book The New School: How The Information Age Will Save American Education From Itself. The book describes how America’s K-12 and higher education systems must change. However, unlike our new year’s resolutions, which are more often than not bound to fail, Reynolds believes a reinvention of education in America is inevitable. Indeed, the theme of the book — taken from economist Herbert Stein — is, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Our current methods of educating students cannot go on forever; therefore, they must stop and The New School must emerge.

Reynolds, like many others, believes a bubble has formed in higher education. The bubble was caused for a variety of reasons, most notably government subsidies. “As with any subsidized product, prices rose to absorb the subsidy,” Reynolds writes. However, rising costs are only half of the problem. The real problem is that, for many, the costs of college are surpassing the value that the degree provides. “The generic college degree is today what a high school diploma used to be: a bare ticket to potential entry-level employment, even in fields that used to not require a college degree at all,” he writes. Costs are surpassing benefits. This will cause the higher education bubble to pop because what can’t go on forever will stop.

The K-12 problem is very similar. Our current model was built on an industrial model and “Unsurprisingly, the industrial model of public education has led to an industrial model of labor, complete with powerful unions that make many changes more difficult.” For years now, costs for K-12 education have continually climbed, but outcomes have been stagnant. Reynolds argues that this model is unsustainable. We cannot continually pump more money into education and receive the same results; therefore, this model will stop.

In Reynolds’ view, a time of change is coming to higher education and K-12 education because it must. We simply cannot keep going with the systems the way they are. What will the New School look like? Reynolds believes it will undoubtedly be shaped by technology and the new era will be all about customization, but he refrains from expounding at length. He also eschews policy recommendations that would spur these changes. As he states in the preface, The New School is “more of a conversation starter than a conversation ender.”

Overall, The New School is a great intro to the problems with the American education system. It is short and easy to read, but it only begins the conversation. It is up to us to continue the conversation. We need to discuss how to improve school staffing policies regarding tenure and teacher pay. We need to address the problems that defined benefit pension systems create. We need to look for ways to expand educational options for students. And as I have said before, we need to redefine public education.

I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The New School, continue the conversation, and promote policy solutions for these education problems.

A Lower, Consistent Tuition For School Transfers Is Possible Without The Legislature

Posted on January 2, 2014May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

Many have lamented that the inter-district transfer law, which allows students to transfer from unaccredited public school districts to nearby accredited districts, may bankrupt failing districts. Normandy and Riverview Gardens, the two unaccredited districts currently allowing students to transfer, are already seeing financial hardship, and reports indicate that Normandy could be bankrupt by the end of the school year. This has occurred because the districts are paying tuition rates that are often in excess of what the districts spend on their own students. This has led some to clamor for a set tuition rate.

In a recent position paper by the Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis, area school superintendents stated, “If transfers are made between school districts then a regional tuition rate should be determined.” The interesting thing is that nothing is stopping area school districts from charging a lower tuition rate now. Each district, with a vote of its school board, could decide to set a lower, consistent tuition rate. To date, none of them have. Instead, school leaders are asking for more state government action.

This is the very problem that plagues our society in so many regards; instead of taking initiative and fixing a problem ourselves, we allow or we seek greater government involvement.

The next time you hear a school leader complain about the transfer situation and how it may bankrupt unaccredited schools, ask him or her what his or her district is doing to help. Are these leaders taking action locally, or are they requesting a solution from Jefferson City?

It’s Not A Celebration When You Engage In Poor Tax Policy

Posted on December 24, 2013May 5, 2026 by David Stokes

Kansas City leaders held a news conference to claim credit for cutting taxes, which is great except that they didn’t actually cut taxes. Yes, they eliminated some taxes, but the total tax effect was more than offset by increases in other taxes.

Here’s the kicker, though. What voters eliminated, strongly urged on by city officials who proposed it, were good taxes. What is a good tax? It is a tax that raises necessary money, is easy to collect and enforce, and does this without affecting normal economic behavior (“sin” taxes are an obvious exception to the last part.) Economists of all stripes are nearly unanimous that taxes based on land values are the premier way to fund government (especially local governments). So, what did Kansas City do as the only city in Missouri authorized to impose a land tax?

They got rid of it.

Here is the silliest part of the press conference statement:

[…] said elimination of the three small property taxes also makes the city treasurer’s tax collections easier and more efficient to administer because the city doesn’t have to calculate the small levies and each owner’s boulevard front footage.

But calculating the “small levy” is no more complicated than adding a column onto a spreadsheet. Nothing more. And the front footage totals were calculated years ago and rarely change. (Although this post is more about lamenting the loss of the land tax than the frontage tax.)

Missouri requires a reassessment system every two years for a number of tax purposes. Doing a land tax as part of that is, in fact, extremely simple.

For complicated reasons I don’t need to explain here (and don’t even fully know because we have never been able to find the court file that upheld the land tax decades ago), Kansas City is unlikely to be able to reimpose the land tax now. That is unfortunate. Raising the land tax instead of adding a new sales tax would have been the better move for long-term growth in Kansas City.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/19/4702761/kc-residents-get-stocking-stuffer.html#storylink=cpy

Nursing Better Health Care In Missouri

Posted on December 24, 2013May 5, 2026 by Caitlin Hartsell

Imagine being a working mother in rural Missouri with a sick child. He needs medical attention but there are no doctors available within 50 miles. This situation is not a stretch: many rural Missourians struggle to find nearby medical care. While nearly 40 percent of Missourians live in rural areas, less than 20 percent of the state’s primary care physicians practice in rural areas. There is a simple solution, one that Iowa employs: Give certified nurse practitioners more autonomy.

Nurse practitioners are one type of “advanced practice registered nurses” (APRNs) who have national certification and post-graduate education. Their training well equips them to deal with primary care concerns, which generally includes most basic health issues. Indeed, numerous studies have found that nurse practitioners provide similar quality of care as physicians.

Unfortunately, Missourians are not able to take full advantage of nurse practitioners. Missouri has more limitations than most other states. A recent report named Missouri the 44th most restrictive state for nurse practitioners. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia allow APRNs to practice without any physician oversight. Missouri, however, requires an APRN to work with a physician in a “collaborative practice arrangement.”

Collaborative practice arrangements exist on the theory that physician oversight is necessary to ensure quality care. However, the data has not shown that to be true. In fact, many studies show that even when nurse practitioners work independently, their patients do just as well as if doctors had treated them.

These restrictions limit the amount of care nurse practitioners can provide in Missouri. Physicians can only collaborate with three APRNs, and the doctor must regularly review a portion of the APRN’s charts — even if she has been practicing for years. The arrangements also curtail when the nurse practitioner can provide care, as the physician must be immediately available via electronic communication. Until recently, collaborating physicians also had to be within 50 miles of rural APRNs. While legislation this year loosened that requirement, collaborative practice arrangements still prevent nurses from practicing to the full extent of their training.

Nurse practitioners provide high-quality care, which makes expanding their role in Missouri obvious. The main issue for many in rural areas is having access to any care. It is not a question of doctors versus nurses, but health care versus no care. Additionally, nurse practitioners tend to move to states where there are fewer limitations. If Missouri continues to over-regulate its nurse practitioners, many rural Missourians will not have health care.

One-fifth of Missourians live in rural areas without sufficient access to primary care providers, but a solution is available. The collaborative practice arrangement rules for nurse practitioners are not protecting Missourians; instead, they are preventing affordable health care. Whether it is a mother with a sick child or a 60-year-old man seeking care, nurse practitioners are competent providers. Missouri should consider eliminating the unnecessary restrictions that help keep access to quality care from more than a million Missourians.

Caitlin Hartsell, J.D., M.P.H., was a research assistant at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy.

Kansas City’s Ghost Of Streetcars Yet To Come

Posted on December 23, 2013May 5, 2026 by Patrick Tuohey

Just as with the airport, another ghost of Christmas Future is visiting Kansas City, this time regarding streetcars. According to The Wall Street Journal:

A Cincinnati streetcar project, embroiled in controversy in recent years over cost overruns and management, faces an uncertain future after Tuesday’s election ushered in a new mayor who vowed to halt the project that has tied up $148 million of city funds.

Mayor-elect John Cranley, a Democrat who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility that included stopping the project, won about 58% of the votes tallied, according to unofficial results from the Hamilton County Board of Elections. He beat out current Vice-Mayor Roxanne Qualls, also a Democrat, who supported the project.

Since then, things have become more, well, political. The Associated Press reports that the outgoing city council is trying to erect roadblocks to keep the new council from exercising its power to stop the project.

How long will it be before Kansas City, awash with cost overruns and mismanagement, regrets forcing the streetcar on taxpayers in “the single-most undemocratic election in Kansas City since the Pendergast era?” When Ebeneezer Scrooge looked upon the headstone that the third ghost showed to him, he proclaimed:

“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me.”

Let’s hope Kansas City’s leaders depart from the current course, lest we find ourselves in Cincinnati’s position.

Terminal Shopping In Kansas City

Posted on December 20, 2013May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

During the Christmas season, some shoppers may be tempted to take advantage of holiday deals to upgrade their home entertainment systems with a new T.V. or surround sound speakers. However, despite the impulse to go on a spending spree, most people think twice and prioritize needs over wants. What is common sense for most people is good advice for Kansas City as it considers spending $1.2 billion on building a new terminal at Kansas City International Airport (KCI).

Unfortunately for the people of Kansas City, they do not have nearly as many choices in new airport terminals as they do for a new television. The Kansas City Aviation Department has presented the city and its residents with a $1.2 billion single-terminal plan, the only alternative being to remain with the current three-terminal design that needs expensive repairs in the future. The federal government is unlikely to provide much aid to Kansas City for the new terminal, meaning that the Aviation Department will have to take on significant debt to pay for the project. Although Aviation Department officials claim that only the airport and its creditors will be repaying the bonds, that is only half the story. The airport must repay its debt with increased costs to airlines and passengers. Higher costs for airlines may result in reduced airline service or higher ticket prices. Higher fees for parking already are built into the new terminal plan. Furthermore, if Kansas City’s airport were to encounter difficulty repaying the bonds, does anyone think the city could or would stand by and let the airport default? With the price tag in mind, it is important for Kansas City residents to know what a new terminal will and will not provide.

The new terminal is not designed to increase flight capacity or gates. The proposed terminal will start with approximately 36 gates compared to the current 62. The airport does not use all the gates it has now, and by the Aviation Department’s own estimates, flight volume will increase at less than 1 percent per year. If anything, the new airport terminal plan calls for downsizing and consolidating operations, not increasing capacity or making Kansas City a hub airport.

So, if the new terminal is not designed to accommodate more flights, why build it? The Aviation Department claims that benefits include centralized security lines, more places to buy goods and services inside security, reduced maintenance costs, and new de-icing pads for the runways. The Aviation Department adds that the current terminal is structurally obsolete, and requires extensive repairs if it remains in use.

The question before Kansas City residents is whether the benefits of the new terminal plan justify both the high cost of the project and the demolition of an airport that many residents find convenient. Those residents may be on to something, as J.D. Power & Associates rated KCI highest in passenger satisfaction among medium-sized airports in 2010. They may decide, like Southwest Airline’s Executive Vice President Ron Ricks, that the new terminal plan’s only rationale is “to provide more customer-service amenities” and that if a replacement is necessary, “We’re confident we could come up with something for the community at a much lower cost than what’s being presented here.” Residents may decide it just does not add up, and keep on shopping, if the Aviation Department will allow them the opportunity.

Joseph Miller is a policy researcher at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy.

Kansas City School Board Member Resigns … Twice?

Posted on December 19, 2013May 5, 2026 by Patrick Tuohey

The Kansas City School District not only struggles to run schools, but also struggles to run the school board. On Dec. 18, the Kansas City Missouri School District (KCMSD) Board voted to accept the resignation of member Kyleen Carroll. This was the second time it did so; the first was on Sept. 25.

Carroll’s term would have ended April 2014. According to Missouri statute (RSMo 162.492.7), “Vacancies which occur on the school board… shall be filled by special election if such vacancy happens more than six months prior to the time of holding an election…” Carroll’s resignation was accepted on Sept. 25 with more than six months remaining. (In fact, it was tendered much earlier and appeared online Sept. 7.) It took an additional two weeks for Board Chairman Airick West to notify state authorities per state law, finally doing so on Oct. 11. On Oct. 22, the Missouri State Board of Education approved a special election to fill the vacancy.

In a Nov. 1 letter to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), KCMSD attorney Ray Sousley attempted to explain the confusion:

The last day for a candidate to be qualified to be on the November, 2013 ballot was August 27, 2013, and the ballot had to be certified on August 29, 2013. Because those dates had been missed when the verbal resignation was given, I think there was a misconception by the Board that we would not need to hold an election…

He continues by saying the district wants to avoid a costly election. But DESE doesn’t buy any of it. On Nov. 18, DESE certified the election in accordance with state law — a special election is to be held.

What about Sousley’s statement that the school board didn’t understand a special election was necessary? It is empirically untrue. The podcast of the Sept. 25 meeting includes the following discussion about Carroll’s resignation and replacement:

Board Member Marisol Montero: “So after–if it gets accepted, which I’m sure it will, the letter goes to the school board of education and then from there are we having a special election to replace the term that Ms. Carroll has left, six months?”
Board Chairman Airick West: “That is up to the determination of the state board as to the statute. We’ll accept this and send them a letter. If they determine that is within the parameters of state statute… they will make the determination.”

The Board knew exactly what was required, but they dragged their feet to avoid following state law. Now they think they can just re-vote and avoid a special election altogether. But not everyone will go along. Montero voted ‘no’ on Dec. 18 to this proposed do-over, expressing concern about the possibility of violating state law.

The KCMSD is one of the wealthiest in Missouri. It is ambitious, wanting to expand into pre-kindergarten care. But it also is failing to improve meaningful academic standards for accreditation and, apparently, struggling with managing the day-to-day legal requirements of the board.

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