Comin’ Down the Tracks: School Choice

Posted on by Administrator

On January 25th, 2013 National School Choice Week will begin their coast-to-coast Whistle-Stop Train Tour. Along the way, the historic train will stop in 14 cities at school choice rallies. The Show-Me Institute is proud to partner with NSCW in hosting the event at the train’s fourth stop in Kansas City.

School choice is an issue that impacts all people and one that all should be able to support. The basic principal is that families should have the ability to choose the best educational option for their child. From a practical perspective, we see that giving families options improves educational outcomes for students. In short, school choice works.

We hope you will join us in Kansas City as we celebrate all forms of school choice.

Part One: ‘Responsible Bidder’ Does Not Mean ‘Union-Only’

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

Just before the Christmas break, the St. Louis County Council passed a new ordinance that changed the definition of what a “responsible bidder” is with respect to county construction projects. The idea of having a government choose the “lowest responsible bidder” for construction projects is to ensure that taxpayers get a conforming product at the best possible price. I think we would all come up with fairly similar definitions of what a “responsible bidder” looks like. But from a legal perspective, the term is intended to capture the idea that those bidding on a government project (1) can reliably perform the services needed, and (2) can do so at the price promised.

As articulated in the legal treatise Antieau on Local Government:

[L]ocal government officials are not limited to the quality and suitability of the article to be provided but can consider the bidder’s experience, skill, ability, business judgment, financial situation, integrity, honesty, possession of the facilities necessary to perform the contract, previous conduct in similar contracts, reputation and record for reliability, as well as any other factors reasonably relevant to a bidder’s successful performance if awarded the contract.

Antieau notes that at least one court has found that “discretion exercised in choosing the lowest responsible bidder must be based upon substantial difference in quality or adaptability.” Taken altogether, these observations make clear that contractors of similar talent, reliability and quality should be considered on basically even terms in a “responsible bidder” legal construction. If a contractor can do a job reliably and well, the real distinguishing mark should be the price.

But in Saint Louis County, this may no longer be the case. The county’s new ordinance requires that for a construction contractor to qualify as a “responsible bidder,” he or she must “participate in or maintain their own Department of Labor-approved apprentice program for each craft which the firm employs and have active, registered apprentices for each program.” The law further requires that “all on-site employees on the project will be employees and that there will be no use of independent contractors or ‘leased employees’ for on-site work.”

“Apprenticeship programs” are almost always an artifact of union membership. Very few non-union shops “participate in or maintain” such programs, let alone always have “active, registered apprentices for each program.” The latter requirement of “active apprentices” has nothing to do with responsible bids, but it does have everything to do with keeping non-union contractors out. Which, of course, is why it was included. The county’s move will affect all sorts of small businesses, as the St. Louis American‘s Adolphus M. Pruitt noted last month.

The bill restricts non-union contractors from bidding on County projects, thus prohibiting any minority-owned general or prime contractor from County construction work. The bill restricts contractors who don’t have active apprentices. The strange thing about this is that most unions will profess that they are not accepting apprentices. … And the number of minority apprentices active in their programs is dismal.

That is especially bad news in today’s terrible economy. I will explore the “independent contractor” aspect in Part Two tomorrow.

Join Us For National School Choice Week

Posted on by James V. Shuls

On January 25, 2013, National School Choice Week (NSCW) begins its coast-to-coast Whistle-Stop Train Tour. Along the way, the historic train will stop in 14 cities at school choice rallies. The Show-Me Institute is proud to partner with NSCW in hosting the event at the train’s fourth stop in Kansas City.

School choice is an issue that impacts all people and one that all should be able to support. The basic principle is that families should have the ability to choose the best educational option for their child. From a practical perspective, we see that giving families options improves educational outcomes for students. In short, school choice works.

We hope you will join us in Kansas City as we celebrate all forms of school choice.

Cigarette Smuggling On The Rise

Posted on by Kacie Barnes (Galbraith)

The Mackinac Center updated an interesting report about the prevalence of cigarette smuggling within the United States. It turns out, cigarette tax rates and smuggling rates have a lot in common. As tax rates and the price of cigarettes increase in a state, so does the amount of smuggling.

We have written a ton about the adverse effects of raising cigarette tax rates in Missouri (and even produced a video). Missourians voted against a rate increase last November.

For many people, this was a disappointment. It can be counter-intuitive to think that raising the cigarette tax would be a bad thing. After all, don’t we want to discourage smoking, particularly among teens?

My personal opinion is yes, we should discourage smoking among teens. We all know how bad it is for our health; we have seen (and turned away from) the graphic anti-smoking TV advertisements.

But as we see in the cigarette smuggling study, increasing the cigarette tax is not a guarantee that there will be a reduction in smoking. It does, however, correspond with increased black market activity. Indeed, in Kansas City, federal authorities uncovered a conspiracy to illegally traffic tens of millions of dollars worth of cigarettes. Mackinac’s report details all the destructive effects of cigarette smuggling, including “corruption of government officials, violence, theft, counterfeiting and dangerous, adulterated products.”

The high occurrence of cigarette smuggling reminds us of the unintended consequences that can arise from government activity. Raising taxes is not a surefire way to solve problems, even when it may appear as straightforward as people buying less because cigarettes cost more. If only it were that simple.

James V. Shuls Discusses Education Reform on Missouri Viewpoints

Posted on by James V. Shuls

Funding for K-12 public education is an important issue, especially now. The state’s school funding formula is underfunded and federal support for education is likely to decline in the next year. Show-Me Institute education policy analyst, James V. Shuls, discusses this topic on Missouri Viewpoints with Mike Ferguson. So what is the answer to Missouri’s education funding problems? According to Shuls, “The answer can’t always be more.” Rather, the state and school districts need to begin to rethink how we deliver education.

Missouri House Bill Would Tax ‘Violent Video Games’

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

When I was in high school, I played a game called “Counter-Strike,” a first-person shooter game that allowed you and your friends to play each other online. It was riotous fun, and years and millions of gamers later, the first-person shooter genre is still going strong.

That is why I think there will be significant interest in a piece of legislation filed today that would levy “upon sales of all violent video games an excise tax based on the gross receipts or gross proceeds of each sale at a rate of one percent.” Last year, in Oklahoma, legislator William Fourkiller (yes, that is his real name) introduced a similar piece of legislation, and it appears the Missouri legislation uses a fair amount of that bill’s language. For instance, a “violent video game” in the Missouri bill is defined as “a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board of Teen, Mature, or Adult Only” — identical to the Oklahoma proposal.

Of course, as most video game players know, E.S.R.B. ratings do not deal only with “violence” but with language, sexual matter, content dealing with drugs and alcohol, gambling and many other factors. As Reason noted with Oklahoma’s proposal:

In other words, Teen-rated games like The Sims, Dance Central, or Guitar Hero would be included in the tax, even though they’re non-violent.

Clearly, the law is poorly crafted. And of course, that does not even begin to address the First Amendment problem of taxing the content of speech in the way this proposal would. When asked about Oklahoma’s proposal, the Entertainment Software Association found the move to be “misguided.”

“We are disappointed that even in the wake of an overwhelming decision in the United States Supreme Court finding proposals such as this to be patently unconstitutional, there are those who still try to attack video games with outdated notions of our industry,” said ESA’s Dan Hewitt in a statement provided to Gamasutra.

Indeed. Singling out speech in video games for special taxation is likely unconstitutional, and especially here in Missouri, our policymakers should know better.

Extra Health Levy In Kansas City A(nother) Tax Too Far

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

Last Tuesday, I was quoted in the Kansas City Star regarding whether Kansas City should renew a temporary health levy that voters initially approved in 2005. The levy is a property tax meant to help pay for indigent care in the city and generates about $15 million in revenue each year — most of which goes to Truman Medical Center. As one of the tax’s main beneficiaries, it is not surprising that Truman has already started the campaign to extend the tax beyond its 2014 expiration, working behind the scenes with the city council to grease the skids of the tax’s extension.

How controversial is the tax? By Kansas City standards, more controversial than most. Early last year, The Star‘s Yael Abouhalkah asked readers in an editorial, “How tough is it to kill a tax in Kansas City?” His case in point: the “temporary” health levy now up for renewal. Kansas City is one of the highest-taxed cities in the country. If the extra health levy is allowed to expire, it would be a small but important step for the city to get back along the path of tax sanity. Whether city officials will support its expiration is another matter.

But for its part, The Star‘s editorial board is not convinced the tax should be renewed, and I have to agree. Many Kansas City families’ budgets will already be tighter in 2013 than they were last year, especially with the uptick in the payroll tax, which Washington’s “fiscal cliff” deal did not address. Who is looking out for them? And is the renewal of this tax the best use of tax money for a city that is already heavily taxed? To their immense credit, Kansas City’s citizens have made the city one of the most philanthropic. It would be better to rely on the demonstrated generosity of individual Kansas Citians to support Truman’s programs rather than to force Kansas City’s families into subsidizing Truman’s programs through taxation, particularly during these difficult economic times.

We can all agree that fundamental health care reform must come to the region and to the country, but this tax and the federal Affordable Care Act do not get us there. Missourians need free market-based health care solutions that deliver power to the patient, not the government, and we need to actually get treatment costs down for everyone through the power of competition. The extra health levy does not fix our health care problem. It just papers it over.

McGraw Milhaven – David Stokes on KTRS

Posted on by David Stokes

David Stokes has a recurring spot on McGraw Milhaven’s KTRS radio program. In this appearance, Stokes and the host discuss topics such as Stokes’ role as a member of the Electoral College, how someone becomes such an elector, the actual process of voting for electors, why the Electoral College exists, and what freedom electors have to vote as the wish.

 

Missouri Gets D- In Education Policies

Posted on by James V. Shuls

“Currently, Missouri’s education policies do not prioritize great teaching, empowering parents with quality choices, or allocating resources wisely to raise student achievement.” That is the opening statement of the State Policy Report Card for Missouri, which an organization called Students First produced. The report card gives Missouri a grade of D- for its education policies, ranking Missouri 34th among the states and District of Columbia.

The report is not an evaluation of Missouri’s performance; rather, it is an evaluation of state policies. Of course, to evaluate a policy, you must have a position. As the organization’s name indicates, Students First’s position is that school policies should be aligned to accomplish what is best for students.

From a liberty perspective, I agree with many of the reforms suggested in the report card, including:

Tenure Reform: In Missouri, teachers earn tenure after five years. At that point, it becomes very difficult to remove low-performing teachers from the classroom. Teacher retention should be based on quality, not solely on seniority.

School Choice: Most Missouri students have few options for their education. Charter schools are not authorized to open throughout the state unless the local school district approves one, and many families cannot afford private schools. Missouri needs to expand charter options and enable families to utilize the many great private schools that are serving students.

School Grading: As we witnessed with the reaccreditation of the Saint Louis Public Schools, Missouri’s district grading system is weak and provides little useful information to parents. An A-F grading system at the school level would equip parents with the information they need to make informed choices.

Portable Pensions: Did you know that if you teach in Saint Louis County and then take a job in the Saint Louis Public School District, you will lose a great deal of your pension wealth? The same is true for Kansas City. The state has three pension systems set up for teachers, making it costly for teachers to move across sectors. Moreover, the pensions are not tied directly to an individual’s contributions.

Students First is correct, Missouri’s policies are not focused on what is best for students; rather, most of our policies are focused on adults.

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