Why Autistic Children Need Tuition Tax Credits

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Many school districts don’t have the resources to provide intensive services for autistic students — or the ability to accommodate their service animals. This article reports on a boy whose parents are suing his school district because it refused to allow his service dog in a kindergarten class.

There are merits to both sides of the dispute. The boy’s behavior is improved when his service dog is around, and it would be a big disruption for him to be separated from the dog for several hours every school day. But, from the district’s point of view, the teacher and classmates expect to go to school with people, not dogs. Some could be afraid of animals or allergic.

It’s not that one side is right and the other wrong, just that they’re a poor match. The district would be better off leaving its classrooms free of dogs. And the boy with autism would benefit from an environment that’s more accepting of his condition and its treatment.

How Good Is Health Care in Missouri?

Posted on by Stephen Feman

Many of my friends are involved in discussions about health care. A common thing I hear is that people are happy with the parts of the health care system that affect them personally. Often, there is a story, such as: Doctor (you supply the name) found a cancer in my (you supply the relative); he/she started therapy just in time and that person’s life was saved.

That is wonderful. But is that all there is? The health care debate seems centered on financial issues. Where is the dialogue about health? With all the talk in the news and elsewhere, is something missing? Could your health be better?

Missouri is blessed with many health care educational programs. There is the Saint Louis University Medical School, the first school west of the Mississippi, founded in 1836. Then there is the School of Medicine at Washington University, the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, the University of Missouri–Columbia Medical School, the University of Missouri–Kansas City Medical School, and the College of Osteopathy in Kansas City. In addition, there are plans to build a program in Joplin. If so many physicians are being produced, then health care in this state should be pretty good. Is it?

To find out about that, one must look at how the health care system product is measured. Although asking your aunt about her cardiologist and how well he responds to her needs can be helpful, aggregate data is needed to get valid information. The common tools used by states to measure health care system outcomes are: 1) life expectancy; and, 2) infant mortality.

According to the World Bank, “life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn infant would be expected to live if health and living conditions at the time of its birth remained the same throughout its life.” That definition includes both the current health of a population and the quality of care people receive when sick.

In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau said that life expectancy in Missouri was 76.2 years, and it has improved since then to 76.4. That can be contrasted with 78.5 in Iowa, 77.5 in Kansas, 76.7 in Illinois, 75.3 in Kentucky, 75.3 in Oklahoma, 75.1 in Arkansas, and 75.0 in Tennessee. Missouri is in the mid-range among our adjoining states, but not at the top, and many states have life expectancy rates higher than ours.

In 2009, the average life expectancy for the entire United States was 78.11, and more than half the people in this country were doing better than Missourians. What is most disturbing is that there are several countries in 2009 with life expectancy rates better than ours. With this measure, many people are found to have better health than we have in the United States, and in America many states are reported to have better health care results than we have in Missouri.

The second most frequently used gauge of health care system outcomes is the infant mortality rate. It is used to evaluate prenatal care, postnatal care, and all the other aspects of society that affect young children. The following are the rates for infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births in 2005. In Missouri it is 7.5, Kansas 7.4, Iowa 5.3, Illinois 7.4, Kentucky 6.6, Tennessee 8.9, Arkansas 7.9, and Oklahoma 8.1. Our state, again, is in the middle range. That year, the infant mortality rate for the entire US was 6.89 per 1,000 live births. Once again, it seems that Missouri’s health care results are not as good as the average for our country.

How does this compare with the rest of the world? Many international organizations study this. The easiest numbers to access come from groups interested in economics, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Among OECD nations, the average is 6.1 per 1,000 live births. The United States is not too far from that average — but Missouri is. In 2005, there were five countries with infant mortality rates of less than 3.5. What is the difference? Do they care more about their children than we do?

What is the matter with health care in Missouri? These are only a couple of the areas that need improvement. Please be sure that your quality of health is included in the health care discussion.

“Regard It as Just as Desirable to Build a Chicken House as to Build a Cathedral”

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

St. Louis was mentioned as a city that allows urban chicken farming in this article about an Indiana neighborhood and its chickens. (Thanks to Drudge Report for the link.)

I liked this part:

The urban chicken movement has businesses that sell equipment and offer tips for raising the birds.

“There are even ‘stealth’ chicken coops that look like trash cans,” Stulp said.

Camouflaged coops are an amusing reminder that some activities are better left legal and regulated. If you’re concerned about chickens getting loose and wandering the streets, you’d prefer they be kept in secure enclosures. But if raising chickens is illegal, their owners will try to hide them — sometimes in specially designed hidden coops that are completely functional, but possibly in improvised cages that sacrifice practicality for covertness.

In case you’re wondering, the quote in the title of this entry came from Frank Lloyd Wright.

St. Ann Could Become a “Pool” Sales Tax City

Posted on by David Stokes

Not just anyone can come up with attention-grabbing headlines like that. You are either born with the talent or not. Seriously, though, the above headline has it all. Mid-size suburb, detailed local sales tax issues … who wouldn’t jump at a chance to read this entire post?

My Tim Hardaway writing skills aside (that reference will be lost on just about every one of my readers, except for one loyal dude who reads from London), we all know how the current economy has really hit the financial health of malls and the cities that depend on them. One such city in St. Louis County is St. Ann, home to Northwest Plaza, which will go into foreclosure soon, and has been in trouble for some time. This will have a significant impact on St. Ann’s finances, but the city does have options.

Option one, which it will likely follow, would be to pour even more tax incentives into the property in an attempt to revive it. The St. Ann city manager is quoted in this Post-Dispatch article:

Conley said the structure of the public assistance for mall redevelopment remains. He noted that city officials hope for an eventual revival of St. Ann’s largest commercial property.

“I don’t think there’s anybody who would disagree that something needs to be done up there,” he said.

Well, I disagree, for whatever that is worth.

Option 2, which is probably a long-term solution with short-term budget pains, would be NOT to pour more tax dollars into a failing developement, and instead just become another sales tax pool city within St. Louis County. I doubt anyone in St. Ann is seriously considering this, although I would love to be wrong. If St. Ann became a pool city, it would benefit from growth around the county, and would not be so dependent on one particular mall. This move would increase the total amount of tax dollars available in the pool, and with St. Ann’s large population, the city would get a significant amount from it each year — although not near what they used to get when Northwest Plaza was a thriving mall. Those days are gone, however, and an investment in public dollars might change things around, or it might not. A switch to “B” or “Pool” status would be in the long-term interest of the city and its people.

Lest you think I am picking on St. Ann, I think Crestwood should do the exact same thing.

How Online Courses Can Help

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

From some of the feedback I’ve received on my writing about virtual schools, I get the impression that readers think online education is about supplanting traditional schools. For example, Million writes that “the digital realm is not going to and cannot replace the physical one anytime soon,” and equates online courses with “taking kids out of classrooms.”

Some students do enroll in virtual schools full-time, but that’s not the only possible model for online education. And while a mass exodus of students from brick-and-mortar schools would certainly spur competition, more realistic scenarios would improve the education market too.

Online courses came to mind when I read this article in the Post-Dispatch about the discrepancy between graduation rates and scores on state tests. High schools are graduating some students who score below proficient on core high school subjects like algebra and English. All high schools require those courses for graduation, but the content students learn varies from district to district.

Virtual schools could boost the achievement of students in districts with less rigorous courses. If everyone sees that a district’s curriculum for algebra doesn’t prepare students for the state test, the students could take that course after school or during the summer through the online academy. The district would have to bring its course up to the level of the virtual schools, or enrollment for that course would plummet.

If all else failed, it could schedule the class in a computer lab and enroll students in the virtual school during class time. Districts no longer have the excuse that it would take them years to design a new curriculum, because online courses are ready for use and available in all districts.

Payday Loan Regulations Are Misguided

Posted on by Abhi Sivasailam

The Post-Dispatch featured an article this week exploring how “Payday loan dispute does not slow use.” The article focuses on several anecdotes — a mother of small children facing cuts to her utilities, a young bachelor who simply spends too much, a woman who must borrow to cover gambling losses, and an ACORN organizer who was forced to borrow to pay for groceries.

All of the anecdotes produce a visceral reaction — either one of sympathy or of strong moral consternation. It is natural to feel strongly when presented with stories of human struggle. It is foolish to immediately react to such emotions by letting slip those words, “There should be a law …”

Supporters of tighter payday loan regulations are motivated by the best intentions. They fail to recognize a few key points:

First, rates are high for a reason; they are driven by market forces. Justin Hauke, former policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute wrote:

Payday lenders charge high fees to ensure that they collect enough money from borrowers who are able to pay to compensate them for loans that end in default. If the Legislature caps payday loan rates, lenders will be forced to issue fewer of them — and then only to lower-risk creditors. And since payday loan consumers have the highest risk of default, they are the people most likely to be priced out of the market.

The effects of curbing rates, an interference with the free market, would serve to lower supply. Hauke wrote:

Several states have passed legislation in recent years limiting payday loan interest rates. Oregon passed such a law in June, arguing that it would help save consumers millions of dollars in interest. But in subsequent months, payday loan revenues have dropped more than 70 percent, and more than 100 loan establishments have closed. The result has been less access to credit for the thousands of Oregonians who rely on payday loans to offset unexpected expenses — such as emergency medical care — forcing them either to forego such expenses or seek credit in the black market.

In this light, regulation amounts to allowing the mistakes of a minority to be held up as cause for minimizing the freedom and choices of the responsible majority.

Second, better options than regulation exist, and can be pursued. If interest groups are passionate about alleviating the burden of payday loan clients, they may be able to do more good by diverting resources to educating at-risk populations, showing them how to better organize their finances to signal credit trustworthiness, and explaining the other lending options that may be available.

Third, by lowering rates and reducing the prevalence of legal payday loan establishments, at-risk populations are opened to the dangers of predatory lending in the black markets. Justin puts it well: “At least with a payday lender, default is settled in court. In the black market, it usually involves a crowbar.”

Economics of Our Health

Posted on by Josh Smith

There’s been a lot of talk lately about health care, especially at the suddenly very popular town hall–style meetings, which have seen both violence and passionate debate. As both David Stokes and I have argued, we are better off remaining civil. And, because health care is so important to us here at the Show-Me Institute, I thought I’d weigh in with some thoughts on health care reform.

If it were the case that a government solution, in the form of any act of Congress or national board of medical care, could provide service better than an actual competitive system, I would support it wholeheartedly, and would advocate it strongly. It’s worth pointing out, though, that what we have now is not a free market — it’s not even close.

Because of economic reality, no act of government would produce something better than a competitive system would, so long as the good or service in question is excludable (and medicine certainly is). This is because the price system operates in a way that produces an optimum allocation of resources, given limited availability of goods and information.

Health care in this country is broken because government intervention prevents competition from fixing it. Alleviation of licensing, regulation, and other burdens would encourage entrepreneurs to innovate cheaper forms of care. This is true not only of the providers of health care services, but also of health insurance provision. Right now, we are lucky we aren’t all getting the kind of “care” they get in McAllen, Texas. That’s a place where doctors are really exploiting the market power they are granted by the AMA monopoly and the current level of federally funded medicine (Medicare and Medicaid). I definitely recommend this New Yorker article — which we’ve linked to before — even though I disagree with the author’s conclusions about how to proceed, policy-wise.

And, for the record, medicine is not the best way to improve health. Sound counter-intuitive? Well, check this out:

our main problem in health policy is a huge overemphasis on medicine. The U.S. spends one sixth of national income on medicine, more than on all manufacturing. But health policy experts know that we see at best only weak aggregate relations between health and medicine, in contrast to apparently strong aggregate relations between health and many other factors, such as exercise, diet, sleep, smoking, pollution, climate, and social status. Cutting half of medical spending would seem to cost little in health, and yet would free up vast resources for other health and utility gains. To their shame, health experts have not said this loudly and clearly enough.

I added the emphasis for the “other factors,” because it’s important to realize which factors may make more of a difference than increasing medical treatment, which, unfortunately, is getting all the attention in the current debate.

The above quote is from a fantastic article by Robin Hanson. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone concerned with making this country healthier.

Or, if you just want the latest coverage of Missouri’s town hall meetings from the Show-Me Institute’s roving reporter Audrey Spalding, check out her article on Policy Pulse.

MoDOT and Quotas

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

This Post-Dispatch article describes how well Gateway Constructors is meeting quotas for hiring women and minorities. The percentage of minorities hired to work on Highway 40 is above the target; the number of women hired is a little low.

What if there aren’t that many women who want to work on Highway 40? It’s obviously harder to find them — as we can see, the contractor didn’t meet the target. MoDOT is telling its contractors to hunt high and low to hire a certain number of women, while men who are eager to work are passed over. The search for women entails some cost, so the quota is basically a tax on everyone else to benefit a few women who work in construction.

It’s interesting that the public libraries aren’t pressed to hire more female librarians, nor are public schools measured by the percentage of their teachers who are women. For some reason, the state deems it necessary to encourage women who work on highways but not women who do other kinds of public work.

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