Anti-Locavore Oldie but Goodie

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

This Time article is from the inimitable Joel Stein. He describes how he takes on the locavore movement and prepares a complete distavore meal — distavore being the opposite of locavore. That is, he goes out of his way to use ingredients from distant lands and far-flung regions of the world. Then he explains why he thinks reactionary locavores are wrong:

The local-food movement is deeply Luddite, part of the green lobby that measures improvement by self-denial more than by actual impact—considering shipping food in containers is often more energy-efficient than a local farmer trucking small amounts that are then purchased on a separate weekend farmers’-market trip you take in your SUV.

I don’t think most locavores genuinely care about the energy use of different transportation methods. They’re more often motivated more by a distaste for trade and business. (To see for yourself, ask a locavore what he thinks of Monsanto!) As for impact, locavores strive to make an impact on attitudes and budgets through a lot of incremental changes: growing seeds in cups on the windowsill, for example, or requiring school districts to purchase a percentage of their cafeteria food from nearby farmers.

Locavores’ practices probably won’t affect climate change or pollution very much. The reason to keep an eye on them is that they could have a significant impact on agricultural and trade policies. If they succeed, the rest of us will subsidize their lifestyle while they laugh all the way to the bank — or to the farmers’ market.

Holding the Line on the Welfare State

Posted on by David Stokes

The Missouri House of Representatives has shown some real political courage on the complicated issue of expanding the state’s Medicaid rolls. I say “complicated” because the proposal voted down by the House would have been paid for almost entirely by federal funds, so the legislators decided against spending “free money” — as if something like that exists. Combest has the links to all the stories.

If more elected officials started to acknowledge that there is no such thing as a free lunch, our fiscal houses would be in better shape. Missouri’s state budget is better off than those of many other states for a number of reasons, but one of them is when state officials made the difficult choice to tighten eligibility for Medicaid a few years ago. “But you’re balancing the budget on the backs of the poor,” some will no doubt say. “Preserving money for the truly needy” would be the best response, as would arguing, correctly, that when taxes are kept low, the economy will produce fewer needy people in the first place.

My own experience in government, although limited in the field of health care, tells me that local government funding for health clinics is among the most effective public money spent to help the needy in our community. It’s much better spent than just adding more and more people, who may or may not be truly needy, to the state dole.

Recapping the Hoxby Lecture

Posted on by Dave Roland

On Tuesday night, the Show-Me Institute and Saint Louis University were thrilled to host Dr. Caroline Hoxby for a lecture detailing recent research about the promise of charter schools. In a nutshell, Hoxby reviewed the data collected in recent years from charter schools in New York and Chicago — and the news is very good! Charter schools as a whole are proving to be an effective means of improving student achievement, regularly accomplishing greater gains than other types of school reform.

Hoxby explained that one of the things setting her research apart from other studies is that her design allows for comparison of groups of students that are statistically indistinguishable. This is possible because charter schools in New York and Chicago assign placement by random lottery when they have more applicants than they do seats (which happens frequently). Student trying to get into charter schools are very similar in terms of race, socioeconomic status, parental education and motivation, and previous academic performance. Thus, the only ready difference between the students is whether they won the lottery for charter school placement, or whether they were forced to remain in the traditional school system.

Hoxby’s research has revealed that the charter students in these two cities reliably demonstrate better academic progress than those who remain in traditional public schools. Because many of these students were already academically far behind at the time they entered charter schools, their test scores may continue to lag behind those of the average public school student during the short term. But research shows that, over time, charter school students can be expected to close the achievement gap and eventually outperform their peers who stay in traditional public schools.

The Show-Me Institute videotaped Tuesday’s lecture, and as soon as we are able we will post the video on our website so that everyone can enjoy Dr. Hoxby’s presentation. Stay tuned!

Midwives

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

The International Day of the Midwife happened this week, so I thought I’d check up on the midwives. There isn’t much midwifery news in Missouri these days, now that the law here is so good.

There is some news in New York, however. Midwives there need a formal collaboration with a physician in order to practice, and they’re campaigning to get that barrier to entry removed. It’s one of the many restrictions on midwifery that Missouri law happily eschews.

For more information, see the New York midwives’ website.

Four-Day School Weeks in the L.A. Times

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

A four-day school week proposal was voted down in the Missouri Senate a few weeks ago, but the idea is still alive and well in other parts of the United States. This L.A. Times story reports on districts in California that are considering a schedule change. One reason for four-day school weeks given in the article is particularly relevant to rural parts of the Midwest:

Administrators in rural districts say it’s one way they can entice teachers to take lower pay and live farther from big cities.

Rural districts can’t act just like big-city districts if they want to hire equally talented teachers. They must either pay more (usually not possible) or offer some other incentive, like long weekends.

It doesn’t matter whether four-day weeks are better than five-day weeks, holding all other variables constant. Districts have to take into account how other elements of the school day, such as teacher quality and available resources, will change in response to the shorter week. It could be that shorter weeks hurt test scores if everything else is equal, but that the resulting flexibility in hiring more than makes up for it.

Freedom by Any Other Name

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

As we all know, spring is a time of new life and beginnings. Ritenour students are celebrating the birth of new chickens. Dave Stokes and his family are celebrating the birth of their son. (I’m not saying those are totally comparable circumstances, just that they’re both examples of new life!)

Have you ever sat back and thought about the amazing freedom we have in this country to name someone who’s just been born? I hadn’t until I read this post on Freakonomics. Germany forbids extra-long surnames because German bureaucrats don’t like them. Those same bureaucrats approve the first names of new babies, too, and ensure that names are gender-appropriate.

The Freakonomics post lists a few other countries that regulate children’s names. I’m glad that the United States isn’t one of them. This is one of those quiet freedoms that don’t get a lot of press coverage, but that make up a part of human initiative and self-determination. Kind of like the freedom to enter your tractor in a parade.

Springfield Pension Blues

Posted on by David Stokes

Two articles in the News-Leader have detailed the latest in the discussion about how Springfield should handle its pension shortfall. A special commission has been organized to try to come up with a solution, and I give them credit for considering all options. Here’s one possibility reported on by the second article:

Turn City Utilities into a publicly held corporation and sell stock to bolster the pension fund.

Springfield is in quite a financial bind, here, with a shortfall for multiple pensions of around $200 million. Voters recently decided not to raise taxes to fund the gap. Public employee unions have, not surprisingly, threatened a lawsuit, and it is just all around an ugly situation.

The solution, as mentioned above by one committee member, is staring Springfield right in the face. Every utility in Springfield is provided by the same government agency: City Utilities. St. Louis and Kansas City get by just fine with private, regulated utilities providing the bulk of the services. These private companies would be very willing to purchase a broken-up CU. Sale of the parts would net the city a great deal more than it would need to cover the shortfall, leaving plenty of money left over to cut taxes, etc.

Plenty more to come from the Show-Me Institute in the future about this subject.

Positive Externalities

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Our tax dollars fund public schools because education produces positive externalities, right? You’re better off if everybody else in society learns to read and write. (Feel free to leave comments about how I’ve sold out to the socialists.) Anyway, those externalities usually don’t show up until years down the road, once kids grow up, start voting, and join the workforce.

Here is a positive externality of public schools that you can enjoy right now, and it’s cuteness incarnate: The Ritenour School District has set up webcams of hatching chicks.

I thank The Grade for linking to this most adorable news item.

Ray Hartmann

Posted on by Ryan Davisson

Recently, in St. Louis Magazine, Ray Hartmann wrote two fantastic articles about subjects that the Show-Me Institute has rigorously blogged about: red light cameras and alternative funding options for the Metropolitan Zoological Park & Museum District (MZD). In his column, “Bad Photo Op” (not available online), he addresses the unintended effects that red light cameras have, and in “>”There’s No Such Thing as a Free Zoo,” he tackles inequitable, outdated funding structure that has put Saint Louis’ cultural arts institutions in financial “jeopardy.”

He makes a great point regarding this latter topic, stating:

Simply put, St. Louis’ cultural institutions need to do what almost all of their counterparts across the country do: Tap into the tens of millions of tourist dollars that are annually unrealized here because the institutions are free to all visitors.

In his article about red light cameras, Hartmann highlights three separate studies that found an increase in crashes stemming from red light cameras, as opposed to the decrease in accidents that might be expected. He also brings up another interesting point: In Dallas, Texas, red light cameras were forced to cease operation because they weren’t generating enough revenue to sustain themselves. Hartmann asks, “If one assumes the cameras were there to promote safety, wouldn’t operating at a deficit be worthwhile if the cameras were ‘working’ so well that citizens were obeying the law?”

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