HB 1044 and Expanding Charter Schools in Missouri
Senate Bill (SB) 727, passed into law last year, allows any state-approved sponsor to authorize a charter school in Boone...
How Will the Four-day School Week Progress in Light of SB 727?
The enormous 167-page education bill, Senate Bill (SB) 727, recently passed out of the Missouri Senate and is heading to...
Ashland Wants to Make Its Sales Tax How High?
It may surprise you to know that cities in Missouri depend more on sales taxes and less on property taxes...
Expanding the VIP List for Charter School Eligibility
In Missouri, only a select few are eligible for the VIP status of charter school eligibility. The “bouncer” until recently...
ROFR Makes Me ROFL
To paraphrase General Douglas MacArthur, bad public policy ideas never die, they just get reintroduced in the next legislative session....
This Is What Number Four Looks Like?
By now, we have all seen that wonderful photo of the young child sitting in the backseat of her parents’...
Tax Burden in Missouri’s 20 Largest Cities
What do residents in Missouri’s largest cities pay in taxes, and what do they get for their money? This report...
Joplin Students Learn About Food Trucks and (Perhaps) Government Regulations
Students in a Joplin-area high school recently engaged in the school’s annual “Food Truck Competition.” In this event, student teams...
The Burden of Special Taxing Districts
I recently wrote about Chesterfield’s plans to hike taxes during a pandemic. It looks like more tax increases could be...
An Incentive Package for Tesla May Not Benefit Joplin
Tesla is in search of a site for a new manufacturing plant, and Joplin has put itself in the running...
Federal Stimulus Money in Missouri: What We Know So Far
With the federal government handing out trillions of dollars in “stimulus” money (I would call it relief funds), you might...
Fingers Crossed
If a crisis doesn’t create a person’s character, but reveals it, then the same can be said of organizations. An...
Good Riddance to Bad Policy
The Joplin Globe recently reported that Joplin’s disaster recovery tax-increment financing (TIF) district is being closed after eight years, and...
It’s a Head-Scratcher
I just don’t get it. A recent article in The 74 describes how the vibrant charter school sector and strong...
Who’s Afraid of Charter Schools?
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board wrote a fearmongering editorial about charter schools becoming a potential option for suburban parents....
How Missouri’s Special Taxing Districts Promote “Legal Plunder”
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king. When it comes to Missouri’s rapidly proliferating...
Show-Me Now! Joplin Rebuilt Without Government Subsidies
Six years after a tornado destroyed much of Joplin, MO, the city is back. The population is larger now. Property...
Attacking Charter Schools with “Alternative Facts”
In a recent letter to the editor of the Joplin Globe, Caroline Tubbs, a public high school teacher, makes a...
Despite Subsidies, Joplin Rebuilt Itself
On May 22, 2011, a tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri killing 166 people and damaging or destroying 7,500 structures. In...
Entrepreneurship in Missouri, Part 2: Where Is the Job Growth?
A week ago I wrote of the decline of entrepreneurial activity in the nation, Missouri, Kansas City, MO, and Saint...
