“Chokepoints” Demonstrate Need for New Charter Schools
I grew up in a small town where several elementary and middle schools funneled into a single high school. While...
Mayor James Gets It Wrong
Kansas City Mayor James penned a guest commentary for The Kansas City Star on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it is riddled with...
Debating GO Bond Policy
We were disappointed to learn that Mayor Sly James has turned down an offer to debate the Go bonds issue...
Kansas City’s Food Desert Insanity
Kansas City has started to demolish the vacant grocery store at Linwood Blvd. and Prospect Ave. and will subsidize the...
Can the Kansas City Streetcar Expansion Be Built Even If It Wins?
The Kansas City Star published a story the other day which examined the new budget proposal from the Trump administration....
The Unlikely Promises of Questions 1, 2, 3, and 4
Kansas City voters face four questions on the April 4 ballot that could commit them to years of higher taxes....
Criminal Justice Reform: Addressing the Costs of Incarceration
Missouri has a criminal justice problem. While the spike in homicides in Kansas City captures a lot of attention, as...
School Choice: Legislative Halftime Report
In January, I penned an op-ed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch outlining what I thought should be the education policy...
A Minimum Wage Increase and the Unintended Consequences for Kansas City
Members of the City Council are at odds over how to increase the minimum wage—through city ordinance or statewide petition....
Kansas City’s Questionable GO Bond Assumptions
In my recent post, The GO Bonds Will Cost You Much More Than You’re Being Told, I concluded that—contrary to...
Summer 2017 Internships
The Show-Me Institute is pleased to offer internship opportunities for Summer 2017. Internships are open to current undergraduate and graduate...
Crosby Kemper III Discusses Kansas City’s GO Bond on KCPT’s Ruckus
The Show-Me Institute’s Chairman Crosby Kemper III appeared on KCPT’s Ruckus on Thursday, March 2, to discuss the campaign for...
Shaky Assumptions, Track Record Warrant Caution on GO Bond
Kansas City’s elected leaders have been speaking far and wide about the GO Bond before voters on April 4. Their...
Moody’s Issues Negative Outlook for Kansas CIty
We’ve written before about Kansas City’s debilitating level of debt (here and here and here). And it isn’t just us;...
The GO Bond Bait and Switch
The general obligation (GO) bond being considered in April would raise property taxes to pay off a series of 20-year...
Missouri’s Troubling Sales Tax Mosaic
What do owners of the luxurious Intercontinental Hotel in Kansas City and the St. Louis Cardinals have in common? They’re...
Essay: Expanding Charter Schooling in Missouri
Charter school expansion is just one of several school choice initiatives lawmakers in Jefferson City have proposed this legislative session....
Taxes for Thee, But Not For Me
A recent Kansas City Star story on the proposed Kansas City general obligation bonds, (GO Bonds) contained the following: This...
Kansas City, Economic Development, and Homicide
Kansas City desperately wants to grow, and we’re spending or diverting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money each...
The GO Bonds Will Cost You Much More Than You’re Being Told
March 6, 2017: update Everyone paying attention to Kansas City politics knows that we’re facing an $800 million bond vote...
