Missouri Charter Schools Top the Academic Growth Charts
The first report from the Missouri School Improvement Program 6 (MSIP 6) was released recently, providing data on how each...
The “Bruno Principle” of School Finance—Don’t Talk About Total Expenditures
What do the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and most newspaper reporters have in common? They follow...
St. Louis County Municipal Use Taxes Should Expand the Tax Base, Not the Size of Government
A version of this commentary appeared in the St. Louis Business Journal. Use taxes in Missouri are simply sales taxes...
Tax Refund: Failure to Launch
The results are in, and the first year of Missouri’s gas tax refund program couldn’t have gone much worse. Recently,...
Legislature Must Remove the “Compact Exception” to License Reciprocity
I’ve talked a lot about licensing reform in the last decade, especially in the health care space. The reason is...
University of Missouri System Walks Back “Loyalty Oaths” in Job Listings
Last month I criticized a wide swath of Missouri public universities for requiring woke ideological attestations as a condition of...
Tax Credit Insanity
It’s said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results....
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...
Does Missouri Need DESE?
Several years ago, I made an interesting discovery—I had been blocked by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education...
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...
Short-Term Rentals, Long-Term Taxes
Kansas City and Springfield both have hotel tax proposals on their April ballots. In neither case do they propose raising...
Will Open Enrollment Create High School Sport Powerhouses?
The Missouri Legislature is currently debating several bills that would create open enrollment for Missouri students. Evaluating open enrollment’s effects...
To the Beach!
It’s mid-March in Missouri and we all know what that means—spring break! The legislature adjourned on Thursday and won’t be...
Six Ways to Better Understand the DESE Budget
How is public education financed in Missouri? How much of a district revenues are generated locally, and how much money...
The Case Against Rebooting Film Tax Credits in Missouri
In 2013, Missouri ended its film tax credit program. Now there’s legislation moving in Jefferson City to revive the failed...
Pot Taxes Can Help Municipal Kettles Get into the Black
A version of this commentary appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. When Missouri voters approved the ballot initiative legalizing marijuana...
Missouri’s Ghost Students
Imagine that your taxable income on your annual income tax return wasn’t how much you earned last year, but the...
Comments on Increasing the Minimum Wage in Missouri
This year, the Missouri Secretary of State has already received 24 initiative petitions to raise the state’s minimum wage. If...
“Loyalty Oaths” in University Employment Should Be a Non-starter
Colleges and universities have been implementing diversity initiatives for many years now. I’ve commented on the massive problems inherent in...
A (Tweaked) Clean Slate Bill Offers an Important Opportunity for Criminal Justice Reform
Over the past few years, the Clean Slate Initiative has picked up steam in state capitols around the country. What...
