Why Missouri Needs Universal Open Enrollment
Missouri parents deserve real choices when it comes to their children’s education. Open enrollment—the ability for students to attend a...
Missouri Must Do Better at Controlling Spending
A version of the following commentary appeared in the Springfield News-Leader. Elections and inaugurations are a time for reflection and...
Missouri Nearly Fails Cato’s Test
Missouri’s government spending is out of control, and a new report from the Cato Institute, a free-market think in Washington,...
Missouri Becomes an Education Island
A version of this commentary appeared in the Columbia Missourian. How would your family feel if your entire neighborhood had 5G...
The Kansas City Star Is Right
A recent Kansas City Star piece excoriated the Missouri Senate for its behavior and failure in the recently concluded legislative...
Additional Opportunities in Occupational Licensing
Occupational licensing has boomed in the last few decades. Today, one in three people needs an occupational license to work....
MSA Growth in Missouri
The start of a new year is a great time to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the...
Gas Taxes Around the States
Raising enough money to take care of Missouri’s roads has been a challenge. As I’ve written before, the Missouri Department...
Not So Fast, Public School Districts
And so it begins. School districts are announcing their plans for how they will reopen, and the protests have begun. Parents in Rockwood, Missouri...
Missouri Needs Education Leadership Now More Than Ever
The past spring, much of Missouri turned into an education desert of homework packets, learning “opportunities,” and optional enrichment suggestions...
Missouri Should Follow Our Neighbor’s Lead and Review Occupational Licensing
Should you need to train for 175 days to be a skin care specialist? How about more than 700 days...
It’s Time for Missouri to Embrace Innovation in Education
Missouri is one of 13 states without any statewide programs to promote Next Generation Learning (a term coined by the...
Opportunities for Medicaid Reform
Last month the voters in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, reigniting discussions regarding the prospect...
Mercatus Study Affirms SMI Tax Credit Suggestion from 2012
Six years ago, Michael Rathbone and I coauthored a paper that looked at Missouri’s corporate income tax, assessed its problems...
Tuition Caps on Higher Education Are Anti-Free Market
Public funding for higher education has been on the wane in Missouri. As Mike McShane pointed out in his 2017...
2018 Blueprint: Right to Work
THE PROBLEM: Until recently, many workers in Missouri could be forced to join unions. That was unfair not only to...
Nebraska Pressing Hard for Historic Income Tax Relief
This week Nebaraska legislators rolled out a significant tax reform package that should get the attention of development-minded Missouri legislators—a...
Personal Income in Missouri Continues to Lag
Recent economic data reinforces an old story: Missouri’s economy is not expanding fast enough to substantially raise its citizens’ income. ...
A Labor-Day Salute to the Missouri Mule
Everyone knows the expression “stubborn as a mule.” More than a tired cliché, however, that is a doltish misperception, foisted...
Missouri Drops in CNBC Ranking
CNBC has just released its annual ranking of America’s top states in which to do business. After comparing more than...
