Sutherland Institute is working hard to inform policymakers, Utah citizens, and the Network on how COVID-19 will impact education, healthcare, the economy, and religious freedom. In education, from rethinking what college courses can be offered online to K-12 innovations, the pandemic response is sure to have lasting impact.

The Institute is also examining changes to healthcare including expanding telemedicine and drive-up testing stations. Sutherland asserts that if the pandemic leads states and the federal government to embrace more market-driven healthcare policies, then innovations will lead to improved healthcare for everyone.

Analysis of unemployment numbers in Utah also illuminated two important economic lessons that the state’s future will depend on: (1) policymakers’ civic understanding of effective crisis governance in a representative government, and (2) policymakers’ ability to correctly perceive the breadth and depth of Utahns’ economic concerns. Finally, religious freedom has been challenged by several unique controversies during this public health crisis. Do church closures violate First Amendment rights? Well-informed legal analysis uncovers how it is likely to play out in court.

The Institute’s president, Rick B. Larsen, also provided critical analysis in The American Conservative, reminding us that when government expands in crisis, history shows it stays that way after the crisis is over. What is needed are leaders committed to the principles of liberty and a version of power described in the Constitution—representatives who possess a quixotic affection for freedom and who will lead with an insistence that the people and nation come first.

You can read more at SutherlandInstitute.org.