June 14, 2024
Week in Review: June 14, 2024
Center of the American Experiment announced the success of their annual dinner gala, which featured former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Idaho Freedom Foundation released a new report showing how Idaho’s expanding welfare programs and lax policies are fueling illegal immigration.
Kansas Policy Institute’s investigative journalism arm interviewed a former immigration judge, who pointed out both flaws and solutions to the existing system.
Mountain States Policy Center interviewed the Montana Secretary of State, who outlined her opposition to the implementation of ranked choice voting in the state. The Center also released a new study, Boise, Billings and Spokane: Three approaches, three outcomes, which breaks down the disparate policies espoused by these cities and the outcomes stemming from them.
Sutherland Institute was featured in a piece by the Herzog Foundation that shows how the teachers’ union lawsuit against Utah’s universal school choice program does not hold up to scrutiny.
Liberty Justice Center’s Educational Freedom Attorney Dean McGee discussed the latest developments in a federal lawsuit defending Christian McGhee, a North Carolina student who was suspended for asking a question containing the phrase “illegal alien”.
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty moved to protect parents’ rights and filed a conditional motion to intervene and to participate as an amicus party in a lawsuit recently filed against the Elkhorn School District for designating separate bathrooms based on biological gender. Following numerous complaints of race-based policies, the Institute also issued a warning to a local school district that must cease all discriminatory programs.
Minnesota: Governor Walz signed an agriculture omnibus spending bill, which removed the reference the discriminatory “emerging farmers” policy from the state’s grant program. The revised program now targets farmers earning under $100,000 in gross income without regard to race, sex, or sexual activity. This legislative change brought victory in a lawsuit brought by a local farmer from Beltrami County who sued the Governor and Agriculture Commissioner for discrimination after being moved from ninth to the back of the state’s grant lottery list (Center of the American Experiment, Pacific Legal Foundation, and Upper Midwest Law Center).
Oklahoma: Governor Kevin Stitt signed legislation that requires schools to treat students with special needs the same as any other student when evaluating open-transfer requests, ending a practice of special-needs discrimination (Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs).
Wisconsin: A circuit court ruled that a local municipality’s Transportation Utility Fee, an unlawful tax that is a de facto increase of local property taxes, breached the state’s tax limits. When the town appealed the ruling, the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously struck down the fee as an unlawful tax – a move that saves millions for taxpayers across the state (Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty).
Alaska Policy Forum released a brief reviewing data that shows how the Alaska Reads Act is getting results for students with significant improvements in the state’s early literacy benchmarks.
Frontier Institute authored a brief which shows how the current permitting process fosters litigation and curtails innovation in Montana, using the demise of a wind energy project as an example.
Kansas Policy Institute issued a brief which called on the Legislature to take tax relief out of the Governor’s hands with a constitutional amendment on property tax.
Mountain States Policy Center released briefs that expose how government officials across the countries are shutting down kid-run lemonade stands, showing how the legislatures should enact policy to protect kid entrepreneurship, and call for an end to the use of the presidential pen at the expense of the legislative branch.
Pacific Research Institute issued a brief which illuminates how failed wildfire policies and hiking housing and energy costs in California.
Washington Policy Center issued briefs that expose how the state’s “Community decarbonization” policy suffers from the same fallacy that the federal electric vehicle charging project experiences – both show that spending money does not equal results, break down the unintended consequences of a farmworker wage ruling that sets a dangerous precedent for all employers, and point out the shortcomings of taxpayer-financed healthcare.
Wyoming Liberty Group authored a brief which takes a closer look at the proposal to create a Wyoming Healthcare Authority – a move that would allow bureaucrats to make a sly attempt at expanding Medicaid in the Cowboy State.
Louisiana: The Legislature passed a universal education savings account program – a monumental move which would expand K-12 educational options for Louisiana students and their families. The bill now moves to the Governor’s desk where he is expected to sign (Pelican Institute).
New Hampshire: A conference committee reached an agreement on a House Bill that would expand eligibility for the popular Education Freedom Account program by raising the income threshold from 350% of the federal poverty level to 425% – a potentially life-changing move for many families across the state. The compromise agreement now returns for a vote in both the House and Senate (Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy).
Ohio: In an 88-3 vote, the Ohio House adopted policies championed by The Buckeye Institute that advance commonsense local government reforms, ensure that village governments unable to provide core services to their residents are held accountable, and make it easier for village residents to vote on whether to dissolve their local government.
Topics:
Alaska Reads Act Already Delivering for Students
Alaska Policy Forum
California Lawmakers Sacrifice Education for Politics with AB 1955
California Policy Center
Bullying & School Choice
Cardinal Institute
Does It Matter That Minnesota Students Are in School Less Than Most of Their Peers?
Center of the American Experiment
Map: School Choice Expansion Available to a Substantial Share of Students
Center of the American Experiment
Minnesota’s National Education Ranking Continues to Drop
Center of the American Experiment
Almost Surrounded
Empower Mississippi
What Is the Georgia Promise Scholarship?
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
The Policy Shop: Illinois’ 3rd Graders Are Struggling
Illinois Policy
Explain It to Me: Literacy Law Implementation
Institute for Reforming Government
How $90 Put EFAs Out of Reach for a Manchester Single Mom
Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy
The Utah Fits All Scholarship Will Stand Strong in the Courts
Libertas Institute
‘In the Past Three Years, We’ve Made More Advancements on School Choice than in the Preceding Three Decades’
Mackinac Center
Confronting the Limitations of Nevada’s Charter School System
Nevada Policy
Why High School Graduates Turn Out to Be College Illiterates
Pacific Research Institute
Policy Objections to Scholarship Program Don’t Affect Its Constitutionality
Sutherland Institute
Will Condemns DPI’s Ridiculous Attempt to Disguise Lackluster Student Achievement
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty
EVs = Bad Business
Cascade Policy Institute
While Electricity Prices Rise, Gov. Walz Attacking the Problem of…Energy Equity?
Center of the American Experiment
An EV Future Would Cost at Least $2T, Maybe $4T
Center of the American Experiment
…But Energy Policy Is Interested in You.
Center of the American Experiment
MEPA Blocks Montana Wind Energy
Frontier Institute
Congress Should Stop the EPA’s Dangerous Power Plant Rule
John Locke Foundation
Integrated Resource Plans: Planning for Louisiana’s (and Your) Electricity Future
Pelican Institute
Are Missouri Students in School Enough?
Show-Me Institute
Testimony on Substitute Language for Plank 101, the School Choice Plank
Texas Public Policy Foundation
Youngkin Should Make Reliability, Low-Cost Top Goals for Coming Clean Economy Act Review
Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy
Virginia Climate Data Shows No Crisis
Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy
People Demand Taxpayer-Financed Health Care — Now! — From the Commission Trying to Get It for Them
Washington Policy Center
What about the Nurses?
Show-Me Institute
The Illusion of Medicaid Expansion – Wyoming Lawmakers Consider New Healthcare Advisory
Wyoming Liberty Group
Death with Dignity: 50th Anniversary of America’s First Hospice
Yankee Institute
Phoenix & Tucson Poured Hundreds of Millions into Homeless Crisis. Things Only Got Worse
Goldwater Institute
Houston: No Zoning, More Housing
Libertas Institute
New Maine Law Vests the Rights of Residential Developers
Maine Policy Institute
Sac DA’s Homeless Lawsuit Falters, But Effort Wasn’t in Vain
Pacific Research Institute
Failed Wildfire Policy Hikes Cities’ Housing, Energy Costs
Pacific Research Institute
Squatter’s Rights Do Not Exist; Property Rights Do
Texas Public Policy Foundation
You Can’t Redistribute Income That Doesn’t Exist
Center of the American Experiment
Court Opens Door to Lawsuits By Ex-Mayo Workers Fired Over COVID Shots and Tests
Center of the American Experiment
Poverty Hits Black, Hispanic Chicagoans Hardest, But Education, Jobs Fix That
Illinois Policy
The Supreme Court (Properly) Upholds a Bad Law: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services
Independence Institute
ChatGPT’s Advice on Careers
Indiana Policy Review Foundation
Eco-Devo: The Missing Studies
Indiana Policy Review Foundation
A Look Into the Finances of Iowa’s Community Colleges
Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation
Why North Carolina’s Regulatory Sandbox Needs Agriculture
John Locke Foundation
Whitmer’s Efforts to ‘Lower Costs’ Make Us All Poorer
Mackinac Center
Oklahoma Among Top 10 States for Job Creation
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Study Finds Prevalence of Entrepreneurship Tied to Regulatory Environment, Portion of Immigrants
Pioneer Institute
Protectionism’s Bipartisan Embrace: Who Pays When Imports Cost More
Pioneer Institute
Cape Cod: The Struggles of Year-Round Residents
Pioneer Institute
Research Note: A Case Study of Success of the REINS Act in State Regulatory Reform
Platte Institute
Research Note: Regulatory Experiments–Idaho, Virginia
Platte Institute
Another Year, Another 50th Place for NM in Kids Count
Rio Grande Foundation
Trust but Verify: CITY SC’s Claims Deserve Scrutiny
Show-Me Institute
The War on Prices with Ryan Bourne
Show-Me Institute
Defending Wyoming’s Mining Industry with Travis Deti
Wyoming Liberty Group
Testimony to Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission on PPS Budget
Cascade Policy Institute
Report Finds Only 60% of ‘Frontline Workers’ Handed Cash by the State Government Were Eligible
Center of the American Experiment
A New Approach for Maintaining the Interstate System Is Needed
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Tax Revenue from Online Sports Betting Exceeds Expectations; Where Will the Money Go?
John Locke Foundation
Stop the Hollywood Handouts
Mackinac Center
Perils of the Gross Receipts Tax
Nevada Policy
A’s Stadium Deal: Public Input or Public Put Out?
Nevada Policy
Hollywood 2.0: Not a Crowd-Pleaser
Nevada Policy
Flavored Tobacco Prohibition Bans Tax Revenues Not Products
Pacific Research Institute
Massachusetts Legislature Procrastinates Once Again
Pioneer Institute
The Light Rail Line Less Traveled
Show-Me Institute
Legislature Playing with Fire
Show-Me Institute
My Journey to Understand El Paso’s Lobbying Expenses
Texas Public Policy Foundation
New Jersey: Governor, Teacher’s Union Gut Public Records Act
Freedom Foundation
Public Can See Chicago Teachers Union Tactics at Open Bargaining Session
Illinois Policy
North Dakota Voters Approve First-Ever Age Limit on Members of Congress
Center of the American Experiment
The Great John Marshall, Part 4
Independence Institute
Section 230 and The End of The Internet?
James Madison Institute
In the Epoch Times, the California Policy Center’s Lance Christensen points out that higher education doesn’t have to happen on a college campus.
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Commonwealth Foundation‘s Charles Mitchell points out Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is playing to the middle while pleasing the left.
In the New York Post, the Foundation for Government Accountability‘s Jonathan Ingram highlights how the GOP is on the verge of helping Democrats expand America’s already-out-of-control food-stamp program.
In his recent column, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation‘s Kyle Wingfield notes a new approach is needed for the interstate highway system.
In The Daily Caller, the Illinois Policy Institute‘s Brad Weisenstein notes Illinois shows Americans how bad taxes can get.
In the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Policy Institute‘s Paul Vallas notes CTU’s contract demands are divorced from reality.
In The Hill, the Independent Institute’s Christopher Calton exposes how “Housing First” policies are expensive, counterproductive, and inhumane.
In American Habits, the Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation’s John Hendrickson rebuts objections to Iowa turning down more federal funds.
In his recent column, the John Locke Foundation‘s John Hood points out most Americans pay more in taxes than North Carolinians.
In Newsweek, plaintiff Brad Polumbo discusses why he partnered with the Liberty Justice Center to challenge the federal TikTok ban.
In The Detroit News, the Mackinac Center‘s Mike Reitz outlines four ideas for people who wish to model civility.
In the Washington Examiner, the Mackinac Center‘s Jarrett Skorup highlights the problems with civil forfeiture.
In her column for Newsmax, the Pacific Research Institute‘s Sally Pipes explains why the next president needs to scrap enhanced subsidies.
In RealClearPolicy, People United for Privacy Foundation’s Heather Lauer explains how her organization built bipartisan support for donor privacy legislation passed in 20 states.
At KRWG Online, the Rio Grande Foundation‘s Paul Gessing highlights a corporate welfare project in New Mexico.
In The Hill, Sutherland Institute‘s William Duncan notes Justice Alito is right to not recuse over flag flap.
In the Deseret News, Sutherland Institute‘s Christine Cooke Fairbanks and William C. Duncan note policy objections to Utah’s scholarship program don’t affect its constitutionality.
In The Federalist, the Texas Public Policy Foundation‘s David Dunmoyer notes Texas’ approach to AI works.
In the The Spokesman Review, the Washington Policy Center’s Elizabeth New reviews how costs for long-term care are increasing, but the benefit of the misguided WA Cares program is not.
