This weekly round-up shares the latest news about what the network is doing to promote state-based solutions that will improve the lives of families, workers, and local communities. If you are an SPN member and have an update you’d like us to include in next week’s round-up, please email us at updates@spn.org (all submissions are subject to SPN approval).

Announcements

  • Alaska Policy Forum education staffer, Bob Griffin, has been appointed to the Alaska Board of Education.
  • The Badger Institute is growing their team and moving to a larger office in Milwaukee.
  • Taylor Dawson of the Beacon Center of Tennessee is the new chapter lead for the Nashville chapter of America’s Future Foundation.
  • Congratulations to The Buckeye Institute and Yankee Institute for being named 2019 Reed Award finalists. The Buckeye Institute is a finalist in the categories of Best Online Advertising Campaign and Best Use of Online Targeting for their Workers Choose campaign. Yankee Institute is a finalist in Best Action Center/Grassroots Website for CTWorkers.org, a site that helps union members understand and exercise their rights post-Janus decision.   
  • The Mississippi Justice Institute has recently formed an Advisory Board and named Ilya Shapiro as its Chairman. Shapiro will also serve as a Senior Fellow for the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
  • Yankee Institute for Public Policy‘s president Carol Liebau was awarded a Moral Courage Award on Monday by the Connecticut Parents Union for her “unapologetic commitment to children and parents educational justice.”

National School Choice Week

  • Support for school choice policies tracks higher among the American Association of Educators‘ members than the general population.
    More than 70% of survey respondents support public charter schools and blended-learning environments, and more than 80% support for tax credits and education savings accounts.
  • The California Policy Center is holding their fourth annual Orange County School Choice Fair this Saturday. The event will feature raffles, music, food and a student performance of the official National School Choice Week dance. Representatives from district schools, public charter schools, homeschool programs, and online learning partners will have informational tables at the event. 
  • Where do North Carolinians stand on school choice issues? The results from Civitas Institute‘s latest North Carolina School Choice Poll are out (and they’re encouraging)!
  • 1,000 students, educators, and community members joined Empower Mississippi at the State Capitol for a rally to celebrate School Choice Week.
  • The James Madison Institute celebrated School Choice Week with a luncheon in memory of their founder, Dr. J. Stanley Marshall. Dr. Marshall was a fierce advocate of school choice, so in his honor they are awarded the third-annual “Florida Education Innovator.” The event also featured Education Commissioner of Florida, Richard Corcoran, House Education Chairwoman Jennifer Sullivan, and Senate Education Chairman Manny Diaz, Jr.
  • Kansas Policy Institute compared the performance of both private and public schools in Kansas, encouraging the state to “look at education from the point of view of the student, not the institution.”
  • 1,000 people turned out for a National School Choice rally in Jackson, MS on Tuesday to show their support, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy reports. Currently the state has just five charter schools.
  • Washington Policy Center published a new video “Why does Washington state discriminate against charter school students?” highlighting the challenges low-income and minority students (and schools) face when seeking public education options outside of a traditional public school model.
  • The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is celebrating National School Choice Week by publishing school profiles each day this week, including a RealClearPolitics article on a Free Enterprise Academy and a post highlighting the seven-year 100% college acceptance rate at HOPE Christian Schools, both voucher schools in Milwaukee. WILL also put together helpful facts and sample tweets to help their members easily understand the issue and voice their support.

State Think Tanks in the News

  • An Arkansas Senate panel began the process of reviewing the governor’s omnibus transformation plan by asking the bill sponsors to provide a financial impact analysis on all 15 cabinet-level departments that will be created if the legislation is enacted. Many of the recommendations found in the plan came about from the 2015 study by the Arkansas Policy Foundation that suggested a smaller and more efficient state government would save millions of dollars.
  • The Bluegrass Institute highlights the importance of school choice in improving education.
  • How can ordinary citizens have an impact on the legislative process? Simply showing up can sometimes be a key factor in whether a bill gets passed, says the Cascade Policy Institute in this feature on five ways citizens can participate in policy making.
  • Empower Mississippi was one of the experts brought in to advise Mississippi lawmakers on what criminal justice reforms would send fewer Mississippians to jail and help those leaving prison to return to a normal life and meaningful work.
  • The Ethan Allen Institute draws attention to the Vermont lawmakers who want to implement a mandatory paid family leave program that workers don’t want but would be required to fund.
  • Leveraging heightened public awareness during the Los Angeles teachers strike, the Freedom Foundation had an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times urging California to allow for public observation of collective bargaining negotiations between public employers and government unions
  • Florida is considering a new health care license for dental therapists, who could perform a bevy of activities such as basic clinical dental treatment and preventive services under the supervision of dentists. A news conference by the Floridians for Dental Access coalition to support the dental-therapist proposal came on the heels of a report on dental therapists issued by The James Madison Institute. 
  • The Maryland Public Policy Institute cautions against raising taxes to fund more K-12 education spending, especially when Maryland has a long history of increasing school funding without seeing improvements.
  • The Pacific Research Institute highlights the excessive waste in Medicaid spending nationwide and how fraudulent and outdated records are preventing the program from fulfilling core services to the most needy.
  • Sutherland Institute addresses the concerns associated with Medicaid expansion — creating budget problems for Utah and shifting costs to already insured patients — and discusses solutions.
  • The Texas Public Policy Foundation reports school choice advocates are hoping lawmakers will streamline the charter school application process and help fund public school virtual and online classes, but that the road to increased school choice in Texas may be difficult after the November elections.
  • Clients of Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty‘s latest lawsuit appeared on the evening news to explain why the additional regulations governing wedding barn businesses should be struck down.
  • Minimum-wage increases often hurt most the very people they are ostensibly designed to help. The Yankee Institute recommends letting municipalities set their own minimum wages to avoid this problem.

Research & Initiatives

  • Beacon Center‘s recent report, Tennessee: Open for Business, But Open to the Public?, finds Tennessee taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $900 million in economic incentive tax credits and advocates for greater transparency by removing tax credits from confidentiality laws.
  • Are “smart growth” regulations contributing factors to many states’ “housing affordability crises?” The Cascade Policy Institute released a new report, The Housing Affordability Crisis: The Role of Anti-Sprawl Policy, examining the link between supply restrictions and the spectacular increases in housing costs in many markets.
  • The Center for Innovative Governance Research invites submissions to their Technology Zones White Paper Competition: “Towards a New Regulatory Framework.” First place wins a $10,000 prize and second place will receive a $5,000 prize. Submissions must be received by March 17. Visit their website for details.
  • The Foundation for Government Accountability has just released their latest research, Short-Term Plans: Affordable Options for America’s Uninsured, detailing the benefits of short-term health insurance plans and showing where each state stands on short-term plan approval.
  • Can an Annual Report be visually interesting? Check out the Georgia Center for Opportunity‘s 2018 Annual Report for inspiration.
  • The Idaho Freedom Foundation is suing the city of Boise, ID for diverting new tax revenue to fund the capitol city’s urban renewal projects.
  • The Illinois Policy Institute has released their annual State of the State analysis of Illinois’ economic performance.
  • After Michigan nearly went bankrupt in the 1800s, citizens passed a constitutional amendment banning select tax credits and subsidies for private companies. For 75 years, these programs were regularly found by the courts to be unconstitutional. A new report from the Mackinac Center examines the history of corporate welfare in the state, how these programs got supercharged in recent decades and why they may still be prohibited by the state constitution.
  • The Philanthropy Roundtable will be holding their signature National Forum on K-12 Philanthropy in Denver, April 3-4, 2019. Attendees will have the chance to see up-close how Denver families make education decisions and participate in site visits that include charter school models, school-to-career programs, and industry partnerships.
  • The Pioneer Institute has released a new report, Key Questions for Legislators about the Institute of Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) that empowers state and federal legislators to ask a series of questions intended to illustrate potential impacts of the ICER model on patients, physicians, and drug discovery. In addition to the report, Pioneer is also providing shareable images and sample email and social media posts to make it easier for other groups to share the report with key audiences.
  • The Reason Foundation will be consulting with a bipartisan group of Kentucky lawmakers charged with taking a new look at pension reform in the state.
  • The Tax Foundation has just released a new map making it easy to compare state and local tax collections per capita by state.
  • In a survey conducted last year, Teacher Freedom found that 35% of California teachers would prefer to conduct their own negotiations for salary and benefits rather than go through the union’s collective bargaining unit.