Top Five Education Bills to Watch in the 2023 West Virginia Legislative Session The 86th Session of the West Virginia Legislature convened on January 11, 2023. At the time of writing this blog post, 1,875 bills have been introduced this session. From these, there are five pieces of legislation that deal with K-12 education I…

Possible SALT Deduction Workaround A new state income tax workaround may find itself welcome in the Mountain State during the 2023 Legislative Session. This new workaround would bypass the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions at the federal level. The cap on SALT deductions are a provision implemented by the 2017 Tax…

Interviewing OpenAI’s ChatGPT About Certificate of Need Laws Technology is growing incredibly fast, so I wanted to see what AI thinks of current health care regulations. I recently sat down with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and was briefly able to discuss Certificate of Need (CON) laws with it. Here is how that discussion went:   Interview: What…

The Legislature has approved the Hope Scholarship Rules, so what? Since the West Virginia Supreme Court lifted the injunction in October, the Hope Scholarship program has been moving ahead with implementation. One of the most crucial elements of implementation has been the establishment of the program’s rules through the rulemaking process outlined in West Virginia…

Survey Says . . .  Leading into the 2023 Legislative Session, our team at the Cardinal Institute commissioned a public opinion survey to track and determine the attitudes and opinions of West Virginia voters on the issues that concern them the most in our state.     After a tumultuous 2022, it comes as little surprise…

Reflections on the 2023 State of the State Address January 11th, 2023 West Virginia State of the State Address On Wednesday, January 11, 2023, slightly past 7pm, Gov. Jim Justice delivered what was, perhaps, the most optimistic and upbeat State of the State Address of the seven he has delivered during his tenure as governor. …

Occupational Licensure Stands in the Way of the Path to Prosperity The path to prosperity, for most people, starts with income. Income, collected and saved over time, is what lines the coffers of most financially secure people, regardless of what they may have converted it to over the years:  stocks, bonds, or other financial instruments.…

Occupational Licensing Reduces Mobility For those considering a move to West Virginia, there is little mobility between states when it comes to licensing requirements. Across the nation, nearly one in four workers require a professional license to perform their job. Occupational licensing, which may as well be entitled ‘permission slips,’ requires professionals in certain occupations…

Hello West Virginia,    It’s hard to believe that 2022 is coming to an end. As the Cardinal Institute team looks back on this year, we can confidently say that it was a very good year for our beautiful state!  We kicked off the year with our first ever West Virginia School Choice Fair in…

Which College Degrees Are Best and Worst in West Virginia? This week the Cardinal Institute published the second—perhaps annual—report on the financial outcomes of college degrees in West Virginia. Last year’s report, using the U.S. Department of Education’s standards, identified 21 failing and 64 probationary programs at public colleges and universities. But the Education Department…