The Cardinal's Nest

In debates about how to entice people to move to West Virginia’s respective cities, the claim is often made that we need to invest in more green spaces, more parks, more arts, and the like. It’s true, people enjoy these amenities. But these alone are not what draw people… Read More

On a daily basis (seriously, it’s seven days a week), I have an inner discourse that orbits around some versions of the following questions: What should Cardinal be doing? What are we doing well? What can we do better? How can Cardinal become more effective by reaching more people? What… Read More

The mythical gender pay gap has again appeared out of the mists of fairytale land to grace the news cycle. This time in reference to the US Women’s Soccer team. The US Women’s Soccer team won its fourth Women’s World Cup championship this year, and now people are calling… Read More

“Remember in November”   We’ve been hearing that line for a while, and no doubt, we’ll continue to – especially now that the special session on “education betterment” is complete, and that resolution included the West Virginia Legislature allowing for the creation of the state’s first (three)… Read More

By the time you read this, it is possible that the outcome of West Virginia’s special legislative session dedicated to education reform has been determined. As you are likely aware, on Monday, June 17, the House of Delegates has begun its portion of the special session — the Senate has… Read More

At the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy, people often ask us why we care about the education system and what we stand to gain from making changes to it.   Obviously, some people ask questions like this simply because they disagree with our values as an organization and feel… Read More

In 2018, long-simmering frustrations regarding wages, working conditions, and general funding boiled over into a wave of teachers’ strikes, beginning in our home state of West Virginia and spreading throughout the country to Oklahoma, Arizona, and Colorado. The trend continued in 2019 in the Los Ang… Read More

While the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy is, at its core, a think tank that attempts to find solutions to West Virginia’s many ills through public policy, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t look for solutions in other places, as well. This search led Cardinal a few hundred miles… Read More

This past weekend was Easter and has really marked a brighter, warmer, more permanent turn in the weather for Charleston, WV.     Spring is often seen as the season for new beginnings. Whether that be flowers blooming, the beginning of wedding season, or spring cleaning. It’s an opportuni… Read More

Last week the world observed Gender Pay Gap Day, so this week on the Cardinal blog, our economist, Dr. Jessi Troyan will be discussing her perspective on the existence, or lack thereof, of a Gender Pay Gap.   Seventy-seven cents on the dollar.   That’s the statistic publicized by President… Read More