The Cardinal's Nest

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

This week our Executive Director is going to walk you through the Four Pillars of a Miracle! These are our guiding principles at the Cardinal Institute that help us determine the policies we advocate for as we work toward a brighter future in West Virginia.   Four Pillars of… Read More

Permission slips: most students remember taking one of these home for their parents to sign so they could go on a field trip, participate in a school activity, or perhaps watch a PG13 movie in the classroom. But did you know that permission slips aren’t just for field trips anymore?… Read More

Ohhhhh… Status QuooOOooOO Why do the people of West Virginia seem to love you sooOOooOO?       The past 50 days in West Virginia have put a spotlight on something of a disturbing trend. Namely, that the powers that be in the Mountain State… Read More

To the hundreds of thousands of children in West Virginia: we are sorry. We are sorry that we let you down. We are sorry that your futures are worth less than the political implications to people in power whom you’ve never met. We are sorry that your educations are only… Read More

As today is Valentine’s Day, an appropriate question to ponder is, “What is love?” No, I don’t mean the cheesy 90’s pop song, but the actual concept of love. What makes love … lovely? On one hand, there are the biochemical aspects of love that strip the term of its… Read More