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School Funding in West Virginia: Exposing False Messages
Misleading Messages in the Media Thousands of West Virginia families are eagerly preparing to attend one of the state’s four new charter schools or use the Hope Scholarship for their child. Despite the progress our state has made in education freedom, misinformation about school funding is running r… Read More
5 Ways WV Can Spend Its COVID Relief Funds
All the Money in the World and No Place to Spend It? Between COVID relief funds and budget surpluses, West Virginia is flush with cash, perhaps to an extent unlike any time in its history. The prudent question must be how the state will spend –… Read More
Is There a Future for West Virginia?
West Virginia’s Path: A Different Future or the Eternal Now? Sweaty, breathing heavily on a stationary bike at 5:30am, I was watching the most recent season of Netflix’s popular show, Castlevania, when a main character, Isaac, said something that floored me: “They convince us… Read More
What Public Policy Reforms Are Next?
Big Wins In K-12 Public Policy, But What’s Next? There is little doubt that West Virginia’s public policy problems are legion. They have built up over the last several decades. First and foremost among said problems was a lack of options in the state’s calcified K-12 education system. With… Read More
Why Are Taxes So Hard To Do?
Why Are Taxes So Hard? As tax season winds down and you’re deep in your last-minute filing, you’ve probably caught yourself thinking, “why are taxes so stinkin’ hard?!” No doubt, I’ve sat in front of my computer on late nights trying to figure this all out. More than once,… Read More
American Rescue Plan Dooms Tax Cuts
On March 11th, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion relief plan. Known as the American Rescue Plan, this Act intended to help the American economy recover from the year-long coronavirus pandemic. The most discussed parts of the program are the individual stimulus checks and expansion of the… Read More
Wild & Wasteful Spending in West Virginia
Wasteful Spending: A Trade Secret In 2017, an investigation was launched into the West Virginia Supreme Court for overzealous spending. 2009 sparked a renovation initiative for the Court with a price tag of roughly $876,000. But, by 2017, the expenses ballooned to $3.7 billion. Most notable o… Read More
ECON 101 with Dr. JT: Education Costs & the Hope Scholarship
Education Costs & the Hope Scholarship Amid all the talk about why lawmakers in West Virginia should or shouldn’t pass legislation that introduces Hope Scholarship education savings accounts to students and families across the Mountain State, one major point of contention always comes bac… Read More
Income Taxes, Kansas, and the Mountain State
State legislators are considering the elimination of the personal income tax in the upcoming Spring session. These discussions have sparked a conversation about taxation and why it is essential to a government’s functioning. Opponents to abolishing the income tax claim that West Virgini… Read More
More Contracts, More Problems
Some things in life simply require a second serving. Ice cream, Netflix episodes, and French fries all aren’t the same without just a little bit more. Unfortunately, our gluttonous state government has gone in for seconds- on an expensive and complex technology contract. As reported by Metro News, G… Read More