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Not Free to Speak about the First Amendment
The political events of 2020 and 2021 have shown how important it is to know our Constitution. Unfortunately, most of us don’t. Even worse, it’s hard to raise money for people who teach the Constitution because of state laws that restrict free speech. There are great organizations that help teachers… Read More
How Tax Credits Built the “Good Ol’ Boys’ System”
Ask any American about the core problems with government, and you’re sure to hear stories of the “good ol’ boys’ club”. That group that tosses good bills, sneaks in bad pork, and generally twists the arm of government into making themselves even richer. It’s no secret… Read More
Pandemic Learning Loss in West Virginia and the Path Forward
There’s no question that children throughout the country have suffered learning losses since the onset of the pandemic and the transition to virtual learning. The vital questions now center around how much learning loss has occurred and how can those losses most effectively be overcome. Thanks to ne… 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
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle… 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
Staggers Rail Act 40th Anniversary
Though hard to believe, West Virginia has some interesting history when it comes to paradigm-shifting deregulatory acts. 40 years ago, on October 14, 1980, the Staggers Rail Act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter – freeing up the freight market from onerous regulation. Representing West V… Read More
New Wrinkles in Pandemic Learning
Earlier this week, as I was scrolling through news articles looking for what to highlight in our weekly newsletter, I came across a very interesting piece detailing how the sons of a single father in upstate New York were about to be “exited” from their NY school district because… Read More
The 95 Theses of Education
Education, as you likely know if you are reading this, is an important policy area for the Cardinal Institute. For this reason, like Alice, we can often find ourselves going down a rabbit hole while conducting research on the topic, and on the rare occasion, we find a shiny, beautiful… Read More
Border County Blues: Why Mountaineers are worse off than those across the state line
Some state vs state differences just make sense: Louisiana has more gator attacks than Texas, Florida gets more tourism than Alabama, and Maine catches more lobsters than Minnesota. One that makes no sense can be found at the edges of the great state of West Virginia. According to the bureau… Read More