by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Mail volume keeps dropping year after year, and yet the United State Postal Service would like to raise the price of a stamp from 44 cents to 46 cents. Why is the postal service losing money ($3.5 billion last quarter and $238 billion over the next decade) while private firms like UPS and...
by Kristina Rasmussen Can talking without a license land you in a DC jail? From our friends at the Institute for Justice: In Washington, D.C., talking without a license can land you in jail for 90 days. Tonia Edwards and Bill Main are lawbreakers. Nearly every day, they teach a group of people how to ride Segways,...
by Brian Costin Most mainstream political pundits have a hard time understanding the leadership structure & motivations of the tea party movement. However, Jonathan Raush of the National Journal has an interesting take on the headless tea party movement and their open source type of support structure, which Raush and others compare the Tea Party to...
The Problem $3 billion, $5 billion, $10 billion—the talk surrounding impending federal and state tax hikes is downright scary these days. Governor Pat Quinn proposes a 33 percent increase in the state’s individual income tax rate, equal to raising the burden on Illinois taxpayers by a total of $2.8 billion. David Vaught, Governor Quinn’s budget...
by Ashley Muchow Great cartoon from Chris Britt of the SJ-R today, recounting the recent deal struck between the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees labor union and Governor Quinn. Check out our blogs, response, and more blogs on the matter. As Quinn rolls over to the demands of AFSCME, Illinois has reason to question the Governor’s plan...
by Kate Piercy A recent poll from Rasmussen Reports shows “seventy-five percent (75%) of voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy.” Although this was a national poll, Illinois candidates would do well to listen to this consistent theme coming from the voices of voters across the country as well asthose in Illinois. Want some ideas?...
by Collin Hitt News recently broke that charter schools make up 6 of the top 10 scoring open enrollment high schools in Chicago. Similar news from LA, viaEduwonk: “Looks like seven of the top ten high schools in the city are charters as are the two top middle schools.” This concentration at the top is vastly disproportional...
by Wesley Fox Some Republicans in Congress have expressed concern Democrats in Congress will use the lame duck session after the November election to push through controversial legislation such as Cap and Trade and Card Check. The concern is that the Democrats who lose in the election will go ahead and vote for these controversial measures since their job will...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson If you’ve been experiencing changes to the terms of your bank accounts or credit cards, then you can thank (or blame) new financial regulations. While the new regulations have been touted as “consumer protection,” the unintended consequences of the legislation have made some consumers worse off. Theodore Frank of the Manhattan Institute...
by Collin Hitt Ohio created a school voucher program nearly a decade ago. It gives choice to students attending failing schools, not unlike a policy proposed for Chicago by state Sen. James Meeks. Research has shown that, while still in its infancy, the program was already causing improvement in public schools faced with newfound competition for students. In time,...
by Collin Hitt This week’s NYT Magazine has nearly a dozen stories on technology and education. Much of it focuses on online learning technology. But one piece told the story of a classroom teacher who has equipped every one of his students with a computerized ink pen, manufactured by LiveScribe. The pen electronically records every...
by Kristina Rasmussen Republicans in Congress unveiled their “Pledge to America,” which seeks to limit taxes and spending, among other things. You can read the full text below. How about a Pledge to Illinois? Some great policy ideas to consider: A budget balanced without a tax hike. A Constitutional cap to limit spending growth. An overhaul of job-killing regulations. A 3/5 super-majority requirement for...
by Kristina Rasmussen Here’s Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno’s take on the AFSCME deal: “This is wrong on so many counts that it is hard to know where to begin. At a minimum, there is the appearance that the Governor traded a favorable contract for the union endorsement. It was clearly wrong to take the state’s lead...
Introduction Today, Illinois stands at a crossroads. Our state faces mounting debt and troublesome unemployment. Significant budget challenges have been caused and are now intensified by destructive overspending habits and a job-killing regulatory approach. In the midst of this crisis, Illinois citizens and their leaders must turn the state’s affairs around and put Illinois back...