Illinois’ income tax turns 44
Forty-four years ago this week, Illinois began collecting a state income tax.
4 ways to break out of Illinois’ pension trap
Causes, costs, how to set the state free
View ReportFlorida
Teachers should not be evaluated by principals
Making sure we identify poor teachers and have them exit the teaching profession should be of the utmost importance. This is because teachers, by far, have the single biggest impact on student success.
Business tax credit offers more options for school choice
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about how Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, introduced a bill that would give tax credits to corporations if they donate to nonprofit organizations that provide scholarships to students in low-income families for private school tuition. Now, state Rep. Michael Connelly, R-Wheaton, has introduced a parallel bill in the Illinois General Assembly....
Medicaid Solutions: Florida’s Medicaid cure for Illinois’ ailing program
For more than a decade, Illinois’ Medicaid program has failed to meet the needs of the state’s most vulnerable residents. Access to high-quality care has deteriorated, even as record amounts of taxpayer dollars are spent on the ballooning program. Over the years, eligibility standards have loosened to increasingly include families earning ever-higher incomes. Today, only...
Rubio is thirsty for school choice
Though most of the attention Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, has received since he delivered the Republican response to the president’s State of the Union speech has been about his bad timing when taking a drink of water, many of the ideas he presented should have piqued viewers’ interest. This excerpt was music to my ears: “We need...
States can block the federal government’s enforcement of critical portions of ObamaCare
Diane Cohen General Counsel Liberty Justice Center In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in NFIB v. Sebelius last June, and with the prospects for repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act dashed by the 2012 elections, key states – including Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia...
Dispelling the class size myth
As teachers’ strikes continue to spread across Illinois, union officials are pushing back against criticisms that they are not doing enough to raise student achievement. One of the most common excuses they use to explain the lack of results – apart from claiming that low-income populations have too many issues to overcome, something the Institute showed is...
Media Roundup: No Pension Bailout
See what they're saying about the No Pension Bailout project.
Will swing states pressure the presidential candidates for a pension bailout?
Will a few important swing states like Ohio and Colorado put pressure on the candidates to bail them out of their pension debt?
Why the No Pension Bailout project matters
The goal of No Pension Bailout is to prevent the federal government from bailing out Illinois or any other states that have mismanaged their funds. We oppose a bailout because not only would it destroy state sovereignty and the concept of fiscal federalism once and for all, it would also transfer trillions of dollars from...
