The holidays are upon us, and now that we have a quorum on the state board of education and a commissioner it’s time to think about what Missouri students and parents should expect from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
Are you a government-failure denier – someone who believes that the government that governs best is one that overflows with good intentions, regardless of the cost? Are you someone who thinks a lot about “market failures” and never stops to think about government failures?
If you’ve lived in Kansas City for a while, you’ve heard all about building new things.
Economic development incentives are all the rage. And they aren’t all multi-billion-dollar packages to attract a new Amazon headquarters. Many come from small towns offering sales tax breaks on construction equipment.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “you have to spend money to make money.” Thanks to some reporting by Brian Robbins and Jacob Kirn of the St. Louis Business Journal, we know that in Missouri we spend money just to spend money.
On November 19, the Missouri State Board of Education met in a closed session to determine who would be selected as the state’s next commissioner of education. It was high time to do so. In a tumultuous session almost a year ago, the board removed the last commissioner, Dr.
First impressions are hard to overcome. This is true of people and of policies. For years, school choice has been presented as a turnaround tool, an instrument to improve public education through market forces. That is partly why Missouri only has charter school options in St.
On this day – and, indeed, on many other days of every year going all the way back to 1968 – retired St. Louisan Gary E. Quint stops to give thanks for the fact that he and some of his Vietnam wartime buddies are still alive.
Parenting is hard. We want to do more than just keep our children safe and happy. We try to give them every possible opportunity to succeed in life, and that effort often begins with finding them the best possible school, or at least making the best of their assigned public school.
Kansas City recently released a study of its economic development incentive programs.