The Heartland Institute

Pros Discourages self-centered, weak writing; encourages grounding arguments in evidence. Encourages classic works over young adult popular fiction. Reading research shows children need broad background information; Core emphasizes “informational text.” Significant emphasis on source documents. Requires more than previous state standards ...

The recovery from the recent recession has been very sluggish, and the nation's governors have struggled with the resulting budget deficits, unemployment, and other economic problems in their states. Many reform-minded governors elected in 2010 have championed tax reforms and spending restraint to get their states back on track ...

What would happen if we deposited all a child’s K-12 education dollars into an account parents control? A new report from Arizona’s Goldwater Institute discusses just such a system as it unfurls in their state. Report author and Goldwater’s Education Director Jonathan Butcher joins School Reform News Managing Editor Joy Pullmann ...

The so-called Taxpayer Protection Act is anything but, according to an array of free-market, taxpayer, environmental, and insurance organizations that warn the measure would put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars of property insurance losses and encourage more development in risky areas. At least two coalitions with ...

Although Kentucky is one of just nine states that do not offer charter schools, a new 2012 law does allow school districts the freedom to operate similarly to the autonomous public schools. "We want schools of innovation not to look like anything we've ever seen before, at least in public schools in Kentucky," said David ...

A comprehensive survey of the nation’s physicians by a respected nonpartisan group has found broad-based pessimism about the future of medicine, President Obama’s health care law, and government-funded health care in general. The biennial survey of 13,575 doctors across the country by the Physicians Foundation found more than half ...

Wind power generation has been generously subsidized since the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. After 35 years of increasingly lucrative subsidies, wind power generation has become the most preferentially treated industry in the energy sector. Yet wind power produces only 2.9 percent of the United States’ total ...

( Originally published at new.ideas@Frontier ) Doran/Zimmerman global warming poll a tragic example of research gone wrong It’s a “fact” asserted by political leaders, media and activists worldwide. Important public policy and corporate decisions are based on it. Researchers and public opinion survey coordinators take it as a given ...

Television broadcasting, long subject to uniquely comprehensive regulation, has become economically “normal,” characterized today by competition and innovation. The industry however, is seeing growing conflicts between traditional broadcasters and the newer cable and satellite providers over retransmission rights. Some have urged the ...

Parents have more power over their child’s education than schools do, a new study shows. Researchers from three universities compared social capital at home and school and found family social capital better predicted academic excellence. Social capital is “the connections you have with other people” and how those connections benefit ...

Barack Obama promised transparency and open government when he campaigned for president in 2008, and he took office aiming to deliver it. Today, the federal government is not transparent, and government transparency has not improved materially since the beginning of President Obama’s administration. This is not due to lack of ...

The Republican-led Pennsylvania legislature has backed off from a proposal to create an independent charter school authorizer, despite Gov. Tom Corbett’s support. The state Senate passed a bill by a two-thirds majority that would have required regular financial audits and other beefed-up oversight for the independent public schools ...

The loopholes known as “tax expenditures” reduce individual and corporate tax obligations by more than $1 trillion each year. But while these tax deductions are hugely popular and fiercely protected, economists disagree on whether they are really a good deal for most Americans. “A Trillion Little Subsidies: The Economic Impact ...

Since the financial crisis began in August 2007, one of the puzzles surrounding the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program—i.e., money printing—has been why it has not led to high levels of consumer price inflation in areas other than food and energy. In the past five years, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) minus food ...

A judge has appointed a lawyer to defend a Georgia pit bull on death row after the dog savagely attacked a young child. The dog has been classified by county authorities as a “dangerous animal” and will be euthanized unless the owners protest the “dangerous animal” classification. But the owners have given up ownership ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning a regulatory onslaught during President Obama’s lame-duck period if he loses his reelection bid tomorrow. Most significantly, the Washington Examiner reports EPA is planning on implementing new coal restrictions before President-Elect Romney would take office. The new regulations ...

Approximately two-thirds of South Carolina students are not proficient in any grade or subject tested on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, the most respected nationwide test. For minorities, the stats are even worse: only 13 percent of African-American fourth graders are proficient in math, and only 12 percent ...

A series of data analyses from the left-leaning Brookings Institution find no link between high state standards and high student achievement. “Every state already has standards placing all districts and schools within its borders under a common regime. And despite that, every state has tremendous within-state variation in achievement ...

Over the past month, I’ve received more than a dozen emails that go something like this: “I’m a conservative, but my friend who has cancer [or some other serious disease] says she’s worried about losing Obamacare’s protection for pre-existing conditions. Should I be worried about her if Obamacare goes away?” In the interests ...

Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and new Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick have announced they want to shepherd school vouchers through the legislature. What's a smart option for them and for Texas schoolkids? The Heartland Institute takes a look. (Video at left.) [NOTE: This video was produced by The Heartland Institute ...