The Heartland Institute

In November 2012, 58 percent of Georgia voters approved a state constitutional amendment to allow independent charter schools. Nina Rubin, communications director for the Georgia Charter Schools Association and director of the Georgia Parent Advocacy Network, joins the podcast to explain what, exactly, voters approved and what ...

Today, a record number of school districts—seven–-have at least 30 percent of their public school students enrolled in public charter schools. Charter schools in New Orleans enroll an astounding 76 percent of public school students. A total of 25 school districts have 20 percent or more of their public school students enrolled ...

With fiscal stimulus off the table in a divided Congress, the uncertainty of tax hikes next year, and burdensome regulations discouraging investment, the economy faces substantial uncertainty. Many, including presidents of the regional Federal Reserve banks are worried that more liquidity will accelerate future inflation. It’s clear ...

Homeowners aren't the only ones feeling the pain from the troubled housing market. The Federal Housing Administration has seen a loss of 45 percent in its reserves over the course of a single year, exposed in a recent audit by Integrated Financial Engineering, Inc. of Rockville, Maryland. Down from $4.7 billion in 2010, FHA ...

Regardless of whether they are supporters or opponents of President Obama’s health care law. members of Congress will have to revisit the legislation soon to correct some serious flaws. Here is a revenue-neutral approach to begin the necessary corrections: Delay the scheduled cuts in Medicare spending by five years and pay for ...

Call it the televised debate Al Gore has been avoiding for years. Tonight, as Gore hosts another 24-hour televised snooze-fest, meteorologist Anthony Watts launches WUWT-TV (Watt’s Up With That TV). At the same time Gore drones on and on with character assassinations, straw man arguments and out-of-context weather anecdotes, more ...

A girl who became frightened and fell down during a tour through a southern Illinois haunted house on Halloween in 2011 is suing those who sponsored the site. The girl is suing the city of Alton and the local American Legion post for damages of at least $50,000. She claims the haunted house was dangerous. “American ...

The captain of an Italian cruise ship that hit a rock and sank in January, killing 32 passengers, was fired from his job. So now, of course, he’s suing for wrongful termination. An investigation disclosed the Costa Concordia, with 4,000 passengers aboard, was brought too close to shore and capsized. The captain bailed ...

Having squandered most of 2012 with posturing and delay, Congress and the President are now careening toward a budgetary precipice of their own making. The so-called fiscal cliff will be reached just after New Year’s Eve—bringing a nearly $500 billion tax hike in 2013 and a devastating 10 percent reduction in national defense ...

At a bare minimum, renewable energy subsidies in Texas run on average about $1.3 billion a year, with the Production Tax Credit (PTC) taking up almost half of that cost. Because of the PTC’s per megawatt hour subsidy, it causes substantially more distortion to the market than other renewable subsidies. A credible case could ...

Unfunded government employee pensions are gobbling many states’ education budgets, leaving governments scrambling to find money to cover those in addition to school operating costs. “Money doesn’t grow on trees, and it’s hard to raise taxes,” said Andrew Biggs, a pensions scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “There’s less ...

In this Policy Analysis, transit expert Randall O'Toole makes the case for the privatization of the Amtrak rail system. Amtrak has been a great disappointment as it has not been an attractive mode of travel. The subsidized cost to taxpayers is staggering. O'Toole asserts, "nationally, average Amtrak fares are more than twice ...

The United States is at a tipping point: the gross national debt is over $16 trillion, equal to or exceeding the gross national product; unemployment is high; and job creation is low. Our nation’s high levels of debt are crowding out private investment, raising costs to private business, and stifling economic growth. To help ...

Cloud computing has fundamentally changed how consumers purchase and use software and computing services, by moving many of the functions online. The shift of resources such as email, database, and security services to a cloud infrastructure takes the burden of IT infrastructure off the consumer, saving both time and money. However ...

This summer, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (CSA) failed to pass the Senate, with Democrats and Republicans alike voting against the bill. The overriding concern was that the regulatory approach of the bill would be ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Following the failure of the CSA, the Obama Administration began drafting ...

Idaho voters overturned three education reform laws in November’s elections, sending Republican lawmakers back to the drawing board over online learning, teacher evaluations, and merit pay. Gov. Butch Otter and state Superintendent Tom Luna made the laws, which they called Students Come First, a policy centerpiece for the past ...

Americans will soon find President Obama’s health care law hurts those who need health security the most: the poor, sick, and elderly. Although Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently claimed that “no matter who you are, what stage of life you're in, this law is a good thing,” the truth is ObamaCare ...

More Political Cronyism for Favored ‘Clean Energy’ Sectors, Reduced U.S. Competitiveness in Global Energy Markets May Result from Inefficient Tax Scheme WASHINGTON D.C. – The Institute for Energy Research released today a new study exposing the fallacies of so-called revenue-neutral carbon tax swaps, an idea that has gained some ...

Big cliff, sidewalk crack, or something in between? Americans may soon find out. On January 1 the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be reached unless Congress and the president agree to avert it.The effect of its big tax hikes and smaller spending cuts on the economy remain a matter of much speculation. On November 9, President ...

Economist Jonathan Williams says one way to solve state pension funding problems is to give local governments more control over and responsibility for their employees’ pensions. Many states that are responsible for contributing to local employee pensions haven’t done so—and this has spawned a national government pension crisis ...