The Heartland Institute

The U.S. Department of Education has now waived No Child Left Behind for 32 states that agreed to reconfigure their education systems according to the executive branch’s preferences, with four more waiver applications under review. Washington DC also received a waiver. NCLB governs most federal K-12 spending and mandates. The ...

(Originally posted on Wattsupwiththat.com ) I wonder just how many politicians, environmentalists or scientists who use the phrase ’97% of scientists’ (or those who more carefully use ‘active climate scientists’) to give weight to their arguments regarding climate change to the public, have any idea of the actual source of this ...

The size of America’s teacher workforce has been a presidential campaign topic ever since President Obama suggested a third stimulus focused on keeping current teachers in their jobs. Andrew Coulson decided to join the fray by writing an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal . It’s titled, “ AmericaHas Too Many ...

State film incentives programs are the feel-good production of the year, or so state economic boosters would have you believe. This report focuses on the film industry experien. The winners are movie production companies that constantly shop for taxpayer handouts while providing only temporary jobs. Many states receive back only ...

Joy Pullmann, managing editor of The Heartland Institute's School Reform News and editor of the Education section of the Heartlander digital magazine, spoke at CPAC Chicago on the "Lake Woebegon Effect" on education. The introduction rightly credits Heartland's SRN as being a pioneer in publishing news and information on school ...

Richard J. Trzupek, a Heartland Institute policy advisor on the environment and energy, was a guest a guest for the whole third hour on the nationally syndicated Dennis Prager Show on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. He was on to talk about his new Encounter Broadside, How the EPA’s Green Tyranny is Stifling America . Rich joined ...

State Health Exchanges Post SCOTUS The Issue in Brief In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), states will be pressured to establish federally regulated and approved health insurance exchanges by 2014. If a state opts not to create its own ...

(An updated verison of this policy document can be found here ) Motor fuel taxes affect everyone who uses any kind of transportation. These taxes, which are paid as an excise duty – a tax on the sale of motor fuel – increase the cost of transportation for individuals. They are designed by most national and state governments ...

This school year Florida’s seventh graders will have to take a new standardized civics test. In 2014-2015, students must pass it to move up to high school. After four years of tinkering with the idea in response to extremely low civics knowledge among Florida’s students and general public, the Florida House and Senate unanimously ...

Calling it “a great milestone,” Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation CEO Dan Grabauskas has submitted a Full Funding Grant Agreement to the Federal Transit Administration requesting $1.55 billion for Honolulu’s 20-mile elevated steel on steel rail project. This is the first step toward getting funding for the $5 billion ...

Problem States across the country continue to struggle with balancing their budgets as a result of increasing spending and a lagging economy. Many states also have accumulated massive amounts of debt that taxpayers will have to pay due to years of overspending combined with state employee pensions and benefits. Thirty-one states ...

Talk about key man. More than $600 billion is currently managed by hedge funds whose founders will turn at least 60 years old in the next decade, according to Institutional Investor magazine. The retirement – or death – of star traders can wreak havoc on an asset management firm. “Billions of dollars worth of assets . . . are ...

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides benefits to low-income, eligible households on an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card; benefits can then be exchanged for foods at authorized retailers. SNAP reaches a large share of low-income households. In April 2012, there were 46 million persons in 22 million ...

Despite $700 million dollars in development costs and taxpayer subsidies of $250,000 per vehicle, Chevrolet is selling very few Chevy Volts, Seton Motley of News Busters reports today in an eye-opening column. The federal government and various state governments repeatedly bill taxpayers for a litany of “can’t miss” automobile ...

Because it limits how the federal government can require states to do its bidding in exchange for taxpayer dollars, the Supreme Court’s recent healthcare ruling could have consequences for education policy. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance mandate under Congress ...

Two prominent environmental activist groups, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, are rallying against California Gov. Jerry Brown’s efforts to fast-track construction of high-speed rail in the state. Special Environmental Exemptions Brown is asking the state legislature to give high-speed rail special exemptions ...

A new analysis from the United Kingdom concludes that smart growth (compact city) policies are not inherently preferable to other urban land use policy regimes, despite the proponents' claims. "The current planning policy strategies for land use and transport have virtually no impact on the major long-term increases in resource ...

At the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, many major fiscal events are set to occur all at once. They include the expiration of the 2001/03/10 tax cuts, the winding down of certain jobs provisions, the activation of the $1.2 trillion across-the-board “sequester,” an immediate and steep reduction in Medicare physician payments ...

If you own a cell phone, you're paying for someone else's phone as well, every month (h/t Patrick O'Meara). ...

A consortium of consultants and science educators has released a draft of what they plan will become national education standards for K-12 science. Forty-five states have already adopted math and language arts Common Core standards, grade-by-grade lists of what each student must know to be deemed proficient by the government ...