The Heartland Institute

A Louisiana woman has the constitutional right to hang Christmas lights on her house in a pattern giving her neighbors the middle finger. She had been in the midst of an argument with the neighbors when she hung the lights last month. The neighbors called the police, who threatened to arrest her for violating the local ...

Public education has taken many forms over the last 300 years. Early in our history, public education referred to formal instruction in public settings outside the home. As public teaching became increasingly common in the latter half of the 18th century, communities began creating tuition-free schools that operated independently ...

Robert Murphy writes for the Institute for Energy Research that nobody denies a carbon tax would damage the conventional economy. He further argues that a carbon tax would not really make a significant impact on global warming. ...

Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project squared off against The Heartland Institute in a global warming debate January 8 in Tallahassee, Florida. More than 260 people attended the hour-long debate, which resulted in standing room only at the Tallahassee Elks Club Lodge, which hosted the debate. [See video at left.] Ray Bellamy, a ...

Democrats are desperately hoping the states will accept the Medicaid expansion being foisted on them by President Obama’s health care law, but they may be disappointed. The primary reason for their concern is blatantly self-serving: ObamaCare’s success, like its RomneyCare prequel in Massachusetts, will be judged solely by how ...

Hawaii is cutting back on solar power subsidies, as the spending is consuming an increasingly large chunk of the state budget and the recent surge in rooftop solar production threatens the stability of the state’s electric grid. Budget, Power Grid Imperiled Hawaii has experienced a surge in rooftop solar power systems due to ...

Different increases in wealth among countries are strongly linked to student achievement. But in the most recent international achievement survey, U.S. students ranked 27th in mathematics and 21st in science. Seventy percent of our eighth graders can't read proficiently, and most never catch up. About 1.2 million students drop ...

Friday's ed news: 1. One in five Arizona students is now eligible for a voucher-like education savings account. 2. Learning basic math predicts SAT success, a new study finds. 3. College admission will get less competitive in the next decade because of fewer kids. 4. NYC schools spend $6,900 per student per year on busing . 5 ...

The authors of this study report that “coral reefs in the southern Great Barrier Reef are frequently influenced by periods of high storm activity,” and that the reefs in that part of the world “show strong resilience to natural disturbances over the past century,” indicative of the fact that the continued existence of that ...

Maureen Martin , senior fellow for legal affairs at The Heartland Institute, talks with Jim Lakely about her recent piece in the Daily Caller titled " The Truth About Armed Guards in Schools. " ...

It was legal for a Fort Dodge dentist to fire his long-time female dental assistant because of his “irresistible attraction” to her, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled recently. The dentist had complained to the assistant her clothing was too tight and revealing and that he found it “distracting.” The assistant had worked for the ...

It’s the New Year, the pre-dawn of President Barack Obama’s second term – in which he is free to be more “ flexible ,” and is resolved to engage in even more illegal, unilateral power grabs. Long on the Obama-Leftist power grab hit list has been the Internet. Pre-Obama, the ‘Net was just about regulation-free – and thus ...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has announced he plans to ask legislators to end the state’s personal income tax and corporate tax and replace them with a higher sales tax. Jindal said in a statement released January 10: "We are meeting with every legislator over the coming weeks to discuss the details of the tax reform ...

In Massachusetts, as in many other states and municipalities across the country, the high cost of traditional defined-benefit public pensions has become an important issue as unfunded liabilities have grown out of control. According to Jim Lamenzo, actuary for the state’s Public Employee Retirement Association Commission, Massachusetts ...

Will the rise of online learning undermine liberalism’s control over education? Lewis Andrews thinks so. He joins the School Reform News podcast to discuss his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the topic. There, Andrews writes, “As performance-based incentive structures spread, course designers and school-based curriculum ...

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell’s proposal to end the state’s gasoline tax and replace it with a higher sales tax, higher vehicle-registration fees, and annual alternative-fuel car surcharge appears headed down a bumpy road. McConnell estimates the state would take in another $3.1 billion over five years, including $1 billion in ...

Illinois’ government pension system, arguably the worst in the nation, will continue to worsen in the months ahead. Legislators failed in their January lame-duck session to do anything to reform the system, which has a $97 billion unfunded liability that rises $17 million a day. Without a pension system overhaul, Illinois taxpayers ...

Wisconsin’s department of public instruction wants to charge taxpayers twice for the same thing: a big sum to indoctrinate teachers in “cultural sensitivity” and another $19,969 to tell how much that cost. Related training in Portland, Oregon cost taxpayers $526,901 and taught educators mention of common foods such as peanut ...

If the United States and state governments are concerned about renewable energy and global climate change issues caused by power generation from traditional sources such as oil and coal, they must reduce the onerous regulatory environment and increase support for hydroelectric power. Though hydropower is not flashy, with the “pretty ...

Will the rise of online learning undermine liberalism’s control over education? Lewis Andrews thinks so. He joins the podcast to discuss his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the topic. There, Andrews writes, “As performance-based incentive structures spread, course designers and school-based curriculum directors will ...