The Heartland Institute

Seventeen states have formed an alternative to the federally run National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA). The states formed the new association, the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA), in response to what they characterize as overly restrictive agendas and heavy-handed treatment by federal officials ...

Throughout the debate over ObamaCare—and back to HillaryCare and beyond—the fundamental question in health reform has always been this: Who will control our choices—government or individuals? Each side has won battles over the last 15 years in the tug of war between those who want a system that empowers the individual and ...

President Obama's re-election impacts the domestic policy future of the United States in a number of meaningful ways, but particularly in the arena of health care policy, where the law that bears his name is secure for at least four years. States that have resisted or slowed their implementation of Obamacare now face a number ...

Taxpayer Savings Grant Program Questions and Answers by Joseph L. Bast President, The Heartland Institute Last Updated: August 2012 Q2: Would there be enough space in private schools to meet the surge in demand? Answer in brief: Yes! Research and real-world experience show that the supply of private schooling is highly elastic – it ...

Taxpayer Savings Grant Program Questions and Answers by Joseph L. Bast President, The Heartland Institute Last Updated: August 2012 Q3: Would the TSGP hurt public school teachers? Answer in brief: No. In fact, the Taxpayer Savings Grant Program (TSGP) would benefit teachers at least four ways, starting with increasing their average ...

Taxpayer Savings Grant Program Questions and Answers by Marc Oestreich and Joseph L. Bast The Heartland Institute Last Updated: August 2012 Q4: Would the TSGP take the “best kids” out of public schools? Answer in brief: No. The Taxpayer Savings Grant Program (TSGP) would appeal mostly to students who are struggling in their current ...

Taxpayer Savings Grants Program Questions and Answers by Joseph L. Bast President, The Heartland Institute Last updated: August 2012 Q1: How would the TSGP affect the state’s ranking on per-pupil spending? Answer in brief: The Taxpayer Savings Grant Program (TSGP) could raise per-pupil spending for students still in public schools ...

Vermont is on a path to become the first state in the nation to have a government-run health care monopoly, as a result of a health care bill signed Democrat by Gov. Peter Shumlin in May. ‘A Plan to Plan’ The new law creates a five-member board at an estimated cost of $1.3 million with unprecedented powers over health ...

Only four states have sufficient assets to pay their debt and obligations for pensions and retirees' healthcare, according to a report from the Institute for Truth in Accounting. The study determined six states have per-taxpayer burdens of more than $20,000: Connecticut ($41,200), Illinois ($26,800), Hawaii ($25,000), Kentucky ($23 ...

If worries about a European debt contagion aren t enough to keep Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke awake at night, he s starting to worry about a California and Illinois debt contagion. During a Senate Banking Committee hearing July 14, Bernanke said those states unfunded obligations and unpaid bills concern the Federal Reserve ...

Tax-cut crusaders achieved a monumental goal this summer when Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed into law the new $55 billion biennial state budget, which includes a total repeal of the estate tax. The estate tax repeal goes into effect Jan. 1, 2013. Ohio is one of 22 states and the District of Columbia that have an estate ...

Wisconsin parents will have more ways to evaluate schools and their children s progress under a new accountability initiative proposed by Gov. Scott Walker and state Superintendent Tony Evers. The proposed system will measure students academic improvement year-over-year instead of just annual test scores. High-achieving schools will ...

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced in June an independent state-monitored school district designed to rescue the state's poorly performing schools with localized control. The district, headed by Detroit Public Schools (DPS) Emergency Manager Roy Roberts, will encompass 34 schools in Detroit beginning next year. The aim is to ...

As part of their piecemeal approach toward reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, congressional Republicans are getting support from Democrats for modifying part of the dominant federal education law to encourage states to develop and expand high-quality charter schools. The House Education and the Workforce Committee voted 34-5 to ...

If Congress does not reauthorize No Child Left Behind by this fall, Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will waive some of the federal education law s penalties for states that adopt measures the administration supports, such as overhauling the worst schools and linking teacher evaluations to student test scores. NCLB does ...

Debate raged over a tax hike plan proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL) as the Minnesota state government shut down July 1. As with most government shutdowns, much of the Minnesota state government continued to operate, but a state zoo, horse track, state parks, highway rest stops, and some other nonessential services were shuttered ...

Fifteen months after Tennessee won $501 million in a federal Race to the Top (RTT) grant, the state feels the pressure of raised expectations. With a new model for teacher evaluations the state Board of Education approved last week, it s trying to fulfill its proposal name: First to the Top. We spent a good part of the ...

A sales tax on online retailers, less money for higher education, and more than $5 billion of additional revenue from high-income residents are in the budget California s Democrat lawmakers and governor agreed to June 28. The agreement came two weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a budget with a projected deficit of $9 ...

One may be the loneliest number, but two is the most contentious, at least it was in the North Carolina capitol this summer. That was the percentage difference between Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue s general fund budget for the next two fiscal years and Republican lawmakers final version, which became law in June after the GOP ...

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, supported and created by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers, sets grade-by-grade content requirements for K–12 in English language arts and math. The consortium is also developing science and history/social studies standards. The Obama administration ...