The Heartland Institute

President Obama’s health care law could soon be struck down by the Supreme Court, or voters could finish the job in November. In considering what comes next, Medicaid reform is at the top of the list. Medicaid is the worst health care program in the country—a dismal program that finances care for low-income Americans but ...

As Medicaid costs continue to rise above already-unsustainable levels, states are looking for innovative ways to reform the program and save taxpayer money. One reform gaining traction is Rhode Island s Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver, approved in 2009. A similar plan was adopted recently with unanimous bipartisan support ...

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed into law four education reform bills making it easier to fire poor-performing tenured teachers, restructuring some aspects of state education governance, and introducing teacher pay-for-performance. Other measures have stalled, including a constitutional amendment to implement statewide vouchers, alternative ...

This document offers a point-by-point rebuttal of a June 6th memo to elected officials from Peggy Borchert titled I Oppose HB33. HB 33 would create the Taxpayers Savings Grant Program (TSGP). That program would allow the parent or legal guardian of a school-age child residing in Texas who was entering kindergarten or first ...

On Tuesday, Texas state Rep. Sid Miller (R-Stephenville) introduced voucher legislation that could save the state $2 billion over two years directly after Gov. Rick Perry (R) called a legislative special session to solve state budget woes,. HB 33 would give parents of public-school students up to $5,143 or the cost of tuition ...

Television blackouts resulting from retransmission fee battles have prompted the Federal Communications Commission to propose new negotiation rules between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors, more commonly known as cable and television satellite companies. Blackouts of television programming occur when television ...

Education reform became a defining issue in several state legislatures this session. Newly elected Republican governors, including Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rick Scott in Florida, and John Kasich in Ohio, explicitly linked school reforms to their states fiscal health. Legislatures across the nation passed a variety of reform bills ...

Arguing that improving the state s education system is essential to economic growth, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is proposing a package of reforms to raise student achievement. The state legislature in May wrote some of his proposals into House Bills 4625 through 4628. They would require teacher evaluations, that schools use ...

This fall, Utah parents will have more clarity about how their child s school performs, thanks to a new school grading system Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed into law. SB 59 assigns a letter grade to schools based on student performance on a range of academic achievement measures. Modeled after Florida s decade-old grading scale ...

A new report calls on the nation s business community to take bolder steps toward reforming the nation s education system in order to improve its science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) performance. The changes they propose will not be easy, acknowledge the authors of The Case for Being Bold: A New Agenda for Business ...

Efforts to reform K-12 schooling in America are as old as schooling itself. Benjamin Franklin, among others, criticized the public schools of his time, called Latin schools, for focusing on preparing a small elite for lives in religious and academic institutions rather than teaching practical skills to the larger public. The ...

Pamela Justice, the principal of Clyde Elementary School in Haywood County in North Carolina, recently sent students home with a letter asking parents to contact their legislators and voice opposition to Senate Bill 8, the No Cap on Charter Schools Act. About the same time, students in Rutherford County Schools used school ...

A Parent Trigger amendment to a parental responsibility bill was voted down in a Colorado state senate committee, signaling what the amendment s sponsor said was the end of parent empowerment legislation in the Rocky Mountain State for the 2011 session. It s totally dead for the year, said state Sen. Nancy Spence (R-Centennial ...

Maine is the latest to join at least 15 state legislatures considering a bill to establish a Parent Trigger law, empowering parents of children at failing public schools to petition for reforms. State Rep. Amy Volk (R-Scarborough) is the author of the Maine House bill, designated LD 1417, An Act to Enhance Parental Roles ...

Indiana s state Senate is poised to vote on a host of ambitious school reforms, including a voucher bill aimed at providing children from families earning up to $60,000 a year with $4,500 a year to attend the school of their choice statewide. Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is expected to sign the bills as soon as they pass. With ...

North Carolina municipalities soon may find it more difficult to implement or subsidize communications services for residents if either of two bills winding through the state s General Assembly becomes law. Both House Bill 129 and Senate Bill 87 emerged from committee hearings in March. If passed into law, neither bill will forbid ...

American higher education suffers from rapidly escalating costs and poor student learning outcomes. Collectively, the United States spends $430 billion on higher education, the equivalent of 3 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP), an amount that exceeds the entire GDPs of several midsize European countries. Yet, there ...

For at least the past two decades, school choice initiatives have been limited programs designed either to benefit a small group of special needs children or to punish failing government schools. No doubt these programs have given a few students opportunities they wouldn t have had otherwise. But these programs touch the lives ...

In an apparent policy reversal, California State Board of Education President Michael Kirst announced plans to accelerate the timetable for approving permanent regulations for the state s landmark Parent Empowerment Act, also known as the Parent Trigger. Kirst says the board s April 21 meeting would be devoted exclusively to discussing ...

A bill to reform Michigan s 1991 Telecommunications Act regulating landline providers has moved to the state legislature s House Energy and Communications Committee. Introduced by Ken Horn (R-Frankenmuth), chairman of the House Energy and Communications Committee, on February 22, 2011, and cosponsored by Roy Schmidt (D-Grand Rapids ...