As a result of last week’s election, 2011 could be a watershed year for education reform and school choice. Many conservative candidates in the states campaigned on returning to local control in education and expanding school choice options for parents. Several states in particular could see significant movement on the education reform front as new leadership takes the helm in the coming months. In Arizona, incoming superintendent John Huppenthal bested Penny Kotterman, whom the American Federation for Children notes would have worked to roll-back school choice options for Arizona families. …
Editor’s Note: On the right, please watch our exclusive interview with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and then below, please read an original guest blog to The Foundry from the Governor himself. We’ve been through a global recession. Now we’re fighting through a stalled recovery. Revenues are the lowest they’ve been in half a century. Their finances a wreck, many states have effectively sunk into bankruptcy. Indiana is still afloat. In fact, we’ve fared better than most. We continue to meet our obligations without raising taxes, and the reserves we carefully …
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels stopped by the Heritage Foundation yesterday to meet with conservative bloggers. His visit came a few days after The Weekly Standard released a lengthy piece on him, written by TWS Senior Editor Andrew Ferguson. Afterwards, he sat down with us for an exclusive “In the Green Room” interview. A vocal champion against Obamacare, both before and after its passage, Governor Daniels did not let up on his criticism. “I think it is a misnomer to ever refer to it as ‘reform’. It doesn’t reform anything. It perpetuates …
The national health reform rammed through Congress is giving state officials headaches. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels outlines several problems states will have to deal with as a result of Obamacare. For example, Daniels now faces the prospect of terminating a popular insurance program for low-income Indiana residents. The “Healthy Indiana Plan” includes health savings accounts that have been widely popular with the program’s participants. Due to new health care law, however, Indiana will most likely have to dump the “Healthy Indiana” enrollees into Medicaid. …
After a presentation this afternoon at the weekly Bloggers Briefing held at The Heritage Foundation, Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) sat down with us for his first interview following today’s announcement that he will not challenge Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) for his seat in the U.S. Senate. In this exclusive interview, Pence discussed his future plans, the prospects for the conservative movement, and what he believes the President and Congress can do to spur growth in the economy.
“Show me the money!” is one of the most memorable lines from a movie—Jerry Maguire—in the last twenty years. Coincidentally, that movie came out in 1996, which was a reelection year for President Bill Clinton. Not coincidentally, President Clinton in fact showed them the money in 1996 when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued more disaster declarations—157—than any year before or after. In “States: Stop Subsidizing FEMA Waste and Manage Your Own Local Disasters,” we detail the tendency over the last sixteen years to define disaster down so that …
Yesterday, state lawmakers in Indiana passed a scholarship tax credit program—making the Hoosier state the latest to offer private school choice. Under the plan, people or corporations who make donations to non-profits that award tuition scholarships will be eligible for a 50-percent tax credit off their state bill. A total of $2.5 million in tax credits will be awarded. The program has the potential to help hundreds of families choose the best school for their children. A recent analysis by the Friedman Foundation found that this program also has the …
Debunking myths about the supposed harm free trade inflicts on U.S. manufacturing, Cato Institute’s Daniel Ikenson notes: While the rest of U.S. manufacturing has recovered, Michigan’s manufacturing economy remains stagnant. Real GDP growth between 2005 and 2006 in Michigan ranked dead last among the 50 states. Meager manufacturing value-added growth contributed only 0.05 percentage points to what was a net, contraction of the state’s economy to the tune of -0.5 percent. Nationwide, the contribution of manufacturing was .41 percentage points to an overall GDP growth rate of 3.4 percent. Had …
The left is in full retreat on global warming legislation in Congress. The American people have spoken, and they do not want to raise energy prices even further while the cost of gasoline is so high. But this is no time to let up. Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) both support similar carbon-capping legislation. Here is how many jobs Lieberman-Warner would kill in Indiana, according to Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis:
With voters voting in Indiana today, the Wall Street Journal identifies some facts to counter protectionist Democrat rhetoric on the campaign trail from the U.S.-China Business Council’s study on U.S. exports to China. They write: The study tracks exports from each Congressional district to China. Between 2000 and 2007, 406 of 426 House districts clocked triple-digit export growth to the mainland. Note that the bulk were manufactured goods: Electrical equipment and machinery, power generation equipment, and aircraft are America’s top three export categories to China in dollar terms. In services, …
