News release: BIPPS-supported ALEC model bill seeks to protect Kentucky coal from EPA overreach

Increase Free Markets, Smaller GovernmentLeave a comment

(BOWLING GREEN, Ky.) – Model legislation sponsored by the Bluegrass Institute,Kentucky’s free-market think tank, which gives states an effective constitutional weapon in their arsenal to push back against federal environmental overreach, received unanimous approval by the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force. The Intrastate Coal and Use Act declares in no uncertain terms that…

BIPPS on WHAS and KET today

MediaLeave a comment

This morning at 10 a.m. Jim Waters will join Mandy Connell on WHAS for another Bluegrass Monday. Listen live here. Also, this evening at 8 p.m. ET, Jim will join a panel discussion about the fiscal cliff on KET‘s Kentucky Tonight. The featured panelists include Jason Bailey of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, Tres Watson…

New test, old doubts

Education, Media2 Comments

By Jim Waters Grand Canyon-esque gaps in math scores. Praise for poorly performing schools. Failed top-down policies. So far, the developing story being told by the initial batch of results from Kentucky’s new testing system suggests that our public education system’s performance is – when compared to previous testing results – more of a déjà-vu-all-over-again…

Policy challenges require patience, perseverance

News1 Comment

By Jim Waters Patience isn’t only a virtue. It’s also a necessary weapon in successfully opposing policies resurrected from history’s ash heap to threaten our economic and social freedom. However, patience gets harder to maintain – by the second, actually – when you realize that our nation is borrowing $50,000 each second, $4 billion a…

The Morning After: Now what?

NewsLeave a comment

The following is a statement from Bluegrass Institute interim president Jim Waters about Tuesday’s election:  Last night’s election returns were disappointing in many ways for Kentuckians who believe in the principles of freedom, limited government and self-reliance that made ours the greatest, freest and most prosperous nation in history. Those principles are greatly threatened by…

Bluegrass Beacon: Small business owner: ‘Obamacare’ bad for Kentucky

Featured_News, Increase Free Markets, Smaller GovernmentLeave a comment

By Jim Waters When Dennis Budlove arrived at the Fern Terrace personal long-term care facility in Bowling Green nine months ago, he said “I felt like I came home.” But will Budlove, 50, who suffers both physical and psychological problems, still have a home in 2014? If Obamacare’s employer mandates remain unchanged, 4,000 residents in…

News Release: Institute provides trend data missing in state’s new ‘Unbridled Learning’ accountability system

EducationLeave a comment

FRANKFORT, Ky. — State education officials trying to downplay less-than-desirable initial test results from “Unbridled Learning,” Kentucky’s new public school accountability program, claim the scores – scheduled for release on Nov. 2 – cannot be compared to past results from the previous CATS and No Child Left Behind programs. However, this does not mean that…