By Jim Waters Petersburg, Virginia is not unlike a lot of small towns in rural Kentucky. Its 30,000 or so residents are predominantly Baptist, proud of their city’s rich heritage and enjoy the economic benefits of being nestled near a major waterway. Oh, and Petersburg’s schools also were a lot like those in Kentucky –…
Though Appalachian coal is paramount to America’s energy future, new federal regulations are liable to snuff out the bright economic sparks it provides. It’s a threat that some folks – even those with good intentions – just don’t get. For example, Cato senior fellow Jerry Taylor stated in a podcast that the unprecedented new mandates…
By Jim Waters On the day I’m writing this, there are exactly 12 days until old St. Nick reveals his decision about which Kentucky legislators and judges have been naughty and which are nice. So I decided to try some good old-fashioned political caroling to express my wishes – and those of a growing number…
By Jim Waters You’re either a maker or a taker. A free marketplace – which used to operate with much less government interference – allows makers to turn rocks into roads, crops into meals and ideas into patents. Without makers, takers don’t have a paycheck, pension or food stamp. With fewer takers, makers could keep…
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – A new report by the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free market think tank, reveals that the commonwealth’s largest school district continues to fail its black students. An update to the institute’s “Blacks Falling Through Gaps” report from the Summer of 2012 shows dramatic proficiency rate gaps between black and white students continue to…
By Jim Waters Former Lexington radio talk-show host Leland Conway once asked his listeners to send pork rinds to Washington after some liberals in Congress claimed the American people didn’t care about wasteful spending amendments. Listeners frustrated with contemptible Beltway politicians’ lack of respect for taxpayers responded by sending 1,500 bags to the office of New York…
(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…
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…
By Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. With an ominous “fiscal cliff” looming on the horizon, the stakes in Kentucky and across the country can’t get much higher. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to realize that the combination of cuts in the planned growth of federal spending and the large increases in federal taxes scheduled to…
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…