The Boogeyman in Public Education
Last week I wrote about free speech in public education and how one community in Wyoming (Cody) is up in arms, neighbor fighting neighbor, over the eminent purchase of a K-8 reading curriculum. What in...
View ArticleThe Alberta Disadvantage
In Governor Mead’s 2015 supplemental budget, the governor called on the legislature to set up a reserve account for an industrial park, and the legislature complied with a $5 million appropriation. The...
View ArticleTime to Disinfect Out the Common Core
*This post was originally published on May 9, 2014 Perhaps the biggest dose of reality for those who believe they know what is best for all the rest of us is when they discover they really don’t know...
View ArticleHere we go again: Fed Ed Secretary Announces Another Federal Initiative
*This post was originally published on July 17, 2014 Fed Ed Secretary Arne Duncan announced this week that the U.S. Department of Ed is initiating a multifaceted new strategy to ensure every American...
View ArticleWasting Money on Coal Export Schemes
With mineral tax revenue plummeting, the Wyoming government is madly conjuring up schemes to keep spending at all time highs. One boondoggle approved during the 2015 legislative session involves...
View ArticleObamacare Exchanges are Bleeding States Dry
In four weeks, the Supreme Court will rule on King v. Burwell. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs invalidates federal insurance subsidies for the 36 states without a state exchange and frees them from...
View ArticleEnacting Federal Education Policy: The Definition of Insanity
*This post was originally published on May 22, 2014 According to the Wyoming Department of Education, Wyoming will not be receiving a waiver renewal from the United States Department of Education for...
View ArticleWyoming Denies Parents Right to Opt Children Out of High Stakes Testing
This post was originally published on October 2, 2014. Last week the Wyoming Department of Education released to the public a letter dated August 27, 2014 from the Attorney General’s office stating...
View ArticleCapitol Renovation Spending Rides the Runaway Train
It is not a wonder the state is chugging towards the fiscal cliff with $300 million boondoggles like the Capitol renovation project riding the runaway train. With the final design still not approved...
View ArticleDirect Primary Care’s Promise
Progressives constantly frame the debate over healthcare reform as a false choice: should healthcare be financed through insurance companies or the government? Both options leave patients at the mercy...
View ArticleWyoming PAWS Results: A Trifecta of Education Misery
*This post was originally published on September 25, 2014. The Wyoming Department of Education on Monday released the statewide 2014 PAWS (Proficiency Assessment for Wyoming Students) results in what...
View ArticleHomeschooling on the Rise Nationally
Sheridan, Wyoming mom Sierra Mullinax traveled through the rolling hills of eastern Missouri recently, watching for Amish buggies to appear as she talked about her decision to change her children’s...
View ArticleFederal Land Mismanagement
More than 50 years ago Bernard DeVoto uttered perhaps the truest statement ever made with respect to the public lands and the rural West; the actual western view of the place of the federal government,...
View ArticleBehind the Scene Politics Being Played to Stop Wyoming Parents
This post was originally published on November 11, 2014. For Wyoming parents wondering what really happens behind the scenes to push the direction of statewide education policy, they need look no...
View ArticleSupreme Court Strikes a Blow for Free Speech
The United States Supreme Court unanimously struck down a town’s sign regulations in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona because the regulations violated the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee. In so...
View ArticleSupreme Court Decision Sets Aside Rule of Law
Cheyenne: The Supreme Court today upheld the authority of the IRS to pay subsidies on the federal insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act, despite the law’s clear language that subsidies are...
View ArticleSchool Accountability: Putting Wyoming Parents in Jail
*This post was originally published on October 22, 2014. For those of you who do not follow the news closely, you may have missed a recent piece on Wyoming Attorney General’s (AG) August letter stating...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare in Wyoming
After months of anticipation, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Obama Administration in King v. Burwell and upheld the IRS’s authority to issue insurance subsidies on the federal insurance...
View ArticleSome Thoughts on Kim Love and Free Speech
When Kim Love, owner of Sheridan Media, took out a radio ad attacking Wyoming Rep. Mark Jennings through the organization Citizens for Good Government (CGG) a few weeks ago, political advertising hit a...
View ArticleCanada – A Health Care Utopia?
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand. Milton Friedman Imagine being told by your doctor that you are too young for a knee...
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