Featured Article
Governor Should Consider Teacher Merit Pay
By Matthew CarrGovernor Ted Strickland is in the middle of a two-month-long series of forums about education reform in Ohio. Called the "Governor's Conversation on Education," these meetings provide an opportunity for citizens to voice their concerns, opinions and ideas about how to improve our public schools. How, if at all, the governor will actually use this input to guide his education policy is unclear, but it is important that Ohio's education reform agenda not devolve into an incoherent grab-bag of miscellaneous proposals. Instead, the state should focus on those reforms that have proven effective in producing better educated students.
Buckeye Voices
In
this week's Buckeye
Voices, Buckeye Institute contributing scholar and Ohio
University professor Dr. Richard Vedder argues that Ohio's income tax
is driving entrepreneurs and jobs out of the state. Dr. Vedder points
to states with thriving economies, high rates of job creation and no
income tax.
Taxes Killing Ohio Jobs
The
Toledo Blade reports,
"Unemployment in Ohio rocketed to its highest level in nearly 16 years
last month as soaring pump prices took a bite out of the state's
service sector, officials said yesterday."
In
Ohio Needs More, not
Fewer, Companies Like Skybus, Buckeye Institute
Senior Fellow Sam Staley
writes, "On a statewide basis, Ohio's economy doesn't suffer because
companies fail. It suffers because enough new ones don't start.
Entrepreneurs don't see Ohio as a place to begin their quest for
fortune. And why should they? Ohio's business climate has ranked near
the nation's bottom for decades - 46th out of 50 states according to
the Washington, DC-based Tax Foundation. The income tax is our
'category killer.' Ohio's state and local income taxes bury us in 48th
spot, just above California and New Jersey."
Wrong Move on DHL
"Members of Congress are writing to the head of Deutsche Post World Net, owner of DHL, and even Germany's chancellor in efforts to stop a proposed DHL deal with United Parcel Service that could wipe out at least 8,000 Wilmington-area jobs," according to the Dayton Daily News.
In Suing our Way to Prosperity, Sam Staley writes, "The DHL precedent has far bigger implications for the future of Ohio's economy than many think. Few companies will want to locate in Ohio if they believe state officials will be second guessing strategic business decisions, or examining the details of their bottom line to ensure investments are justified. In a state where the lack of job creation is the primary driver of economic stagnation, putting the government in charge is unlikely to create the kind of investment climate that encourages the private investment necessary to expand our employment based."
Subsidizing Middle Class Health Care
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that "The Bush administration is backing down from a threat to penalize states enrolling middle-class children in a health program intended for the poor. The administration unveiled several new requirements last year for states that use a state-federal health program to cover children in families with incomes above 250 percent of the federal poverty level — $44,000 for a family of three."
In
Veto It, for the Children,
Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer
writes, "What was intended as a small supplemental program for the poor
has turned into a large entitlement program for the middle class. And,
frankly, the middle class doesn't need it. In Ohio, most children in
families between 200 percent and 300 percent of the federal poverty
level (the kids covered by the program's expansion) already have
private insurance. And studies have shown that many, if not most, of
the kids who will enroll in the expanded program could have had private
insurance."
Buckeye
Institute in the News
The Columbus Dispatch, the Akron Beacon Journal and the Lima News published Matt Carr's column on merit pay for teachers.
WHIO TV featured a story on the Buckeye Institute's government transparency project and the Columbus Dispatch praised in an editorial.
