Intellections

The successes and failures of environmental policy often hinge on finding the right balance between free-market solutions and government mandates.

Incomplete and inconsistent state education policies hinder the potential of America's gifted students, leading to lost human capital and widening excellence gaps, but state leaders can rectify this by implementing a comprehensive policy roadmap that ensures equitable, high-quality education for all advanced learners.

Excellence, not mediocrity, provides the key to achieving greater equity in education.

A uniform consumption tax would simplify the tax system, boost economic efficiency, and make tax revenue more transparent.

US states and districts are rethinking school accountability, recognizing the need to focus on schools' capacity to fix their shortcomings in addition to traditional measures like academic standards and student assessments.

Relying on the rich to pay the majority of state tax revenue causes them to move to lower-tax states, resulting in higher taxes for everyone.

Adopting ranked-choice voting allows voter preferences to be more accurately reflected in elections, especially when candidates drop out.

Noneuse rights allow environmental groups to buy and then conserve land or resources that otherwise would have been sold to companies for development.

What makes housing expensive? The problem isn’t lack of space—it is that not enough homes are being built.

High school graduation rates have been on the rise, but they often don’t reflect better outcomes.

The Chinese Communist Party pressures US businesses to sacrifice their American values while doing business in China.

Monitoring China’s propaganda capabilities is critical to detecting and mitigating state-sponsored disinformation.

Improving civic education will help students develop better judgment so that they can discern good ideas from bad ones.

Enacting government policies that reveal the true costs of climate change will encourage people to adapt and mitigate its negative consequences.

Rather than forgiving student loans across the board, targeted assistance is a better way to benefit the people who need the most help.

Improvements to transparency and accountability can help schools recover from the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is a growing movement for companies to put social responsibility before profits—but the best defense for workers comes from a healthy and competitive market. 

Laws that stop prices from rising in emergencies lead to shortages that leave everyone worse off.

The federal government’s constitutional powers do not expand during national emergencies, with one notable exception.

The public option promises to lower health insurance premiums without increasing federal spending, but Congress has broken similar promises on many occasions.

The Electoral College requires candidates to broaden their national appeal, which minimizes polarization and partisanship.

A modest, revenue-neutral carbon tax would provide the right incentives to reduce carbon emissions. 

While occupational licensing is supposed to protect consumers, it ends up preventing new competition in the workforce.

New research shows that the difference in educational attainment between students from higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds has not changed over the past 50 years.

Two of the most common objections to immigration in the United States are that more immigrants lead to more crime and more people on welfare, but a closer look reveals that these objections are misguided.

Teaching is an underpaid profession, and higher salaries need to go to the most effective teachers.

Failing to move on from the Cold War mindset about nuclear weapons encourages their development and increases the risk that they will be used.

As the world continues to shift toward low-carbon energy sources, a closer look makes it clear that nuclear power has to be included in order to reduce carbon emissions.

Recently, Congress has been threatening the rule of law by shifting power to federal regulators through the use of waivers and licenses.

The United States could boost its economy if it rebalanced its immigration system to allow entrepreneurial immigrants into the country.

Regulatory capture occurs when regulatory agencies become dominated by the industries they are charged with regulating, which harms consumers and stifles competition.

The ability to switch internet service providers today offers consumers far greater protection than heavy handed regulation tomorrow.

The administrative state is the collection of federal agencies, regulators, and rule makers that have become a powerful, unelected, and unaccountable part of the government.

The conversation on climate change should shift to estimating the costs and benefits of proposed policies.

Charter schools are leading the way in improving public education in America, especially for students who are traditionally underserved.

Charter schools are granted the flexibility to operate in exchange for accountability of their students’ achievement.

If we want to see better results in our schools, we need more flexibility on how we hire, reward, and retain great teachers.

Increased energy efficiency has had a greater effect on America’s energy consumption than all the growth in solar, wind, geothermal, natural gas and nuclear energy combined.

Making empty threats in foreign affairs threatens national security and destroys credibility.