Recent Policy Briefs

I Think I can, I Think I can!

Deborah D. Thornton
December 1, 2010

 

Regulatory Issues Affecting Recycled Auto Parts

Alan B. Smith and Eli Lehrer
October 8, 2010

The Parent Trigger: A Model for Transforming Education

Joseph Bast, Ben Boychuk, Bruno Behrend,
Joseph L. Bast, Bruno Behrend, Ben Boychuk, and Marc Oestreich
August 10, 2010

The Parent Trigger is an innovation in education reform recently passed into law in California.

Actual Pay: A Survey of Missouri Public School Superintendent Salary and Benefit Packages

Audrey Spalding
July 29, 2010

In this interesting paper, Show-Me Institute researcher Audrey Spalding analyzes a topic that has received little systematic study: the compensation of school superintendents. School superintendents are the CEOs of our public school districts. Missouri school districts spend roughly $ 9,500 per student in current operating expenses. This rises to nearly $ 13,000 per student when capital expenditures are included. Superintendents, with the approval of their boards, make important decisions about how these resources are allocated.

How Much Does Each Diploma Cost?

June 14, 2010

HARTFORD – The average Connecticut high school graduate cost taxpayers about $133,000 from kindergarten through senior year, according to new research by the Yankee Institute. For high school graduates in the city of Hartford, which has the state’s most expensive graduates, that figure climbed to just under $200,000 per graduate, the data shows.

Using data from the Connecticut Department of Education, the Yankee Institute has ranked every Connecticut public high school by the lifetime cost of education per graduate. The five most expensive and least expensive diplomas are:

22 Reasons Why Free-Market Think Tanks Are More Effective than Anyone Else in Changing Public Policy

Jeff Judson
June 1, 2010

Jeff Judson, past president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a senior fellow of The Heartland Institute, makes the case for free-market think tanks as the most effective drivers of public