by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. It is graduation season, and college seniors move from the hallowed halls of the university to the wider world and workplace. The ceremony itself includes a procession, numerous speeches, awarding each graduate a diploma, and an official confirmation of the degrees. It takes on a religious aura even in a secular university. This isn’t surprising because the modern university evolved from church institutions. So what role does religion have in a…

by Andrea Neal Anyone who’s ever served on a committee can relate to the old laugh line that a committee is a group of people who keep minutes and waste hours. Such was not the case, however, in 1820, when 10 Hoosier men were named to a committee to find a new state capital. They were focused, efficient and prescient. Traveling from different counties in southern Indiana, they met at the home of William Conner…

by Sandra Stotsky, Ed.D. Writing in National Review Online, Rick Hess and Mike McShane of the American Enterprise Institute make the complaint that critics of Common Core have not come up with the next steps to “repeal and replace” for states that want to restore academic integrity to their K-12 curriculum in English-language arts and mathematics. Hess and McShane should have asked me what I’ve done instead of presenting such a baseless complaint. In fact,…

“I’m drowning here, and you’re describing the water.” — Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) in “As Good as It Gets” THERE IS a troublesome thought that occurs to Hoosiers of a certain age. They are the ones who lived through the agonizing reappraisals of the 1960s and 1970s, the narcissism that followed, the staged social sensitivity, the massive spending to eliminate every unmet need or want and, finally, the ongoing and forced transfer of wealth by…

by Richard Reinsch Nearly a year ago, Gov. Mike Pence called for the suspension of the implementation of the Common Core state standards. His appeal was predicated on the lack of pedagogical substance within the Common Core standards and Indiana’s subservient position to Washington that is required under its tutelage. It seems that Governor Pence recognized that Common Core’s adoption under former Education Secretary Tony Bennett was an unwelcome education revolution. Governor Pence, we thought,…

“On a state level, I think it’s important that we find candidates and elect them who would be willing to call for a Convention of States, if need be. Because that is the tool the people have to rein in government.” — Sarah Palin, April 14, 2014 by Tyler Watts, Ph.D. The Indianapolis Star last week published the endorsement of a conservative intellectual, George Will, for a state-initiated Article V Convention for proposing a balanced…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. I am writing this article on an airplane to Las Vegas. I’ll be attending the annual conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education with two of my colleagues and six of my students. We’ll share some of the work we have done in economics at Ball State University — and yes, we’ll really attend sessions to learn about what scholars and students from other universities are doing. Are we crazy?…

by Craig Ladwig At a small table at an Indianapolis club some years ago, an argument began — or perhaps more an intense discussion. It was between two strong personalities: Luke Kenley, the Noblesville businessman who would become chairman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee, and Stephen Moore, an economist and frequent guest of our foundation who a few years later would join the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. We had brought the…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution brought us the federal income tax in 1913. A year later, the 1040 tax form was born. The 1040 had a modest debut but has grown impressively since. The original was so compact it was published on the front page of the New York Times. Today, it has hundreds of supplemental forms and thousands of instruction pages. The supporting tax laws now total more…

by Andrea Neal Although the state constitution expressly prohibited it, slavery existed in early Indiana. Two court cases filed by enslaved black women put an end to the practice. In the early 19th century, Polly Strong and Mary Clark challenged prevailing attitudes to claim their civil rights as U.S. and Indiana citizens. “People get really uneasy about saying Indiana practiced slavery,” said Eunice Trotter, a Clark descendant, who has researched the story. “This is our…