This is about my Indiana city’s inferiority complex. First, though, consider the issue of modern art — specifically “Helmholtz,” a 10-ton reddish orange outdoor sculpture toppled in a late-night car crash. Now, some believe there is a relationship between art, specifically nonobjective art, and progress, e.g., economic development, i.e., money. In my city, that position can be traced to a 1980s notion that without adequate cultural life, the hip wives of wealth-generating CEOs would nix…

(7.17.2013-1) by Andrea Neal Long before Indiana was Indiana, a river of ice glided across the state, bringing with it monsoon-like rains, mudflows to rival Mount St. Helens and rich sediment deposits that to this day nourish the crops that are the backbone of the Hoosier economy. Indiana the state has been 200 years in the making. Indiana the place goes back 2 million years to a time when ice sheets blanketed the middle latitudes…

For the past 10 years, we’ve distributed Andrea Neal’s biweekly essays on Indiana public-policy issues. She has written extensively about taxes, good governance, higher education, civic education and K-12 reform. Twenty-five Indiana newspapers have routinely published her column, making her one of the most widely read opinion writers in the state. Beginning with her column for distribution the week of June 17, her essays will focus on another passion — Indiana history. Neal will produce…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. All energy sources generate what economists call “external costs,” a concept Hoosiers will have to master to make sense of the current energy debate. It also ends up that most energy sources have benefited from federal government subsidies. There is a great deal of controversy about how much the federal government actually subsidizes various energy sources. Ideological and industry advocates generally insist that the subsidy to their preferred method of energy…

by Andrea Neal “For First Time, Majority in U.S. Supports Public Smoking Ban.” That was the headline in July 2011 as cigarette bans swept the country. In 2000, just one major U.S. city banned smoking at work sites, restaurants and bars. As of last year, 60 percent of the 50 largest cities did, including Indianapolis. Last July, Indiana became one of 38 states with smoke-free air laws. “Majority Now Supports Legalizing Marijuana.” That headline appeared…

A few hours on one of those genealogical web sites can put the immigration debate into sharp personal focus. I stumbled on her picture, a criminal mug shot actually, while looking for more glamorous ancestry. She was my great-grandmother, a suspected enemy alien. Wilma Philipina Rosina Haug Bader was required to register as such on June 18, 1918. The order was signed by the 23-year-old manager of the Enemy Alien Registration Section of the Department…

by Andrea Neal The nation’s eyes are on Indiana as it moves to reconsider the Common Core academic standards that are supposed to raise student achievement and standardize what children learn across the country. The operative word is “supposed.” These national academic standards were adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia with little data to back them and almost no debate. Former Gov. Mitch Daniels and School Superintendent Tony Bennett pushed Indiana’s Board…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Wind power is a darling of the green movement. In the mid-1970s, long before man-made climate change was on the radar screen, environmentalists were excoriating fossil fuel and extolling the virtues of wind energy. I recall a student-made poster of the era with a hand-drawn picture of an oil well. The caption read: “This is not the way to make energy.” On the other side of the poster a windmill was…

by Jeff Abbott, Ph.D., J.D. In the past few weeks, we have heard horror stories throughout Indiana about testing under ISTEP+ — particularly the overload of the computer system and the failure of the testing company’s servers to handle the testing. State Board of Education members expressed frustration about what Indiana educators and education policymakers widely viewed as a disastrous testing experience. Several state board members expressed concern about the validity of an ISTEP+ that…

by Andrea Neal Otis Bowen will go down in history as the governor who delivered landmark property-tax relief to Hoosiers. He also deserves mention for what happened on Mitch Daniels’ watch: a tax-reform amendment to the state Constitution. Relief is “lightening of something oppressive,” according to Merriam-Webster. Reform is “correction of an abuse or wrong.” The first tends to be temporary, the latter more permanent. That’s why Bowen lobbied for the Daniels tax plan in…