Editor’s Note:  The Mount Vernon Assembly, a group organized by Indiana Senate President Pro-Tem David Long to study constitutional reform, held its second meeting June 12-13 in Indianapolis. The group, made up of currently serving state legislators throughout the nation, first met in December 2013 to begin discussing the states’ ability to amend the U.S. Constitution as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.  by Tyler Watts, Ph.D. The United States are in a…

by Andrea Neal In 1975, Jessamyn West wrote a novel based on a true yet astonishing Indiana story. The Massacre at Fall Creek recounts the 1824 murders of nine Indians in Madison County and the ensuing trial and death sentences of the white male perpetrators. In the last chapter, a respected white preacher by the name of Caleb turned to his Native American acquaintances to reflect on the executions they witnessed: “This will be remembered…

by Scott Smith Talk about conflicted: What is a free-market disciple to think about the prospect of wind farms? That’s the discussion I had with Craig Ladwig, editor of the Indiana Policy Review, and a decided fence sitter when it comes to wind farms. For those unfamiliar with IPR, they’re a conservative bunch, but with a definite libertarian bent. They don’t much care for economic-development incentives, such as tax abatements, but they don’t like the…

“We stand athwart history, yelling stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” — William F. Buckley in his 1955 mission statement for National Review magazine   INDIANA IS AN EXAMPLE, a bad one, of what a friend dubs “Republicanism,” the tendency, when in the majority, to trade away an electoral mandate in the interest of appearing reasonable. Bipartisanship may…

(For the use of the membership only) FOR ALL the pointed discussions about Indiana public education this past month, there were questions that went unaddressed — obvious questions, some would say. Everybody likes to talk about process, we learn, but nobody likes to talk about efficiency. What would happen, for example, if Indiana turned down federal money for education? And by the way, how well is that aid being spent now? Would it be missed…

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,…