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…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. I persistently characterize my political philosophy as that of a classical liberal. This sows some confusion. Those who share my deep skepticism about the redistributionist tendency of a modern welfare state are usually characterized as conservatives. So why muddy the water? A short political history is in order. For those who follow the PBS series “Downton Abbey,” one cannot help but note that the Crowley family’s wealth flows from their ownership…

by Ryan Cummins An Open Letter to Indiana City Councils The problem: A public-employee union has no check, no market mechanism, to temper its power. The solution: You, the councilman. A free market theoretically provides a check on private-sector unions except that government so often steps in to establish special rules. Couple that with a general body of law biased toward union labor, and we face a situation in which public-employee unions (PEUs) can and…

For the use of the membership only (759 words) “On average (since 1995), 69 percent of nonwhites have identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic, and 21 percent have identified as Republicans or leaned Republican.” — Gallup Politics, March 24, 2014   THE REPUBLICAN PARTY has a crisis. No, it isn’t the national debt, or the imploding social security and health systems, or a snooping homeland police force, or a tyrannical…

by Andrea Neal In the rough-and-tumble world of frontier politics, Jonathan Jennings experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Indiana’s first governor, Jennings was credited with pushing Indiana from territory to statehood, defeating an old guard loyal to William Henry Harrison and insisting that the 16th state would not have slavery. By the time of his death at the young age of 50, Jennings had suffered political defeat, debt and health problems…