For release Feb. 6 and thereafter (660 words) by Andrea Neal  Mitch Daniels’ recent letter to the Purdue University community was the equivalent of a 12-page research paper on the state of higher education, so Boilermakers can be forgiven if they didn’t read every word of it. The content merits attention from all Hoosiers, no matter their college loyalties. To summarize: The cost of college has gone up while the value of a degree has…

Some are confused by the Fort Wayne mayor’s apparently sincere desire to find a better place for his city’s famous statue of Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne, resplendent in bronze with sword in hand in full battle gear on horseback. Mayor Tom Henry, as socially sensitive and gun-controlling a mayor as you will find in Indiana, surely knows General Wayne’s history. Indeed, if the mayor had been in office in 1794, his administration might have viewed…

(For the use of the membership only) Members of our coffee group decided that if we were going to change Washington and the nation, we must start with the local leadership. On envelopes and napkins, then, we jotted down what could be called a “State of the County” address — for any county, anywhere in Indiana. Generally, there is a yearning for local leaders who can be trusted to advance a theme rather than the…

For release Jan. 30 and thereafter (668 words) by Andrea Neal Plenty of good reasons exist for Indiana to drop out of the Common Core, the national initiative to standardize what is taught in all public schools throughout the country. It takes away local control. It reduces teacher flexibility. It substitutes the judgment of anonymous educrats for that of expert math and English teachers. It’s too focused on career readiness at the expense of learning…

“Now is the time when men work quietly in the fields and women weep softly in the kitchen: the legislature is in session and no man’s property is safe.” — Daniel Webster by Craig Ladwig Republican legislators, the target audience of last night’s State of the State address, had cause to silently reorder their constituency relationship. Some no doubt decided to become more of a political agent. Others, though, decided to become something new, or…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. College graduates earn more than high-school graduates. College graduates with actuarial-science degrees earn more than college graduates with culinary-arts degrees. We all know why: Higher education gives students valuable skills that translate into high-paying jobs. College level skills that are more valuable (at the margin) command higher salaries, so acquiring science and math skills through related majors lead to more remunerative job prospects than other skill sets imparted from other majors.…

by MARYANN O. KEATING, Ph.D. A young man, selling Internet services in the U.S. and abroad, is amazed at the ability of Americans to self-correct as they adjust to the vicissitudes of the global economy.  He sees U.S. household debt, if not declining, in the process of being stabilized. The housing market is slowly, albeit painfully, adjusting. Workers, having exhausted unemployment compensation, are adapting to realistic salaries and benefits. Virtually every American, according to this…

For release Jan. 16 and thereafter (678 words) by Andrea Neal  There is one inescapable reason that a regional mass-transit system will not succeed in the Indianapolis area. “Put simply, mass transit needs mass – i.e., density.” And we don’t have it. The quotation comes from two experts in urban transit — Erick Guerra and Robert Cervero of the University of California at Berkeley. They studied 59 rapid bus transit, light-rail and heavy-rail systems in…

by Andrea Neal For a country that is saturated 24/7 in media, our ignorance of politics is stunning. Sixty-two percent of us can’t identity the governor, according to a survey by Xavier University. Three-fourths can’t answer the question “What does the judiciary branch do?” The Indiana Civic Health Index conducted in 2011 placed Indiana near the bottom on other key indicators of civic responsibility. For example, we rank 48th in the nation in voting and…

by Andrea Neal When the officers of Grote Industries sat down to discuss a possible legal challenge to the contraceptive mandate in the national health-care law, the vote was immediate and unanimous. “We decided that it was definitely against our beliefs,” says chairman and CEO William Grote III. The company filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in southern Indiana seeking to block implementation of that provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…