I recently posed the question, “How much money should public schools spend per student?” Depends on who you ask. School spending is easily one of the loudest debates in education,…
Robert Rapier is a chemical engineer with more than 25 years of international engineering experience in chemicals, oil and gas, and renewables, who writes for Forbes and Utility Forecaster. In…
State and local taxes and spending Pine and Lakes Echo Journal: Nisswa taxpayers likely to see 12% hike in city taxes Rochester Post Bulletin: Letter: Tax increases in a time…
Between November 15th and 16th, leaders of the G20 met in Bali, Indonesia, for their annual summit. Like the past couple of years, growing income inequality was one of the…
Three articles appeared in the 12/2/23 edition of the Star Tribune that should resonate with those who understand the importance the police play in the future of Minneapolis. The first…
Ilhan Omar was arrested during a 2013 visit of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to the city. The sitting President of the Federal Republic of Somalia will hold an event at the…
Teacher enthusiasm over the direction of K-12 education is higher among educators at charter schools and private schools than district schools, according to a recent EdChoice national poll collected by Morning…
The third large free-food nonprofit suspended by the state Department of Education (MDE) appeared in the state Court of Appeals yesterday. Youth Leadership Academy, d/b/a Gar Gaar Family Services, is…
The Star Tribune’s Editorial Board recently called for the reinstatement of the national assault weapons ban. My response is below. “Time to reinstate assault weapon ban” ignores a glaring gap. …
Walker Orenstein of MinnPost wrote an article detailing the energy and climate agenda of key Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota now that the DFL has total control of the House of…
It’s common knowledge that Metro Transit ridership has tanked since the pandemic, still down roughly 50 percent this year versus 2019. To be sure, a lifestyle shift that’s led far…
They say “demography is destiny.” For Minnesota’s sake, let’s hope not. A headline about public education caught my eye the other day. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that: Minneapolis Public…
Nearly half of teachers feel their school is political, according to a recent EdChoice national poll collected by Morning Consult, “which is significantly greater than the one-third of school parents…
Compared to many other metropolitan areas in the country, the Twin Cities metro — or rather the Minneapolis-St. Paul- Blooming Statistical Area (MSA) area as defined by the Bureau of…
Eight Minnesota schools were recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2022. The state is allotted eight nominations based on the number of…
The Korean War can lay claim, along with World War One, to being the United States’ “forgotten war.” Perhaps this is because it was, in a sense, inconclusive. At the…
We reported in February on Rep. Mike Howard’s conflict of interest between his job at Haven Housing and his outward support of state housing policies that benefit his employer. Howard,…
The Minnesota legislative intent is clear — use a gun in a crime, and you will go to prison. Minnesota statute 609.11 establishes a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years…
Normally, a 40 percent increase in property taxes would send most taxpayers through the roof. But that’s a bargain for Braham taxpayers in comparison to their preliminary taxation notices that…
The government in the Netherlands is planning to conduct forced buyouts of 3,000 Dutch farms with the intention of closing them down to cut nitrogen emissions in half to meet…
The number of district administrators in U.S. public schools has grown 87.6 percent between 2000 and 2019 compared to student growth at 7.6 percent and teacher growth at 8.7 percent.…
In political science, it’s very difficult to conduct controlled experiments. However, in this month’s general election, a natural experiment appears to have occurred in Edina, MN. Statewide, Democrats swept to…
It’s been almost a month since the 2022 election, so it’s time for your esteemed editors at Capitol Watch to provide our expert analysis about what happened.
Last week, in a report on low unemployment rates in Upper Midwestern cities, the Star Tribune noted that: The entire state of Minnesota came in at a 2.1% unemployment rate for…