Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, decided that the Seattle, WA, and Louisville, KY, school assignment plans were unconstitutional, since the plans were based on race. Of course, there are many people who are outraged by the decision, and some people believe that this will somehow lead to increased segregation. Yet, Chief Justice John Roberts stated why he believes the plans were unconstitutional:

"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discrimination on the basis of race."

During the past 50 years, desegregation has worked well to a point, but instead of trying to force people  from different backgrounds to go to the same school, we should give parents options to send their kids to the schools of their choice. Through methods of school choice, from the Voluntary Inter-district Transfer Program that is used in St. Louis to send city students to the county and vice-versa, to school vouchers that allow people the freedom to choose where to send their kids, we can accomplish the goal of desegregation without the controversy. People of all backgrounds, no matter what race they are, want to choose good schools for their children, and at the end of the day, government does not need to force desegregation on people — they will choose it.

Yesterday’s Kansas City Star ran an article about congressional legislation that "would make it a criminal offense for gas prices to be ‘unconscionably’ high." The article’s headline? "Gas-price legislation would hurt consumers, oil group says" — undoubtedly true, but an unfortunate choice of words all the same.

Using the oil industry as the lone dissenting voice to legislation that seems populist and consumer-friendly on the surface makes it look like any objection to the bill is disingenous. After all, an oil industry spokeswoman would have to be against price controls, right? For those who have an instinctual us-vs.-them attitude about business, and the oil industry in particular, it seems like naked self-interest masquerading as concern for consumer welfare. But this is an objection worth heeding. If it had made a few more phone calls, the Star could well have titled its article, "Gas-price legislation would hurt consumers, says almost every economist on the planet".

The fundamental relationship between supply, demand, and price isn’t a matter of opinion or conjecture. Changing one of those variables by legislative fiat changes the others as well. If you set a cap on prices, more people will buy more gas and fewer oil producers will have an incentive to supply the market — leading to shortages. Simple as that.

Lily Tomlin once said, "The road to success is always under construction." The same can be said for Missouri’s roads — and for MoDOT’s efforts to improve its roadwork efforts.

Now that we have the great news that Missouri has "sharply improved" road quality during the past few years, it seems prescient that our newest policy analyst, David Stokes, recently wrote an article (reprinted by Missouri Political News Service) praising MoDOT for its innovative efforts to streamline its construction projects — pursuing public-private partnerships, using the "design-build" model, etc.

Competition, economies of scale, and real pricing mechanisms all make the economy more efficient — and when these principles are brought to bear in the public sector, they can make government services more valuable while saving taxpayers a bundle. Let’s hope MoDOT’s road-care policies will always remain "under construction."

An article in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Missouri roads have improved sharply:

The report from the Reason Foundation, a non-profit policy group based
in Los Angeles, says Missouri "sharply improved" its pavement
conditions from 2000 to 2005, at a time when highway officials were
starting a construction blitz that repaired 2,200 miles of highway.

In 2000, the state’s highways ranked 38th. Today’s report puts the state at 17th.

The vast improvement in Missouri roads can be attributed to the shift in focus by MoDOT to maintenance of current roads during the past six years. There are still problems, though, with Missouri bridges, where Missouri ranks near the bottom. That should change once the contract is approved to rebuild over 800 bridges in Missouri. Another problem of note that because of the shift away from new projects, there is a list of projects that needs to be completed:

As a result, some projects have languished for years, such as building
a new Mississippi River bridge, extending Maryland Heights Expressway
and expanding the Page Avenue extension farther into St. Charles
County.

Overall, it is a great sign that Missouri is wisely investing in keeping its roads up to date and safe for its residents.

The Goldwater Institute recently issued a news release on a lawsuit filed against the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). The lawsuit aims to protect the autonomy and rights of the state’s charter schools and is in response to the following:

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has mandated that the schools align their curricula to an ADE-determined grade-by-grade curriculum sequence.

Part of the appeal and success of charter schools has been the ability to try new curriculum that better suits students’ interests and needs. These schools should not be required to change the very thing that makes them so successful. The charter schools involved do not appear to need any assistance in deciding which curriculum is best for their students:

BASIS Tucson, BASIS Scottsdale, Veritas Preparatory Academy in Phoenix, Chandler Preparatory Academy and Mesa Preparatory Academy — include four of the ten highest-performing public schools in the state based on AIMS test scores. Newsweek has named BASIS Tucson one of the nation’s ten best high schools for two consecutive years.

Hopefully, Missouri will not repeat the ADE’s mistake, instead allowing its growing number of charter schools the freedom necessary to provide an innovative and quality education for their students.

In today’s St. Louis Post Dispatch an article discusses the possibility that the City of Wildwood will probably not accept the petitions of its citizens who want to vote on the building of an $8 million city hall!

Residents collected roughly 3,400 signatures to get two issues on the November ballot. Now they’re being told the city may not honor their petitions.

It’s sad to see when governments do not listen to the people that elected them to office, especially on the local level. Hopefully, the Wildwood City Council will heed the petitions to allow an issue that involves taxpayers’ dollars being spent on this type of project to be brought to the voters. For the huge amount they are spending on this new city hall, it almost sounds like a gimmick like the monorail from the Simpsons. It looks nice, but doesn’t work too well.

In St. Louis and other cities and towns in Missouri, the use of TIFs and tax incentives to encourage development is rampant. In Columbia, Illinois, it is different. In the St. Louis Post Dispatch today an article discusses why the Columbia city council voted against two huge developments, one of which could have brought Legoland to the Midwest. One of the main reasons given by alderman Brad Oberkfell was that he wouldn’t support any project that would need tax incentives:

Previously, the council had supported exploring development opportunities involving Columbia Crossing. But that was before the April election. Three newly elected council members, including Oberkfell, ran on campaigns against using tax incentives for development purposes. And Oberkfell said the proposed theme park plan involved the potential use of tax incentives.

These leaders understand that economic growth happens when businesses see opportunities there, not because they receive tax incentives and TIFs. If businesses see potential profits in a certain area, they will come to cities to start businesses anyway. Congrats to Columbia on not giving away taxpayer dollars for private companies!

Mayor Slay wants to prohibit city government from buying bottled water:

Does that mean banning water coolers? “We’re looking at those types of things,” Slay said, emphasizing that the idea would be to replace jugs of bottled water with jugs filled from city taps.

At least he isn’t planning on naming St. Louis tap water the official water of the state of Missouri.

In a recent post, Sarah Brodsky commented on the Department of Energy’s decision to fund biofuels research centers in three other states — but not Missouri. Sarah pointed out that we don’t need government funding to support alternative fuel research, because "If biofuel is really a good idea, it’ll be profitable to invest in it even without government funds." Indeed. But there’s more to it than that. Government has a critical role in helping biofuel succeed — not more funding and largesse, but getting out of the way of real entrepreneurs.

The Cascade Policy Institute in Portland, OR, last year reported on how government regulations squelch the efforts of the best biofuel research team the nation has — farmers:

In order to sell biodiesel one must register with, and make regular reports to, the EPA and either pay $2,500 to the National Biodiesel Board or spend millions of dollars to re-prove its environmental health safety. Otherwise one faces $25,000 daily fines.

The stifling effect of these obstacles can’t be overestimated. If it weren’t for the EPA, our family would have started a biodiesel business long ago, and so would many of the farmers I’ve spoken with. Making your own fuel is a financial solution. The incentives to plant are already there and the entire process can be done on a small-scale.

Farmers know it’s a bum deal to work through a middleman to reach customers. Fuel is sure to bring in a good price, but who can say what processors will pay for oil seed stock? If farmers can’t profit directly from biodiesel they will never plant enough crops to make a dent in America’s fuel demands and the price of biodiesel will remain too high for widespread adoption.

Biodiesel represents an enormous opportunity, not only for its environmental and economic benefits, but for its liberating potential. There is a reason the terms “fuel” and “power” also have political application. Petroleum can’t be obtained by just anyone so it is ripe for control. Biodiesel can literally put power into the hands of every person.

The biodiesel opportunity has been suppressed for over a century. Rudolf Diesel designed his engine to run on a variety of vegetable oils and thought the technology would be a boon to farmers.

Now that biofuels have finally regained the national spotlight, America is at a crossroads. We can pursue subsidies and use mandates to build on the petroleum fuel model, with large-scale agribusiness supplying a few giant processors. Or we can we remove counterproductive laws for a paradigm shift to an agrarian fuel model, where local farmers grow the industry from the ground up and reap the profits.

One of the most basic truths of government intervention in the economy is that intervention begets intervention, as the unintended consequences of government action become apparent, and then have to be "fixed" through more government action, spawning still more unintended consequences that require still more intervention, etc.

Sometimes the government’s best course of action is to stay out of the way and let the market do its work, without obtrusive regulations that kill alternative energy innovations before they have a chance to blossom.

That’s right, a new program is giving kids T-shirts as a reward for wearing life jackets:

Water Patrol officers and Corps rangers on Table Rock Lake will reward children wearing jackets on boats, beaches and docks by giving them a T-shirt with the message, “I got caught wearing my life jacket.” The program will continue throughout the summer.

Why don’t they hand out life jackets or flotation devices to the kids who aren’t wearing them? I doubt anybody would put on a life jacket for the chance to win one of those T-shirts. And a T-shirt never saved anyone’s life.

Missouri was not selected to be the site of a federally-funded biofuels research center:

The Department of Energy announced Tuesday it will fund three biofuels research centers in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Madison, Wis., and near Berkeley, Calif.

I, for one, am not sorry. Economic growth happens when entrepreneurs work to satisfy consumers’ needs, not when established organizations vie for federal dollars. If biofuel is really a good idea, it’ll be profitable to invest in it even without government funds.

The St. Joseph News-Press complains that not enough Missourians from the northwest part of the state are serving on boards and commissions:

The new Seismic Safety Commission will always come from Cape Girardeau. And the governor can find a nominee for the Board of Examiners for Cosmetology and Barbers from anywhere in the state. It just seems that anywhere is rarely St. Joseph.

Gov. Blunt encourages everyone to serve on state boards:

"I encourage Missourians to explore our state’s boards and commissions and apply for an appointment that allows them to use their God-given talents to help enhance the services we deliver to Missourians each and every day," the governor said in a prepared release.

So there is the challenge. If Northwest Missouri wants someone on the lead poisoning committee or the Hispanic Business Trade and Culture Committee, we are going to need volunteers to step up to the plate.

It looks like northwest Missourians just prefer to use their God-given talents to do something productive themselves rather than to patrol other people.