Opinion – Jim Waters: Will Kentucky shut down a school serving thousands of students?
Accountability for academic performance is suddenly all the rage among Kentucky’s anti-education-freedom bureaucrats and politicians, but only because it involves…
Jim Waters
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Bluegrass Institute’s new policy point summarizes spending, performance trends in K-12 education
A new policy point by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think, summarizes a host of trends and…
Jim Waters: Anticompetitive certificate of need laws wrong prescription with serious side effects
Lawmakers who oppose repealing Kentucky’s certificate of need requirements limiting medical providers from opening new facilities or expanding existing ones…
Jim Waters: Mountain of evidence confirms denying parental choice wrong song for Kentucky
It’s music to my ears hearing legislative leaders reiterate with unwavering conviction that bringing school choice to Kentucky remains a…
Jim Walters: Inflation is scary — and impacts all of us; what’s needed are policies that offer real benefits
Welcome to the scary return of inflation, which Ronald Reagan famously described “as violent as a mugger, as frightening as…
Jim Waters: The best practices for a better Kentucky? Managing debt
While significant improvements have been made to Kentucky’s financial condition – including meaningful reforms to its public pension systems –…
Jim Waters: Not all superintendents oppose school choice; KY should offer students ‘a little bit of choice’
Gov. Andy Beshear issued his promised veto of House Bill 9, which funds public charter schools in Kentucky. Beshear’s veto…
Jim Waters: Flat rates work for tithes, taxes; HB 8 offers reasonable approach on personal income tax
House Bill 8 offers a responsible approach for eventually eliminating Kentucky’s punitive personal income tax, using one-time budget-surplus dollars to…
Jim Waters: KYTC’s outdated road construction-bidding policies need to be revisited
A new year would be an opportune time for Kentucky’s Transportation Cabinet to update its costly and outdated road construction-bidding…
Jim Waters: Bipartisan effort by Adams, Beshear turns pandemic lemons into legislative lemonade
A new voting law codifying some of the temporary measures taken mid-pandemic by Republican Secretary of State Adams, the state’s…
Jim Waters: Liberty is not a luxury — it is an inalienable right
“Give me liberty or give me death,” Patrick Henry thundered. Not much gray area there. No modifier, either. Nothing like…
Jim Waters: School choice will help Kentucky ‘step up’ its education game
Since COVID-19 arrived, measures to expand educational freedom and opportunity have been introduced in more than half the states in…
Jim Waters: Tax-hiking zealots have a Plan B — sneaking legislative gimmick to raise gas tax
Since special-interest groups pressuring legislators to raise Kentuckians’ taxes wouldn’t dare take a credible poll to find out what the…
Jim Waters: House Bill 249 amounts to slimy fat in a slippery pot, a testament to corporate cronyism
Imagine the uproar if, during the final days of a Kentucky General Assembly session, political leaders attempted to dishonestly and…
Jim Waters: Protect journalists, activists from vindictive lawsuits; then there are also public records
It’s one thing for government agencies to deny open records requests from the press or public. It’s quite another for…
Jim Waters: New progressive pension plan proposed by Rep. Massey is positive for future teachers
In one sense, Rep. Ed Massey’s bill to create a new tier within the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) represents a…
Jim Waters: Fix state’s retirement systems; one idea: no more sick day accumulation to spike pensions
Legislators campaigning to hold on to their seats may be jittery about dealing with controversial pension reform, but the problems…
Commentary: Don’t get too excited about KY’s high school graduation rates for low income students
Jim Waters The Bluegrass Institute for the NKyTribune Even as some cheer about a recent Johns Hopkins University report that…