Clickbait All the Way Down with Toe Photo

Decrying the “clickbait” promise of a nude photo of a progressive star, mainstream news sources are engaging in a clickbait of a more ideological sort.

Single Men and Women’s Home Ownership and a Dangerous Momentum

Single women in Rhode Island and across the country are about twice as likely as single men to own homes, and the reasons should concern us all.

Choosing Good Means Considering the Consequences

Some leading conservative commentators have been debating what it means to say that President Donald Trump does or does not have good character.  This point, from Roger Kimball, seems much more broadly applicable: I think it is also worth pondering the work that Jonah [Goldberg] wants the adverb “wholly” to do in the deflationary phrase “wholly instrumental.” […]

Tweeted Insight into the Progressive Way

Rep. Ranglin-Vassell’s quick retort about racism when called out for imperiously telling others to keep their mouths shut is a lesson Rhode Islanders ought to observe as progressives become a larger part of our politics.

Roland Benjamin: Why Are We Spending So Much More on Education than Massachusetts?

In 1980, the State of Massachusetts recognized the limitations and threats of relying too heavily on expanding property taxes to fund our public education systems. Proposition 2 ½ was passed to limit the increases a town could levy through its property taxes each year. Named for the enacted cap of 2.5%, any town that needed to increase its levy beyond it could do so, but only through a town wide referendum. For the last 35 years or so, Massachusetts has tamed its property taxes and runaway school spending.

Rhode Island enacted our own, lighter version, of a tax cap. Unfortunately we chose 4% as our limit and waited almost 30 years to implement it. During the lead up to the cap, can you imagine what districts did? In South Kingstown, we ramped our baseline spending up between 6% to 12% each year despite losing about 100 kids per year from our enrollment.

The chart here shows how this played out over the last 2 decades.

New School Evaluation System = Another Delay of Needed Change

A newly announced revision to the state’s system for rating public schools is wholly inadequate, easy to game, and ultimately a means of delaying necessary accountability and improvement.

Center Recommends Constitutional Amendment to Codify Legislative Process Reforms

The legislative sausage-making process in Rhode Island is in dire need of reform. Those reforms that should be codified through a constitutional amendment, so that Senators and Representatives will have greater capacity and freedom to represent their individual districts, rather than being compelled to back the personal agendas of Senate and House leadership. Now is the time to demand better government.

Our state needs less control by leadership over what legislation will advance, with more power provided to legislative committees.

RICAS Test Results: Ken Wagner Is Going to Fail Rhode Island’s Children

Rhode Island’s latest standardized test scores are even worse than the news media is reporting, and the education commissioner gives no indication that he’s willing to name the underlying problem.

Perspective on Departments’ Unwillingness to Cut

When state agencies put forward the “painful” actions they’d supposedly have to take if elected officials to catch their budgets up to their actual spending, taxpayers should look at the actual spending.

Election Results: The More Things Don’t Change, the More They Stay the Same

The political landscape changed little in Rhode Island and the need for new prospects to begin sprouting their way up from the soil is desperate.

Middendorf Pillar Of Freedom Award Winner: Daniel Harrop

On Friday, the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity was proud to present its prestigious Middendorf Pillar of Freedom Award for 2018 to Dr. Daniel Harrop at the second annual Ocean State Freedom Banquet.

46th – Rhode Island Remains Trapped at Bottom of Economic Pack

Rhode Island remains trapped at the bottom of the pack on the Center’s Jobs & Opportunity Index. The Ocean State comes in 46th place amongst the worst in the country trailing behind our neighbors.

How Many “Side Deals” Exist in State and Local Government?

By plain logic, we can expect that the Warwick fire fighter sick-time deal is replicated throughout state and local government, which means we have to change the incentives of our public employment system.

Luxury as a Tax on the Rich

From Ancient Rome to the modern day, spending on luxuries is like a valve for wealth, or a voluntary tax paid by the rich, as Edward Gibbon put it.

Updated: About That State Police Report on Cranston

Fact checking Governor Raimondo’s use of the State Police’s 2015 report on the Cranston police department suggests she ought to be careful about accusations of political corruption.

Keeping Perspective on School Safety

If we apply just a little bit of reasonable perspective to the issue of school safety, filling them with paid guards begins to look like less wise of an idea.

More Detail on the WPRI Poll

The first-glance interpretation of WPRI’s latest poll could lead candidates to choose strategies that a deeper analysis proves flawed.

An Analogy for Lack of School Building Maintenance

A crucial addition to Dan McGowan’s metaphor for lapsing school repairs.

Looking for Rhode Island-Style Innovation

Rhode Island does need an economy that capitalizes on cross-pollinated innovation, but that means getting government and faith in central planning out of the way.

Something to Watch During the General Election: Mail Ballots

Do changing political winds indicate a new dynamic as mail ballots replace the master lever as the method of electoral cheating?

Thoughts on the Local News Media Market

More layoffs at the Providence Journal bring into view two paths down which the local media could go… and they’ll probably choose the wrong one.

Cable Street and the Facially Fascist

Comparing the Battle of Cable Street with today’s Antifa attacks would be a good lesson in critical thinking, if our education system were keen on teaching that skill.

McKee vs. Regunberg Shows the Challenge Facing Moderate Democrats

Dan McKee’s embarrassing performance debating Aaron Regunberg on WPRI exposes a danger and presents a lesson for other non-progressive candidates for public office.

Alarm Versus Denial and Experience of a Hot Summer

Providence may have had a hot August, but that’s no exactly a sign of impending doom.

Rowing the Cover Up Narrative with a Broken Ohr

As the election draws nearer, the news media is going farther and farther in its attempt to keep the Trump-Russia narrative alive in the minds of true believers.

The Common Goals of the Governor and the Labor Union Versus Home Care Workers

The SEIU has pledged to help reelect Gina Raimondo win election; how much is she willing to do to help the SEIU win its own election with home-care workers?

Bristol-Warren Teachers Union’s Coercive Deception

The teachers union covering Bristol-Warren is sending out letters warning teachers that they’ll lose certain rights and have to pay new fees if they exercise their right not to join, but those claims (and perhaps the letter itself) don’t appear to match the contract or the law.

Another Lesson in Autocracy and Fake News on the Environment

Somehow, the Providence Journal transforms an environment proposal of the Trump administration from a reduction in emissions to a massive increase.

Abuse and Statutes of Limitation: Keeping Our Hands on the Guardrails of Values and Justice

The emotions raised by an abuse scandal in another state shouldn’t lead us to discard careful consideration of our values and justice.

The Growing Upper Middle Class and Healthy Redistribution

The middle-middle class is shrinking only because the upper-middle class is growing, which shows improvement, and suggests that we shouldn’t mess things up with progressive policies.

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