Truly “Public” Schools?
Have you ever heard any of these chestnuts? Unlike public schools, charter schools make families apply to them which keeps...
Cyclical Poverty Is a Problem in Missouri-What Can Be Done About It?
Imagine the Game of Life played under different rules—with everyone randomly assigned at birth to one of two paths. One...
Lies, Damn Lies, and Airport Politics
In November 2017, Kansas City voters overwhelmingly supported building a new single terminal at the airport. Voters were told, time...
Go On Take Your Money and Run
Some time ago I relied on the song “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After to tell...
New York Shouldn’t Have Offered Amazon $3 Billion. No One Should Have.
This week Amazon announced that it was scrapping its plan to establish a “second headquarters” in New York. The company’s...
Failure Is Not an Option for Missouri School Districts-but Is That a Good Thing?
Imagine that you’re a professor at a large university and this spring you’re teaching one of the big freshman seminar...
Kansas City and St. Louis Battling National Trends
From costly bad bets subsidizing the development of Kansas City’s Power & Light District to promoting the St. Louis Ballpark...
There’s a Bike Lane Around Here Somewhere
Do you need an example of the price we pay when we fail to look ahead? Look no further than...
Kansas City and St. Louis Increasingly in Debt
In June 2013, the Show-Me Institute published a paper comparing St. Louis and Kansas City’s expenses with six peer cities....
Missouri’s Biggest Cities Spend $100 Million Annually Just to Give Away Money!
An excellent story in the St. Louis Business Journal points out that according to a recent study by the Milken...
Millennials Are Buying in the Suburbs
Kansas City has been on a spending spree to try to attract millennials downtown, having been caught up in the...
Crosby Kemper III Discusses Pre-K Funding on KCPT’s Ruckus
On Thursday, December 20, the Show-Me Institute’s Crosby Kemper III appeared on KCPT’s Ruckus to urge caution before expanding Kansas City’s early...
Sorry, Non-KC Residents . . . The Star Doesn’t Care for Your Opinion
It should be no surprise that people living outside the city limits of Kansas City and St. Louis are interested...
Kansas City’s Christmas Tree
If you’ve lived in Kansas City for a while, you’ve heard all about building new things. We’ve built a new...
How Not to Study Economic Development Incentives
Economic development incentives are all the rage. And they aren’t all multi-billion-dollar packages to attract a new Amazon headquarters. Many...
You Gotta Spend Money to… Spend Money?
We’ve all heard the phrase, “you have to spend money to make money.” Thanks to some reporting by Brian Robbins...
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
On November 19, the Missouri State Board of Education met in a closed session to determine who would be selected...
Spring 2019 Internships
The Show-Me Institute is pleased to offer internship opportunities for Spring 2019. Internships are open to current undergraduate and graduate...
KCI Airlines Links New Terminal Costs with . . . Service
How many times have proponents of a new terminal at KCI told us that the costs of enplanements do not...
Were the #NewKCI Construction Cost Numbers Ever Real?
Last Thursday on the Kansas City Public Television program Ruckus, panelist Jim Heeter dropped the following bomb about the large...
