It is time once again to celebrate Ohio students during National School Choice Week! This annual celebration highlights the growing opportunities for families to choose the elementary and secondary education that best fits their needs. Thanks to the leadership of Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, Ohio’s most extensive voucher program, EdChoice, is now universally available to every child, in every family, in every Ohio community. Ohio’s five voucher programs now help more than 150,000 students, and its charter schools teach more than 112,000 students. 

Greg Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, joined the Common Sense Ohio podcast for some serious talk about Ohio’s energy policy and the recent report—Better Energy Policy for Ohio—which he co-authored. Lawson and host Norm Murdock also discuss reforms needed to ensure Ohio has enough classroom space to keep the promise of universal school choice, Buckeye’s new case—Sheldon v. OAPSE—and Buckeye’s recent call for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its infamous decision in Kelo v. New London. 

In the Washington Examiner, Andrew M. Grossman, a senior legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute, encourages the incoming Trump administration to tame the administrative state, writing, “Mr. Trump has vowed to ‘make America safe, strong, prosperous, powerful, and free again.’ He can succeed, but only if he takes on the bloated, controlling, and growth-sapping administrative state he’ll inherit from the outgoing administration.”

The Buckeye Institute’s Robert Alt writes of his gratitude to the “otherwise minded”—20^th century’s freedom fighters who fought for freedom of speech, freedom of association, for property rights, and for freedom of religion. Alt writes, “These brave and dignified heroes established a line across which they would not bear government intrusion, and they honored that boundary with their lives.”

As far back as the Whiskey Rebellion, homemade distilled spirits have been a target of the U.S. government’s ire—a trend that continued through Prohibition and has persisted to the present day. While home brewing and home winemaking were legalized decades ago, home distilling remains prohibited under federal law. But is this often-overlooked federal ban constitutional? R Street Institute hosted a special Repeal Day event that featured a discussion of Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury, Buckeye’s case challenging the federal ban.

On American Habits, The Buckeye Institute outlines the benefits of AI in healthcare, writing, “Artificial intelligence programs can help doctors and hospital systems meet many medical needs today and tomorrow. Policymakers should recognize AI’s risks and rewards, and encourage its safe use and development rather than pursuing knee-jerk regulations that may deny us the full potential of new treatments and technologies.”

In The Wall Street Journal, The Buckeye Institute calls on President-elect Trump to protect Americans from government censorship. “Donald Trump has a historic opportunity to combat censorship by federal bureaucrats…On day one, he should issue an executive order dictating that if federal employees encourage private companies to censor users’ First Amendment-protected activities, they must report these requests to the Office of Management and Budget. The OMB would then be required to publish these reports online, redacting information as necessary.”

The Buckeye Institute is challenging the Internal Revenue Service-practice of collecting and storing information on donors to American charities and nonprofit organizations. Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, joins the Cato Daily Podcast to discuss Buckeye v. IRS—Buckeye’s case challenging the IRS-required disclosure of private donor information to the government—and explain why the case matters.

In the Columbus Bar Association’s Lawyers Quarterly magazine, David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute, evaluates the impact of the end of Chevron Deference. “Advocates and adversaries of Loper Bright overstate the likely effect of Chevron’s recent demise. It will not end the administrative state, but it will significantly affect how Congress, federal agencies, and judges fulfill their constitutional obligations.”

Affordable, reliable energy remains vital for Ohio, especially as the state adds cutting-edge technology and data centers to its economic and manufacturing portfolio. To ensure a dependable, affordable, and dispatchable energy supply for the foreseeable future, Ohio policymakers should take a two-pronged approach to energy policy.