In Crain’s Cleveland Business, The Buckeye Institute urges Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio General Assembly to fix a faulty quirk in the state’s tax code. “The General Assembly should re-index the tax brackets to inflation and, this time, end the residual tax penalty, too…To offset potential lost revenue from eliminating the tax bump, state policymakers should take a few pages from The Buckeye Institute’s most recent Piglet Book…”

The March 11 story, Private school vouchers, Ohio’s wealthiest families access scholarships, misses the larger story of Ohio’s school choice success. As a result of the changes adopted by lawmakers, lower-income and middle-class families now get better access to the schools of their choosing. In Ohio, the poorest families receive nearly one-third of the total funding for the state’s leading voucher program, the EdChoice scholarship. Middle-class families utilize another one-third. 

On RealClear Energy, The Buckeye Institute looks at how states are rethinking failed energy policies as the demand for reliable, affordable energy increases and ending ill-considered green energy mandates. Windmills and solar panels will not meet the “energy demands of 21st century computing and manufacturing in America,” and “modern families and businesses need affordable and reliable electricity sources that will keep the lights on even when the sun isn’t shining.”

At Minding the Campus, Hal R. Arkes, a member of The Buckeye Institute’s Board of Trustees, and George Dent write, “Ohio Senate Bill 1, passed by the Senate, will be a big step forward for higher education. The bill would protect free speech; forbid discrimination based on race or other group identity; forbid indoctrination by faculty and staff; forbid “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs; and institute an undergraduate General Education Requirement in American government or history that includes readings of major primary documents.”

In “Power Players Behind Supreme Court Petitions: Who’s Filing Amicus Briefs—and Who’s Winning,” Dr. Adam Feldman, creator of Legalytics and Empirical SCOTUS, takes a look at who’s shaping the U.S. Supreme Court docket. Once again, The Buckeye Institute is putting up impressive numbers. Buckeye is #2 in briefs filed, #2 in briefs still pending with the court, and #5 in successful cert stage amicus (meaning the court took the case).

In The Wall Street Journal, Andrew M. Grossman, a senior legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute, and Kristin A. Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, demonstrate that the next step in restoring meritocracy is to reject the theory that proportionate outcomes equal fairness. “If Mr. Trump is serious about his goal, he also needs to repudiate disparate-impact theory, which prohibits facially neutral practices that have a disproportionate impact on a protected group.”

Last December, The Buckeye Institute released a report, Beware the Trojan Horse of Rulemaking Nongovernment Organizations. The report describes how nongovernment organizations in Ohio present a unique regulatory threat disguised as an innocuous Trojan gift horse. The Giving Review talked to report author Greg R. Lawson about the report and how rulemaking NGOs can serve good purposes but should operate transparently and be subject to the scrutiny of democratically elected policymakers.

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.”