Natural disasters bring out the best and the worst in people, and Hurricane Katrina is no exception. The church has risen to the occasion so far, responding immediately and with great strength to provide food, water, clothing, and other products to people who needed it where they needed it. (more…)
For the first time in Mississippi history (as far as we know), the state legislature adjourned its regular session without approving a budget for the next fiscal year.
There are many reasons this occurred. Most people will say that it was because of political grandstanding. (more…)
Mississippi has so far escaped lawsuits over public school financing. Suits in other states have focused on whether school funding was [quote] "adequate." Setting aside for a moment whether it�s appropriate for a court to decide this rather than a legislature, one problem with these suits is that adequacy is an entirely subjective standard. (more…)
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and some people say we should expand these programs that pay for health care, even to the point of being like Canada, where the government pays for everything. (more…)
School district consolidation is a hot topic among some budget-conscious leaders in Jackson, and Bolivar County is the most-often-used poster child in those discussions. With six districts within its borders, Bolivar County has more districts than any other county in the state.
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"State Spending Outpaces Family Income"
Family income in Mississippi has doubled over the past 20 years, with median family income growing from about $23,000 to about $46,000 per year. (more…)
[Note: This information has been updated from an MCPP publication originally published in 2002.] (more…)
Marriage in Mississippi: One Man / One Woman?
We have sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
This decades-old observation from George Orwell can certainly be applied to the current debate over the definition of marriage.
To hear the arguments of those who seek to redefine marriage, you would think that marriage has, for all recorded history, been recognized as any collection of people who love each other, and that the current effort to amend the Constitution is a recent creation of the "religious right" who seek to impose their morality on everyone else. (more…)
Successful government reformers have discovered the necessity of determining what we call "core governing principles." Core principles are determined by a person's or a party's understanding of the primary role of government. Defining core principles is the crucial first step toward responsible governing because delivering services efficiently and effectively is irrelevant unless government knows what it is supposed to deliver and why. (more…)