Show-Me Institute

10/15/2026

The Latest from Susan Pendergrass: Missouri's experience with the MOScholars program provides some useful lessons for the new federal tax-credit scholarship program.

Federal school choice policy has been in the spotlight recently. The Federal Choice Tax Credit program, set to launch in January of 2027, allows individuals to take a dollar-for-dollar tax […]

10/13/2026

A Vision for the Future of American Education with James V. Shuls and Jason Bedrick:

Susan Pendergrass speaks with Jason Bedrick, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, and James V. Shuls, senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute and head of […]

10/09/2026

Cities may need to build more starter homes, and some already are. Salim Furth, senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, joined the Show-Me Institute Podcast to discuss Wichita, where he says duplexes have made up about 40 percent of new production over the last five years. He describes a starter home of roughly $180,000 as a first step toward homeownership and building equity, and says a city building none in that range probably has regulations that prevent duplexes on small lots.

Listen to the full episode: https://bit.ly/4BdcGcO

10/09/2026

NEW Podcast: A Menu of Housing Reforms with Salim Furth from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University:

Susan Pendergrass speaks with Salim Furth, senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, about the policy brief he co-authored with […]

10/08/2026

A recent report commissioned by Kansas City clearly demonstrates that the new Royals stadium won't pay for itself:

Kansas City has just released a report on the revenue and expected economic impact of the new Royals stadium from Hunden Partners, a Chicago-based consultancy whose work I’ve analyzed previously. […]

10/08/2026

How can Missouri meet the huge surge in electricity demand?

Private electricity grids could be a key part of the solution to this problem:

Private electricity grids, also known as consumer-regulated electricity (CRE), are a free-market policy idea that allows private entities to meet the demand of new large-load users like data centers entirely […]

10/07/2026

From Susan Pendergrass: The recent Nikole Hannah-Jones controversy is a sad example of pursuing political ideology at the expense of educational outcomes for your kids.

Nikole Hannah-Jones made headlines with her personal confession in The New York Times Magazine: “In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?” A decade ago, driven by […]

10/06/2026

From David Stokes: Local public health departments have an important role to play in public safety, but we saw during COVID how some of them were only too happy to strictly regulate our daily actions.

A version of the following commentary appeared in the Columbia Missourian. Loneliness is increasing in America. A 2023 report by the U.S. Surgeon General’s office documented the decline in social connections […]

10/02/2026

A new report from the Missouri State Auditor outlines familiar problems with improper payments in Missouri programs:

Missouri lawmakers frequently talk about the importance of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in state government. But identifying problems is only useful if state agencies actually fix them. A […]