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“What’s worst about these ALEC policies, Chinn reports, is that the relentless budget-cutting they require leave crucial state services, particularly education, gasping for breath. That’s a formula for long-term decline, not growth. Indeed, when Chinn mapped the ALEC rankings for all 50 states against their economic growth, he found that, if anything, a higher index score correlates with a worse economic performance. That won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the ALEC follies over time: The Iowa Policy Project found the same negative correlation in 2012. Say this for the ALEC-Laffer Index: It’s a consistently...

Here’s the latest on Florida’s corporate tax credit scholarship. Note to Kansans: in the future, even if the program is fraught with problems, ALEC legislators will press for expansion of the program beyond the original limitations. The procedure for passage sounds similar to what happened here in Kansas. “Joanne McCall, vice president of the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union, said she was disappointed. ‘The members of FEA are chagrined by the continued march to expand voucher schools that are largely unregulated, don’t have to follow the state’s academic standards, don’t have to hire qualified teachers and...