News

By Kyle Wingfield A pithy answer was attributed to Willie Sutton for why he robbed banks: “Because that’s where the money is.” Sutton later claimed the quote was invented by “some enterprising reporter.” Still, the quip well explains why Congress is looking to middle-class Americans’ bank accounts to fund trillions of dollars in new spending. At issue is the proposed requirement for banks to report information about accounts with transactions of more than $600 – a threshold revised this past week to an annual total of $10,000, with exceptions for … Continue Reading →

It’s the middle of the month, so my family is getting another $500 check in the mail from Uncle Sam, representing this month’s portion of the expanded Child Tax Credit for our two sons. Just like the previous three months, we’ll save the money in anticipation of next year’s tax bill. Which says less about our financial discipline than it does about a looming “crisis” that is both little-noticed and all too predictable. The checks started coming this summer, after Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act. Among other things, … Continue Reading →

By Kyle Wingfield Butch Miller got in trouble this past week for saying what a lot of Georgians believe. Appearing on a talk radio show, Miller – the Republican leader in the state Senate and a candidate for lieutenant governor – said the following: “We have attracted many people to the state of Georgia that don’t think like us. We need to make sure we are attracting people to Georgia that do think like us. And if they don’t think like us, they need to assimilate into our values and … Continue Reading →

By Kyle Wingfield We know that, when presented with new options, many people will make a change. The pandemic has made that clear, from some people embracing remote work to others seeking entirely new career paths. Why would it be any different with education? It isn’t. The data tell us so. As you’ve no doubt read before, public-school enrollment declined last fall at the sharpest rate in years. Some of that drop comes from parents choosing to keep their children out of kindergarten, which isn’t compulsory in Georgia, if classes … Continue Reading →

What follows is an excerpt from President Kyle Wingfield’s remarks at the opening of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Dinner on September 16, 2021. Good evening, and welcome! On behalf of everyone at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, thank you for joining us on this joyous occasion. Many of you here tonight have come alongside us for all or part of these past 30 years, while others of you may be getting your first introduction to our organization. Either way, we’re grateful you braved the weather, a lingering … Continue Reading →

By Kyle Wingfield President Joe Biden this past week said federal agencies will begin requiring employers with as few as 100 employees to mandate their workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing. It’s an example of overreach that deserves a court challenge. It is also the latest example of failure by our institutions. As we watch the “delta” variant of this coronavirus take hold and overwhelm our hospitals, so soon after we thought the pandemic was ending thanks to an effective vaccine, it is hard to deny … Continue Reading →

By Kyle Wingfield As we check off another Labor Day, it’s fair to ask if it really is just another Labor Day. The holiday honoring workers stems from the Industrial Revolution, when working conditions in America’s burgeoning assortment of factories, mills and mines came to be intolerable for those who toiled there. America’s elites, it seemed, valued the work more than the workers. Nowadays, it appears to be the other way around. The inherent value of work seems to be in doubt for many of our nation’s elites. The dignity … Continue Reading →

It’s Friday! Quotes of note “All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.” ― Thomas Sowell  “August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”― Sylvia Plath “All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”  ― Winston Churchill On Our Desk Missed Milestones: In his weekly column, Kyle Wingfield addresses some major … Continue Reading →

By Kyle Wingfield The scores are in, and they are ugly. I’m talking about the Georgia Milestones exams given last spring, the state’s year-end standardized tests. Georgia students – or at least the ones who took the test; more on that shortly – performed markedly worse than they did the last time the tests were given. For example, the percentage of third-graders reading on grade level is a key statistic. Research indicates third-graders with subpar reading skills are likely to remain behind when they reach high school, and are far … Continue Reading →