The Blog at MSPC

The old saying that states are the “laboratories of democracy” was apt in the passing of the new federal school choice law as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” enacted in early July.

Think about that: a school board, funded by taxpayers, making decisions that affect families, students, and teachers—telling the press and the public to put their cameras away.

Perino, one of the most respected voices in American media and politics, served as Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, becoming only the second woman ever to hold the position.

Yes, the state technically “met its goals,” but no one should be satisfied with half of Idaho kids struggling to meet watered-down expectations.

For criminals utilizing the banking system, this is a great tool to cut off financial access and aid law enforcement. But for law-abiding citizens debanking can victimize them for their political beliefs.

AI is not powered by magic or fairy dust. AI is powered by giant data centers crammed full of servers that consume massive quantities of electricity to train the AI models, stream videos, and move information around in milliseconds directly to your fingertips.

Grocery competition doesn’t just come from the store down the street anymore—it comes from Amazon dropping food on your doorstep, Walmart offering rock-bottom prices, and Costco selling everything in bulk. Albertsons and Kroger needed each other to stand a chance.

Opponents of parental choice in education are reviving their favorite scare tactic: the "voucher" boogeyman.

When the Supreme Court issues a ruling, whose job is it to enforce it? Everyone who’s taken high school civics can tell you the executive branch enforces the law. But what happens when the law needs to be enforced against the executive branch?

Changes are coming to Idaho’s current budget with Governor Little acting swiftly to focus on government efficiencies in response to changing revenue projections.

Idaho’s new school choice program is turning up the heat. That’s great news — because every school, public or private, should have to prove its worth.

It has been fifty years since the four dams on the Lower Snake River were completed. Originally built to provide transportation, they now create the equivalent of one-third of the electricity generated in Idaho, helping balance the growing amount of wind and solar energy across the Pacific Northwest.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) recently released its 2025 Freedom Index Rankings for states. SEL is a global leader in power system protection, automation and control solutions.

Medicaid is a joint federal and state-controlled health care insurance entitlement. It is not financially sustainable in its current form unless the federal debt or taxes are significantly increased.

Yet, health care is simply an economic activity, albeit where the activity between a provider and a patient is the most personal interchange an individual will ever have. However, because of the complexity, the vast majority of patients in the U.S. don’t completely control their medical finances and, in many cases, their medical decisions.

Highway infrastructure is funded primarily at the state and federal level, with every state in the country levying a tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, ranging from $0.0895 per gallon in Alaska to $0.629 per gallon sold in California.

While funds may be temporarily paused for the nearly 4,000 families approved to receive education savings account funding in Wyoming pending judicial review, they should not lose hope.

Mountain States Policy Center (MSPC) is proud to announce the official launch of the Bill & Milly Kay Baldwin Center for Education, a new research and advocacy hub focused on expanding educational opportunity and defending student-centered policy reforms throughout the Mountain West.

In June, Governor Gianforte praised the new federal guidelines that eliminate “needless obstacles” that the previous administration had put in place. This policy shift makes it easier for Montana to use its $629 million in BEAD funds more efficiently and effectively, particularly in the state’s unserved and underserved areas.

In most respects, Idaho and Montana have been enthusiastic in their pursuit of tax competitiveness. But if there’s one area of tax policy on which they are worse than their peers, it’s in their incorporation of GILTI—the federal tax on Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income—into their own state tax codes. Not even California or Illinois does that.