Missouri Associations: looking toward economic growth

As Missourians embark on a serious conversation about economic growth, one of the ways we can take our state economic pulse is by listening to and getting involved with trade and professional organizations.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Associated Industries of Missouri, and the Missouri Growth Association serve a variety of Missouri businesses and industries.

Small businesses employ about half of U.S. workers, and are responsible for 64% of net new jobs in the past 15 years [source]. Some organizations, like the MO Chapter of National Federation of Independent Business, just focus on Missouri small businesses and issues that they face.

The Missouri Department of Revenue is a constant resource for businesses or individuals looking for information or answers to questions about taxation and licensure, and for their annual report.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development looks at indicators of state economic growth in their Economic Conditions Report, and connects Missouri businesses with state resources.

A drive across the state reminds us that farming is a very important part of the equation for Missouri growth. The Missouri Farm Bureau Association looks closely at how farmers and Missouri’s strong agricultural sector will be affected by policies.

Part of Missouri’s health is attracting and retaining population and businesses. Missouri Association of Realtors is watching these trends closely.

These organizations are great resources for learning more about the economic status of Missouri, and getting a picture of the variety of indicators we can look at to move Missouri in the right direction.

Committee Formed to Support Let Voters Decide Initiative

Jefferson City, Jan. 20, 2010 – Papers were filed today with the Missouri Ethics Commission to establish a ballot measure committee in support of a statewide voter initiative dealing with local earnings taxes in Missouri.

The group, named Let Voters Decide, will soon start gathering the roughly 100,000 voter signatures needed to place the initiative on the November 2010 statewide ballot.

Attorney Marc Ellinger, a spokesman for the new group, explained that various versions of an earnings tax measure had previously been submitted for review by the Secretary of State, but only one of them is to be circulated and ultimately headed to the ballot.

“The statutory initiative measure we will pursue does not automatically repeal the existing earnings taxes in St. Louis and Kansas City,” said Ellinger. “It’s designed to give voters in those cities the right to decide for themselves, in local elections, whether they want to continue the earnings tax in their city or phase it out gradually over a period of ten years. The initiative also prohibits any new local earnings taxes in communities that don’t currently have one, so it protects people in the rest of the state from having a local earnings tax imposed in their city or town.”

With regard to St. Louis and Kansas City, Ellinger explained that the initiative requires local “sunset” votes on the existing 1% earnings tax in each city every five years starting in 2011. The tax would continue as long as the majority of voters continue to approve it in those local votes. If, in a future local election, the majority of local voters in St. Louis or Kansas City vote against continuing the earnings tax, it would be phased out in their city gradually, over a period of ten years, at the rate of one-tenth of a percent per year.

Ellinger said the primary initial funding for the Let Voters Decide campaign has been provided by retired Missouri businessman and philanthropist Rex Sinquefield. Travis H. Brown, who heads up the Pelopidas L.L.C., a consulting firm that represents Sinquefield, will serve as Chairman of Let Voters Decide.

Real Economic Growth for Missouri

As Governor Jay Nixon unveils his State of the State speech on January 20th before the Missouri General Assembly, it is expected that job growth and economic recovery ideas will be front and center.

The drive toward dynamic economic growth for the Show-ME State economy is an important one to institute. That’s why we were fortunate to have Dr. Art Laffer of Laffer & Associates present his views on how Missouri’s economy can grow by replacing our state income tax with a broad-based sales tax system.

Below is a complete list of the 2010 Missouri General Assembly roster of State Representatives and Senators that are likely to be discussing this legislative issue. As citizens, taxpayers, small business leaders, and professionals, it is our hope that your voices will be heard this legislative session on this important debate.

HOUSE MEMBERS

Sue Allen, Bert Atkins, Joe Aull, Kenny Biermann, Walt Bivins, Ellen Brandom, Rachel Bringer, Dan Brown, Jason Brown, Michael Brown, Mark Bruns, Eric Burlison, John Burnett, Don Calloway, Chris Carter, Ron Casey, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Mike Colona, Robert Cooper, Michael Corcoran, Stanley Cox, Mike Cunningham, Shalonn Curls, Cynthia Davis, David Day, Bill Deeken, Charlie Denison, Mike Dethrow, Scott Dieckhaus, John Diehl, Bob Dixon, Curt Dougherty, Tony Dugger, Gary Dusenberg, Ed Emery, Vicki Englund, Doug Ervin, Sally Faith, Joe Fallert, Linda Fischer, Barney Fisher, Tom Flanigan, Tim Flook, Michael Frame, Ward Franz, Doug Funderburk, Chuck Gatschenberger, Jason Grill, Jeff Grisamore, Casey Guernsey, Jim Guest, Belinda Harris, Steve Hobbs, Steve Hodges, Jason Holsman, Denny Hoskins, Theodore Hoskins, Leonard Hughes IV, Jacob Hummel, Allen Icet, Kenny Jones, Timothy Jones, Tishaura Jones, Jason Kander, Shelley Keeney, Chris Kelly, Gayle Kingery, Jeanne Kirkton, Andrew Koenig, Sam Komo, Michele Kratky, Will Kraus, J C Kuessner, Mike Lair, Sara Lampe, Scott Largent, Mike Leara, Roman Lee LeBlanc, Paul LeVota, Albert Liese, Scott Lipke, Tom Loehner, Beth Low, Rebecca McClanahan, Tom McDonald, Mike McGhee, Cole McNary, Margo McNeil, Tim Meadows, Kate Meiners, Chris Molendorp, James Morris, Brian Munzlinger, Bob Nance, Jamilah Nasheed, Stacey Newman, Brian Nieves, Jerry Nolte, Charlie Norr, Jeanette Oxford, Mark Parkinson, Mike Parson, Darrell Pollock, Bryan Pratt, Paul Quinn, Ron Richard, Jeanie Riddle, Jeff Roorda, Martin Rucker, Marilyn Ruestman, Don Ruzicka, Ray Salva, Therese Sander, David Sater, Luke Scavuzzo, Rob Schaaf, Rodney Schad, Dwight Scharnhorst, Ed Schieffer, Charles Schlottach, Shane Schoeller, Sue Schoemehl, Jill Schupp, Tom Self, Tom Shively, Ryan Silvey, Trent Skaggs, Jason Smith, Joe Smith, Michael Spreng, Bryan Stevenson, Mary Still, Rachel Storch, Rick Stream, Mike Sutherland, Terry Swinger, Mike Talboy, Mike Thomson, Steven Tilley, Tom Todd, Clint Tracy, James Viebrock, Michael Vogt, Maynard Wallace, Gina Walsh, Rochelle Walton Gray, Jay Wasson, Steve Webb, Stephen Webber, Don Wells, Ray Weter, Kevin Wilson, Larry Wilson, Terry Witte, Billy Pat Wright, Patricia Yaeger, Anne Zerr, Jake Zimmerman

Senators

Frank Barnitz, Matt Bartle, Joan Bray, Victor Callahan, Norma Champion, Dan Clemens, Jason Crowell, Jane Cunningham, Rita Heard Days, Tom Dempsey, Kevin Engler, Jack Goodman, Timothy P. Green, John Griesheimer, Jolie Justus, Joseph Keaveny, Brad Lager, Jim Lembke, Rob Mayer, Ryan McKenna, Gary Nodler, David Pearce, Chuck Purgason, Luann Ridgeway, Scott Rupp, Kurt Schaefer, Eric Schmitt, Delbert Scott, Charlie Shields, Wes Shoemyer, Bill Stouffer, Carl Vogel, Yvonne Wilson, Robin Wright-Jones

Better Math Scores Through Missouri Public Charter Schools? A Hoxby Review

Charter school proponents have had faith that their model of increased flexibility and autonomy can offer solutions for kids in underserved communities. They’ve been able to see anecdotal improvements, but studies published this month offer proof of the incredible potential of Charter schools to improve student achievement.

New York was the subject of a study by Stanford professor Caroline Hoxby. By comparing the progress of students who were accepted to a Charter school by random lottery and those who were not accepted and remained in public schools, Hoxby was able to create a reliable comparison between similar students.

The results showed children who attended Charter schools performed better in math and English. The key component of Hoxby’s study is that the school is the only difference between the two groups she studied. Parents were equally motivated, the children were equally qualified, and the lottery was random.

For Charter founders, teachers and board members, these findings reinforce their day-to-day experience working with individual students. The research dispels the myth that Charter successes have only been because they “cream” the best students. But research is not only valuable to prove a theory true, but also to direct next steps.

Missouri is one of the states that Dr. Hoxby’s study identifies as hosting Charter schools whose students showed significantly higher gains than their public school counterparts. This kind of definitive research is vitally useful in crafting a good education policy – one that produces measurable results.

But how will this information filter into policies, especially considering Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s (@arneduncan) recent tour promoting swift, serious education reforms on the state level? A study conducted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory specifically examined how policymakers access and apply research evidence. Through focus groups and surveys, they found that research played a minor role in policy-shaping discourse.

“Study participants asserted that political perspectives, public sentiment, potential legal pitfalls, economic considerations, pressure from the media, and the welfare of individuals all take precedence over research evidence in influencing decisions. In focus groups and interviews, participants did not mention any ‘breakthrough research’ nor did they cite any findings that they felt had a dramatic effect on practice or policy.” ( p. 0iv)

Part of their research examined how researchers might present their findings to policymakers in a more useful format. Participants identified a lack of sophistication in finding, analyzing and applying data, as well as an apprehension about the accuracy of research. That is certainly understandable in a culture rich with data and research: sifting through a great wealth of often dense, technical research to find applicable, trusted, complete research requires rigor and time.

“Both policymakers and practitioners expressed a preference for brief reports (no more than one to two pages), in a larger font, and written in nontechnical language. They also identified a need for research that is locally relevant and credible, includes case studies, and offers analysis across multiple studies.” (p. Oiv)

The authors stressed that research has many auxiliary or indirect paths to influencing public policy. For instance, there is a heavier reliance on research by school administrators as they form local policies. Research may be highlighted by the media, or used by the reform-minded to frame a policy conversation. But in any of these scenarios, policymakers stressed that in order for it to be useful in sculpting reform policies, they had to receive that information from a trusted intermediary.

The Hoxby study in particular is a seminal piece of research that has already found a life in the reporting of major national newspapers, such as the New York Post, the Washington Post and the New York Times. The challenge in Missouri will be to help explain how this study applies to Missouri students: what the current Charter school environment looks like in Missouri, and how we can use policy as a bridge to increased achievement.

“Clearly, the formulation of policy is a balancing act among what is right, what is known, what is desired, and what is possible,” (p. 1) note the study’s authors, and good research can fortify that framework to result in truly effective reforms.

Additional Resources:

Caroline Hoxby was in St. Louis earlier this year to talk about her research on Charter School performance.

Charter School Research and Economics Part 1


Charter School Research and Economics Part 2


STUDIES MENTIONED ABOVE:

Caroline Hoxby’s Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States

NREL: Toward a Research Agenda for Understanding and Improving the Use of Research Evidence

Rex Sinquefield and Jennifer Shahade talk chess, U.S. Women’s Championship on Charlie Brennan Show

Ten of the best women chess players in the country are in St. Louis this week to participate in the 2009 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, held here for the first time in history thanks to the opening of the tournament-ready Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Pelopidas was one of the proud sponsors of this fantastic event.

This weekend’s opening events included a “Queens of Jazz” concert at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis with Grammy nominee Ann Hampton Callaway and St. Louis’ own jazz queen, Denise Thimes, and the Opening Ceremony on Saturday. The Opening events had players draw colored scarves to determine their pieces for the opening round. They also hula hooped while playing chess, made moves with life-sized chess pieces, and participated in ‘bounty blitz’ matches! Two-time U.S. Women’s Champion Anna Zatonskih impressed crowds by defeating 5 challengers simultaneously – while blindfolded.

Rounds began Sunday, and continue through October 13th. Rounds begin daily at 2 p.m. at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, 4657 Maryland Ave., St. Louis, Missouri.

This morning, the club’s founder and chess advocate Rex Sinquefield joined his coach, Woman Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade on the Charlie Brennan show on KMOX. Listen to hear the interview on the Women’s Championship, Chess events around the city and the benefits of playing chess:

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Finally Action on Prompt Pay

Today, Governor Nixon signed Executive Order #09-24 calling for the Department of Insurance to report on the sufficiency of Missouri’s “prompt pay” statutes.  Senator Jim Lembke collaborated with Signature Medical Group under a Republican executive administration as a State Representative.  In February, 2009 he proposed a more stringent version alerting   the opposition and securing more support from the entire healthcare community. The Freshman Senator from St. Louis successfully carried the bill out of the Senate Health Committee with a unanimous vote. Click on the link to understand better the current statute.

The proposed legislation helped expose reimbursement issues to the Missouri General Assembly and now these same issues have significant relevance to the national healthcare debate.

Whereas this is a step in the right direction, it is important to note that small groups of providers, like surgery centers are equally impacted.  Now is the time for Surgery Centers to be recognized for the value they bring to the healthcare system.   “Invite and Write” are the two activities critical for surviving this battle in a contentious financial war.   Invite your State Representative to your facility and write Governor Nixon’s office  TODAY thanking him for understanding our issues and taking unprecedented action as a active supporter of Missouri ASCs.

Governor Nixon has shown sincere interest in being an advocate for physicians in the healthcare reform debate.  The executive order is strong direction and pushes the ball to the opposite side of the 50 yard and we need OFFENSE.  The Department of Insurance doesn’t have the patient and professional staff perspective detailing the effect delayed payments from health insurance companies. Ultimately it limits access care, urban and rural communities the same.  Identical to a student missing a full day of school unnecessarily, healthcare boils down to patients making the most of the time they spend with doctors in and environment safe, convenient, and affordable.

This communication is missing in Jefferson City.  It is an important piece to solving the puzzle that is healthcare reform. When surgery centers and individual providers can focus on their patients first, then citizens can expect increases in access and continuity of care to basic health services.

Wainwright Inspirations Show The Values of Historic Preservation

When I first moved to St. Louis, I worked downtown and spent a good deal of time running errands. Walking to various office buildings in a few-block radius, I grew to enjoy the feeling of being part of the accelerating activity of downtown and “owning” that part of the city as I learned my way around and became familiar with the buildings that were part of my daily walkabouts.

One in particular that I loved having an excuse to walk past was the Wainwright Building: terra cotta brick, unusual ornamentation and bizarre wood-frame windowsills were a pleasure to walk past. There are many beautiful buildings downtown, but every square-inch of the Wainwright Building was visual candy.

Unlike many office buildings that have an appealing ground floor but very utilitarian, basic successive stories, the Wainwright Building’s rising stories visually draw the eye up with Corinthian columns that run the entire length of the building, while the building frieze of intricate ornament makes the building itself a column. Rather than implementing architectural garnishes to hide the unattractive nature of high-rise buildings, the architect Louis Sullivan made the form follow the function – a design credo Sullivan penned in his article “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered”, ushering in a new era of architecture that sought to solve problems instead of covering them up or working around them.

Louis Sullivan, born today in 1856, is credited as the father of modern architecture, and was mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, whose famous architecture shows the Sullivan influence. His geometric designs incorporated in iron or into the stonework are a work of art in their own right. Sullivan’s style fell out of favor later in his life, and many of his buildings were demolished or destroyed over the years, while most of his smaller, more discreet designs remain largely unknown and under-appreciated, though they firmly represent the idea he was trying to impress upon architecture.

Historian Carl Condit spoke of the Wainwright building as “a building with a strong, vigorously articulated base supporting a screen that constitutes a vivid image of powerful upward movement.” [1] Sullivan’s impression, it seems, touches many points in architecture and beyond.

Sullivan’s often misquoted “form ever follows function” is a great way to frame questions even outside of architecture. Architecture has always solved the simple problems of meeting the objectives and specs of a project, but Sullivan, and later Wright, found other problems from the aesthetics of a skyscraper to issues particular to a waterfall or a budding metropolis.

Buildings define a city, and even become a way of branding. It’s hard to think of Sidney without the Opera House, Paris without the Eiffel Tower, and to me the Wainwright Building is one of the treasures that shape downtown St. Louis. Its beauty and form has kept St. Louisans looking up since its creation, and hopefully we’re continuing that spirit of problem solving that looks beyond the obstacle at hand to fundamentally change the way we look at things.

Photos by: Whitewall Buick under a Creative Commons license.

1. Condit, Carl W. (1973). The Chicago School of Architecture: A History of Commercial and Public Building in the Chicago Area, 1875-1925. University of Chicago Press.

Missouri Precedent Defends Education Funding Adequacy for Taxpayers

The Missouri Supreme Court upheld today the circuit court ruling on the long-contested Funding Formula Adequacy Trial, definitively establishing that Missouri’s current public school funding formula meets the state’s obligations and dismissing arguments brought by almost half of Missouri’s public school districts that funding was unconstitutionally distributed and inadequate, and that additional spending was needed.

In 2007, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled against the school district plaintiffs in favor of the state and 3 taxpayer-intervenors.  Today’s concurrent ruling comes after the school districts appealed that decision to the State Supreme Court, and ends the long, expensive court battle.

The decision that Missouri is meeting its obligation to fund public schools is prudent and saves taxpayers from shouldering billions of additional blank-check state spending for public education.  It has, however, cost both taxpayers and students.  School district plaintiffs spent taxpayer dollars, and taxpayers also support state legal services that defended Missouri’s formula.  Students lost out on millions of dollars that could have been spent in a classroom, but were instead spent in the courtroom.

This trial and the resounding dismissal of the plaintiff districts’ claims offer several distinct lessons as Missouri pursues excellence in education.

The State Supreme Court will not be the “good cop” and circumvent the powers of the legislative branch to appropriate funds. When local tax levies and lobbying efforts failed to change the funding formula to the extent that these school districts desired and they turned to Constitutional arguments to secure more funding, the court had this to say:

“Notably, the introductory clause… concerning the ‘diffusion of knowledge’ outlines the purpose and subject of Missouri’s public education system. But, it provides no specific directive or standard for how the State must accomplish a ‘diffusion of knowledge.’ Plaintiffs are attempting to read a separate funding requirement into [the clause] that would require the legislature to provide “adequate” education funding in excess of the 25-percent requirement… Such language does not exist….

Reading a free-standing obligation to provide certain school funding into the introductory language… would be contrary to the specific flexibility afforded the legislature…”

More money does not equal better education. Missouri cannot spend its way to excellent, or even adequate performance.   State funding is merely one aspect of the framework set up to house public education: it is how we as a state move resources toward the goal of educating our children.  Those resources can be spent wisely or poorly.  They can be spent on programs, materials and staff that educate effectively, but they may be spent on methods that don’t work.  The structure into which we put our resources is at least as important as how much we spend.

A new era of education reform is coming. Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke in St. Louis last week, and presented a new way of thinking about funding education: tie it to reforms that work.

Announcing billions of dollars in grants available for education, Duncan gave caveats that grants would be awarded where innovation was the driving force. He stressed that Missouri should consider having a portfolio of options to offer children with different needs and strengths.

“In St. Louis, the city and Missouri the state has a chance to compete for unprecedented discretionary resources,” said Duncan. “In every one of the those applications, we’re going to look for capacity, we’re going to look for a visionary plan, we’re going to look for someone who wants to challenge the status quo and we’re going to look for folks who are willing to collaborate, and if St. Louis and Missouri can do that, you have the chance to do something very special in the years ahead.”

More than anything, the conclusion of the Adequacy Trial offers us a clear opportunity to shift our focus to a new way of thinking about improving Missouri education and also the way we can fund that goal.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/changedotgov/ / CC BY 2.0

Missouri Supreme Court Opinion available HERE.

Thomas Edison’s lasting legacy in film and innovation

With the pace of new technology, it’s a challenge to simply keep up with the next advancement, application or platform. Facebook has acquired 250 million users worldwide in five short years, with social networking competitor Twitter generating 3 million messages a day. Youtube is only 4 years old, but already boasts 290 million visits per day, and hulu.com, an online broadcast of television and movies, climbs the ranks with 29 million daily page views . From a technological and cultural perspective, these trends offer business, social and political imperatives and insights. But to look at this virulent paradigm shift historically shows the raw influence of American ingenuity.

112 years ago, on August 31st, 1897, Thomas Edison patented the kinetoscope: a peephole motion picture viewer. The kinetograph was the accompanying machine that would capture the first motion-pictures. A strip of 18mm film ran between two spools while a rapid shutter speed exposed the film at a constant rate. Holes punched on the side of the film allowed it to be drawn under a lens in the kinetoscope continuously, while intermittent flashes of light beneath the film obscured the change between images, giving the illusion of motion [1].

Of the kinetoscope, Edison said, “I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion ….” From this inspiration the came the first publicly consumed motion pictures. In a decade motion pictures transformed from novelty to industry.

In some sense the movies produced by Edison are more like the user-generated, real-life documentation of Youtube than like the feature-length film industry it initially begot. Called “Actualities”, the first films were short non-fiction news, locations and novelties. Now, video is indigenous in young generations as a form of communication: a video can challenge us, it can change our minds or explain a complex issue memorably. The marriage of video and Internet spreads cultures and ideas globally with the click of a button.

Advances in technology and skill have put cameras in the hands of millions, all but replaced film with digital images, and created tools to edit, digitally enhance and even digitally create worlds. This century of innovation and adaptation was kick-started by Edison’s ability to see beyond the tools of the time and to systematically invent the light bulb (his most famous invention), a sprocket chain drive that could would pull film or tape and insert them into the invention of the kinetoscope and kinetograph. His legacy is seen not just in the advancement of motion pictures, but also in the limitless imagination that the leaders of today, like Intel, Apple and General Electric, have adopted as their brand and foundation.

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