• Through its “Let Teachers Teach” initiative spearheaded by Superintendent Cade Brumly, Louisiana directly asked its teachers what they needed and empowered them to develop actionable recommendations for the state.
• By identifying issues such as uncompensated trainings, useless meetings, and deteriorating student behavior, schools can address causes of teacher burnout.
• Louisiana’s initiative exposed significant disruptions to academic learning environments, including unfettered cellphone use and chronic absenteeism.

By: Neeraja Deshpande

• Housing, health care, grocery, and childcare costs have risen rapidly over the past five years. A solution to affordability is raising workers’ take-home pay by cutting state income taxes, but doing so responsibly to ensure critical government services are not disrupted.
• State income taxes pay for maintaining roads, highways, and bridges, and funding public libraries, parks, and education. Income taxes account for about 37% of state tax collections in fiscal year 2022.
• On average, the economies of income-tax-free states grew faster than those of states with an income tax. Economists also found that states that adopted an income tax in the last six decades experienced slower growth than the rest of the country.

By: Patrice Onwuka

• Complicating the process and increasing the cost of applying, CON laws create barriers for healthcare facilities to open or expand.
• States with CON laws have 30% fewer hospitals, and consequently, 10% higher variable costs in general acute hospitals, 20.6% higher expenditures per capita, higher Medicare and Medicaid costs, and worse quality of care.
• States that do not have CON see expanded access, lower costs, and improved care compared to states that do. Removing CON means that providers will be able to respond to the needs of their patients, and all Americans will have an easier time finding the care they need in their community without breaking the bank.

By: Miranda Spindt

• As “the fastest-spreading technology in human history,” artificial intelligence has transformed education, enhancing students’ ability to cheat and allowing them to forsake critical thinking.
• Use of AI should be approached carefully, as smartphones and technology have had a measurable negative impact on children, serving as a distraction in classrooms and contributing to a decline in mental health.
• If utilized with discernment, AI allows teachers to differentiate instruction through bespoke worksheets and engaging teaching aids.

By: Neeraja Deshpande

• Critical minerals (CM), including aluminum, bismuth, cobalt, copper, nickel, and silicon, are essential for a wide scope of products from renewable energy technologies to defense mechanisms.
• In contrast to the U.S., the Chinese Communist Party produces 60% of the global supply of CM and processes 90% of REE.
• The U.S. has just one operational rare earth mineral mine, and about 70% of America’s REE imports came from China between 2020 and 2023.

By: Gabriella Hoffman & Meaghan Mobbs