Gas prices fell to an average of $1.86 per gallon last week in South Carolina according to AAA, providing us with a little extra cash in our pockets. That’s great news indeed…but we had better not get used to it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of implementing three rules that a new study by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University and Palmetto Promise Institute says will substantially drive up the cost of energy in South Carolina.

Today, at its 2nd Annual VisionSC Summit, Palmetto Policy Forum released the latest version of Empower Opportunity: Education Options for South Carolina Families. Featuring a foreword from U.S. Senator Tim Scott on the power of education choice, this groundbreaking publication is designed to equip South Carolina families with information about education options currently available to Palmetto State students. It also highlights policy success stories in states where they have created even more choice and flexibility than currently exists here.

This letter to the editor appeared in The State on May 8, 2014. I appreciated Cindi Scoppe’s column in support of Sen. Paul Thurmond’s efforts to streamline our process for dealing with ineffective teachers (“The cost of one bad teacher,” April 23). Teacher quality is the No. 1 in-school factor affecting student learning, and this

This OpEd appeared in The State. Columbia, SC — Only two years ago, a lopsided majority of Americans had never heard of Common Core State Standards, and those who had either thought they were straight from Beelzebub or the greatest thing since Jadeveon Clowney. If a recent legislative hearing on the matter is any indication,

This OpEd  appeared in The Greenville News on February 2, 2014. Liberal Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and conservative Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton. What agenda could possibly unite these political odd couples? Support for the rapidly expanding world of education options. Each of these leaders is part of a bipartisan

NEWS RELEASE Education Leaders Unveil Online School Options Catalogue COLUMBIA, S.C. –South Carolina’s new policy action-engine, Palmetto Policy Forum, completed a statewide media tour today, launching a first-of-its-kind online education resource catalogue designed to equip South Carolina families with information about how to take advantage of the education options currently available in the Palmetto State.

Voters fear rushing into waste, uncertainty and cost. A statewide survey of South Carolina voters commissioned by Palmetto Policy Forum and conducted by Magellan Strategies reveals a divided and doubtful electorate on the issue of expanding Medicaid in South Carolina to include able-bodied adults up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. The rush to expand Medicaid under provisions of The Affordable Care Act in the face of waste, fraud and abuse is at the top of voter worries. Key survey findings include...

By Jim Epstein, ReasonTV “Most physicians can’t afford to accept Medicaid” patients, says Dr. Alieta Eck, a primary-care physician based in Piscataway, New Jersey. “If you’re getting paid about $17 per visit, it won’t be long before you can’t pay your staff or pay your rent.” Medicaid is the nation’s health care system for the