This op-ed by Alaska Policy Forum board member, Jesse Sumner, was originally published by the Anchorage Daily News on July 11, 2021. After two special sessions to create a smart and functional […]
How to fix a defective budget
Webinar: Impact of the Jones Act
Watch the Grassroot Institute‘s successful webinar about the impact of the Jones Act that involved participants and viewers from one end of the nation to the other, from Guam to Puerto Rico, with […]
Tribal Compacting Is School Choice
The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) recently received a $1 million grant, funded by the federal CARES Act, to research a “legal and practical pathway” for tribal compacting of education. Tribal compacting is an education agreement between the state and tribes where local authority for K-12 schools is vested […]
Identify and Individualize: How to Catch Struggling Readers Early
It is a sad fact, but it is true: children who cannot read by nine rarely catch up to their peers. In 2019, only 25 percent of Alaskan fourth-graders were proficient in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and almost […]
Ranked-choice voting is not that simple
This article was originally published in Must Read Alaska on July 10, 2021 by Win Gruening, board member of Alaska Policy Forum. If the election debacle that played out in the New […]
Alaska’s State-Local Tax Burden, Ranked
By Drew Godsell A Tax Foundation report calculating and ranking states’ state and local tax burdens, ranked Alaska in 50th place with the lowest burden. This is because Alaska asks notably little of […]
Peplow’s impeachment reminds Alaska union members they have a choice
This article was originally published by the Anchorage Daily News on June 17, 2021. Alaska has always been viewed as a frontier for freedom, where individual liberty is never sacrificed on the […]
Project Nickel Enhances Education Transparency
Project Nickel is a tool that makes it easy for parents and policymakers alike to understand how much is spent per student at a school by bundling together the most informative statistics and […]
Public sector unions vs. the 1st Amendment
This article was originally published in the Juneau Empire by Win Gruening, Alaska Policy Forum board member, on June 24, 2021. In 1962, President John Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, paving the […]
The Burden of Regulations and Occupational Licensing in Alaska, Ranked
By Drew Godsell A report from the Mercatus Center comparing regulatory burdens in different states ranks Alaska 24th in the nation for the largest occupational licensure burden. While regulations and licensures are usually justified as a means of […]
Ranked Choice Voting – What Now?
In November 2020, Alaskan voters chose to completely rewrite the state’s election process by passing a ballot measure which will put in place ranked-choice voting (RCV) for state and federal general elections. Alaska […]