Fed Ed Secretary Arne Duncan announced this week that the U.S. Department of Ed is initiating a multifaceted new strategy to ensure every American public school child will have equal opportunities to learn. This despite the fact that provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) regarding training "highly qualified teachers" and reporting on teacher/st...

Wyoming has more state and local government employees per 1,000 private-sector employees than any other state. Since big government leads to low growth, it is fair to assume that with a smaller government our state GDP would be higher and we would all prosper. We would be able to find better-paying jobs, our state would see more business investment...

Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on April 18, 2014 "The politician ... attempts to remedy the evil by increasing and perpetuating the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder." - Frederic Bastiat, "The Law," 1850 - Last week, while discussing locally-generated echoes of the national minimum-wage-raise debate, I made t...

Wyoming's wide-open spaces and horizons that appear to stretch to infinity are some of the most remarkable amenities residents can enjoy. For those who are more familiar with life in towns or even small acreages, these magnificent expanses of land without buildings can sometimes seem empty. Agriculturalists, however, can recognize how actively our ...

Education funding is a complicated issue in Wyoming. The state constitution gives education a special status on the list of public policy priorities, and the state's education funding formula has been the subject of much debate. It is therefore impossible to give a full picture of state education funding in a short blog or two. There is, however, o...

There are many myths regarding public policy. Those myths are particularly prevalent among people who purport to do economic research. One of those myths says that when you study Wyoming taxes you have to remove severance taxes from the equation because Wyoming is so exceptionally dependent on those; severance taxes, it is said, make Wyoming look l...

Earlier this year, after being contacted by Tim Thorson, I toured the Juvenile Services Center in Laramie County. Mr. Thorson is a member of the Laramie County Community Juvenile Services Joint Powers Board, which oversees many aspects of the Juvenile Services Center. Upon our arrival, Mr. Thorson introduced me to Captain Michael Sorensen, who is i...

The Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) has proposed legislation to reform the current Child in Need of Supervision (CHINS) system to a Family in Need of Supervision (FINS) program. The underlying premise of FINS (sometimes called Families in Need of Services, Persons in Need of Services or PINS) as enacted in many other states including Ar...

Over at the Wyoming Liberty Group, I've written extensively about campaign finance reform and its danger to the First Amendment. Through Republic Free Choice, I'd like to examine this theme a bit more deeply. John Adams once expressed the familiar phrase that ours is a "government of laws and not of men." This statement means that in a free society...

Steve Klein talks to Glenn Woods on Boldrepublic.com about changes to Wyoming's campaign finance and ballot laws. 

This week, the people in Virginia spoke and no amount of money could stop them. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suffered a stinging loss to primary challenger Dave Brat. For those who despair the role of money in elections this primary upset is a curious case. Cantor, who raised nearly $5.5 million in funding, enjoyed a 26:1 cash advantage over B...

Coal is a major industry in Wyoming. According to the most recent data available, Wyoming is not only the nation's top coal producer, it produces well over three times as much coal as West Virginia, the nation's second largest. Mining in Wyoming accounts for of U.S. coal production.1 Mining (excluding oil and gas production)2 accounts for nearly $1...

Wyoming incarcerates more juveniles per capita than any other state in the country, with the exception of South Dakota. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) report entitled Youth residing in juvenile detention and correctional facilities, Wyoming currently ranks 49th with only South Dakota higher at 50th in juvenile incarcerations. The...

Will it leave citizens freezing in the dark? Back in 2012, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead announced that Microsoft would build a $112 million data center in Cheyenne. Since then, Microsoft announced two data center expansions, for a total investment of about $450 million. Sounds great, but is it? Data centers move here because, in addition to taxpayer-...

Steve Klein speaks with KGAB's Gary Freeman about the changes to Wyoming Campaign Finance law, required after the Supreme Court's decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. June 6, 2014 – KGAB. 

SHERIDAN, WY – Wyoming Liberty Group attorney Steve Klein testified before the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee today, his second appearance before the committee in their two-day meeting. Klein testified in favor of amending the Wyoming Election Code to comply with the recent United States Supreme Court decision Mc...

SHERIDAN, WY – Wyoming Liberty Group attorney Steve Klein testified before the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee today at their first meeting before the 2015 Legislative Session. Klein testified in favor of changes to the Wyoming Election Code that relate to collecting signatures for ballot petitions. "Under the Wyo...

AUSTIN, TX – Wyoming Liberty Group attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief today on behalf of WyLiberty and the Center for Competitive Politics in Texas v. DeLay. The brief is the second filed on behalf of both organizations, discussing the free speech implications of a criminal case with origins over a decade old. "In 2002, Tom DeLay and sever...

Back in 2012, Governor Matt Mead announced that Microsoft would build a data center in Cheyenne at a cost to Microsoft of $112 million. Since then, Microsoft has announced two expansions. Supporters cheered that the data center would diversify the economy and, according to Gov. Mead's press release, "bring high-paying, technology jobs to the state....

On May 13, I gave short testimony about the problems with civil forfeiture in Wyoming at the Joint Judiciary Committee meeting in Rawlins. The Legislative Service Office is preparing two potential committee bills for the committee to consider at its next meeting in July in Newcastle. The first bill, if it is adopted by the committee and passes the ...