The New South Conservative » The New South Conservative by Curtis Coleman

The Arkansas Private Option – Bribe, Boondoggle and Bad Policy

Webmaster — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:48:27 +0000

Why Some Conservatives Are Supporting an Expansion of Government

by Curtis Coleman

The Arkansas House and Senate will vote on funding the “Arkansas Private Option” this week. The issue has produced a lot of unlikely bedfellows, including folks like Democrat Governor Mike Beebe, Republican Speaker of the House Davy Carter, and pro-life champion Republican State Senator Jason Rapert. And it’s produced a lot of angst and disappointment among many Arkansas conservatives who feel betrayed by “conservative” candidates they supported in 2010 and 2012.

Briefly summarized, the “Arkansas private option” is a plan to let more low-income Arkansans qualify for Medicaid healthcare support but, instead of being covered by traditional Medicaid, these Arkansans will be able to buy private healthcare insurance through an Obamacare healthcare exchange that will be set up in the State – and their purchases will be subsidized by federal Medicaid funds. Conservatives who support the private option claim it’s the best option available to a State that, like it or not, is saddled with Obamacare and should just make the best of a bad situation.

But I think it’s more than that.

It’s a Bribe

Here’s the deal. The Supreme Court struck down the part of the horribly misnomered Patient Care and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that required states to expand their Medicaid programs to include folks whose income is up to 138% of the federal poverty level. If Arkansas elects NOT to expand its Medicaid program as prescribed by Obamacare, the federal government will pay between 70% and 79% of Arkansas’ Medicaid costs.

BUT, if Arkansas expands its Medicaid program as prescribed in Obamacare, the federal government may pay 100% of the cost of Medicaid in the State for years 2014, 2015, and 2016, and from 95% down to 90% for years 2017 through 2020.

The Arkansas Center for Health Insurance reports that Arkansas state government spent over $4.5 billion on Medicaid in year 2012. Twenty one percent (Arkansas state government’s approximate share under traditional Medicaid) of $4.5 billion is about $945 million. But if the feds pay as promised, Arkansas government’s share of expanded Medicaid under the Obamacare will be about $0 – at least for the next three years.

Let me see, we pay $0 if we do what they want us to do and $945 million if we don’t. What’s that called? Oh yeah, a bribe.

Note I wrote about Arkansas government’s share. Your share dear fellow taxpayer is 100% regardless of which plan is used. The only remaining question is, “Which one costs the most?”

Which brings us to our next point.

It’s A Boondoggle

Here’s the deal. The federal government gets its money from the same place the State of Arkansas’ government gets its money. From you! So it doesn’t really mean anything if Arkansas’ state government saves some money for which the federal government picks up the tab. Because regardless, it’s all coming out of your pocketbook.

But our state legislators (and I really appreciate this) want to give us a state tax decrease. They want to reduce the cost of state government in Arkansas. I’ll bet, like me, you’re all for that!

Here’s the problem. If Arkansas continues on its traditional Medicaid program (the “do nothing” option being discussed in the halls of the State Capitol), the State is going to experience something like a projected $50 million to $100 million shortfall in its annual budget for Medicaid in the state. (No one seems to really know for certain how much the actual shortfall might be.) So that’s why you’re hearing scary stories about how we’re going to have to drastically cut important things like higher education if we don’t approve the private option.

Perhaps more importantly, some of our new Republican majority believes they won’t be able to deliver on those promised tax cuts. Or even be able to brag about ‘em during the next election cycle.

So here’s the boondoggle. Let’s say approving the private option eliminates a $100 million annual shortfall for state government. But according go the Foundation for Government Accountability, the private option is estimated to cost the federal government $20 billion more than traditional Medicaid just in Arkansas over the next 10 years. You know who’s going to pay for the $20 billion, don’t you? Yes, you. But you’re going to get a $100 million/year tax break in Arkansas!

Do you want to save $100 million/year at a cost of $2 billion/year[1]? I didn’t think so, unless you’re one of those folks into generational theft: stealing money from our children and grandchildren, which is exactly what we’re letting our federal government do.

I think it’s time for our state government leaders to start worrying about protecting the people of Arkansas more than protecting the government of Arkansas.

So ultimately, this whole “private option” deal is just plain ‘ol…

Bad Policy

This is Washington, D.C. politics in action right here in Arkansas. This is not cost savings; this is cost shifting. This is D.C.-style kicking the can down the road. And at its very core, this is a dramatic expansion of government. Government already costs far too much because government is far too big. If we want to reduce the cost of government, we have to reduce the size of government. And the private option simply goes in the opposite and wrong direction.

Arkansas can be, should be and has every right and reason to be one of the most prosperous states in the nation! But there are some hard-core liberals in this state who want to finance that on the back of the federal government. If you paid your federal income taxes recently, I’m pretty sure you know the federal government doesn’t have any “free money.”

Arkansas desperately needs to reform its onerous, anti-business, job-unfriendly “don’t do business here” tax code. The “private” option Is undeniably an expansion of government, which is almost always bad for business – and always bad for liberty and freedom. Increasing the federal tax liability for Arkansans who pay federal taxes by ostensibly reducing their state taxes is shortsighted and myopic – and very bad policy.

I am genuinely thankful for this: we have some fine men and women who represent us in the Arkansas legislature; men and women who want to do the right thing for Arkansas and the best thing for Arkansans. I’ve been praying for them to have wisdom, insight, foresight and courage. I have some very good friends – people whom I respect – who are on the other side on this issue, but I’m hoping they will turn down the bribe, refuse the boondoggle and reject the bad policy.

[1] Of course, like Obamacare and every other government estimate, the real cost will be much higher.

Let Arkansas Prosper!

Curtis — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:00:44 +0000

February 22, 2013

It is my honor to declare today that I am a candidate for Governor of the Great State of Arkansas.

by Curtis Coleman

I’ve made this decision because it is time to let Arkansas prosper! The simple fact is that Arkansas has every right, reason and resource to be one of the most successful States – populated by some of the most prosperous people – in the Nation. Like many Arkansans, I’m sick and tired of some of our State’s political leaders excusing their poor performance with the hollow pretext that “Arkansas is just a poor state.” It’s true that some studies indicate that we’re 47^th in the nation in average personal income. Dr. Shane Knight’s research found that in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Missouri and Oklahoma, the average personal income in those states is $138 per week more than the average income for someone who lives in Arkansas.

This is inexcusable, and every Arkansan should consider this to be intolerable.

Arkansas has extraordinary resources and even more extraordinary people! We grow more food than we can eat, more fiber than we can wear, more timber than we can use, we produce more energy than we can consume and we have more water than we need. And we’ve produced incredible entrepreneurs including people like Sam Walton, J. B. and Jonelle Hunt, William Dillard, Jerry Jones, Ernest Joshua, Harvey and Bernice Jones, Charles Murphy, Whit and Jack Stephens and Don Tyson.

And there are many more where they came from!

But we must make certain that we don’t let any more get away, like FedEx and AutoZone…great companies that could have been based right here in Arkansas providing hundreds of good paying jobs.

Letting Arkansas prosper means not just more jobs, but better paying jobs for hard-working Arkansans.

More jobs, better paying jobs means Arkansas state government has got to wake up to fact that we’re competing with every state in the region – in fact, every state in the Nation - for businesses and jobs. If we are competing, we’re doing it very poorly. One recent study [1] shows that in the year 2011 alone, Oklahoma’s economy grew at three times the rate of Arkansas’s economy, Tennessee’s grew at six times the rate of Arkansas’ and Texas’ economy grew at ten times the rate of Arkansas’.

We’re falling farther behind, and it’s not because we don’t have great people, or abundant resources or even good roads. We’re falling farther behind because Arkansas has the most onerous, anti-business job-unfriendly tax and regulatory codes of any state we touch. That means that Arkansans are suffering in two ways: we’re paying too much for state government, and new businesses and the jobs they bring don’t want to locate here and then pay too much for state government like we are.

Letting Arkansas prosper starts with reforming our tax code. The Simple Plan, developed by House Majority Leader Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs and other foresighted leaders in the Arkansas Legislature, is a great start to putting us on the right road.

We can make Arkansas a much more attractive place to live and work by reducing and simplifying our personal state income tax. We must eliminate taxes on investments in Arkansas businesses just to be able to compete with our neighboring states to attract new investment capital to create new good-paying jobs in Arkansas. We must change the fact that it’s more difficult to start a new vocation in Arkansas [2] than in 48 other states in the country.

An Arkansas businessman called me a few weeks ago and said that he had calculated that he could move his business to Tennessee and save 9% or more per year. His business is growing rapidly and will likely be in the top 50 in the world in his particular business sector by the end of this year. We had lunch this week and he’s going to hang in there with me; in fact, he’s going to help craft a tax reform plan that will let him keep his business and his employees in Arkansas.

We can make simple changes like attracting more retirees to Arkansas – who are a fantastic asset to our State – by doing simple things like eliminating the state income tax on pensions paid to military veterans who retire in Arkansas (we need to do that just to catch up with other states).

Simple changes like expanding our cultural tourism industry in Arkansas –already Arkansas’ second largest industry. If we can attract just 1% of retiring baby boomers to visit Arkansas, we can generate upwards of an additional $1 billion dollars into our state’s annual economy.

The changes we need to make are not complex and we can make them happen!

Letting Arkansas prosper means dramatically improving the quality of education in Arkansas.

Make no mistake. Arkansas has some outstanding teachers. They’re not the problem. But public school teachers around the state consistently tell me they spend an average of 42% of their time just filling out paperwork. And as their students get older, they progressively lose control of their classrooms out of fear of litigation.

Gov. Beebe likes to report that Arkansas is 5^th in the nation in education. But the same report [3] that he cites also said that we’re 45^th in the nation in graduating high school students who are prepared for success in life. I think that’s a much more important measure of how effectively we’re educating our children.

Giving our children the opportunity to graduate with a chance of success in life means doing three things:

First, it means restoring the rights of parents to control where their children go to school, what their children are taught, and then letting the education money follow their children to the school of their choice. I call that moving public education from a government monopoly to a free market economy, and it is inarguable that a competitive free market consistently produces a superior product or service to that of a monopoly.

Arkansas is in desperate need of improving its high school graduation rate of only 74 percent, and a recent report [4] revealed that Arkansas is one of ten states in the country where high school graduation rates are actually declining.

But even in Washington D.C., more than 90 percent of the students who were allowed to participate in the school choice D. C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, – more than 90 percent graduated! Compared to only 70 percent of their peers in non-choice schools!

Second, giving our children the opportunity to graduate with a chance of success in life means putting a greater emphasis on producing skilled craftsmen and tradesmen in Arkansas. When did we lose the dignity of a trade, of making things with your hands and not just your head?

There is a striking skilled-labor shortage in America and in Arkansas. Earnings for four-year college graduates have actually been dropping over the last decade while the average annual salary for manufacturing jobs has risen to over $73,000 per year.[5]

I am not advocating discouraging our children from a four-year or a post-graduate degree. Let’s continue to encourage Arkansas students to create new technologies and new solutions for the challenges of the 21^st century. But at the same time, let’s stop ignoring our children who want to earn a great living and create wealth and independence for themselves and their families by excelling at a trade or skill. That means simple changes like putting shop back in high school and moving our outstanding two-year community colleges up the higher education “feeding chain” in Arkansas.

The second largest steel-producing county in North America is in Arkansas; Mississippi County in Northeast Arkansas. I had the privilege of touring one of Nucor Steel’s impressive mills recently, and the opportunity to talk to about a dozen of their non-management employees, all of whom were proud of their jobs. I asked those few with whom I had the opportunity to visit two questions: (1) “Are you from Arkansas?” and (2) “Do you live in Arkansas.” Of the admittedly few I got to talk to, none said they were from Arkansas and none said they lived in Arkansas.

None of them were from Arkansas because we don’t produce nearly enough skilled craftsmen in our educational system, and all of them lived in Tennessee or Missouri where they got to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. By the way, as I recall the average salary of a non-management employee at Nucor is about $88,000 per year.

Third, giving our children the opportunity to graduate with a chance of success in life means we must change our goal from just providing equal opportunities to providing first class educational opportunities for all Arkansas students.

The fact is if we allow any region of our State or any culture within our State to be trapped in poverty, we cannot prosper as a whole. Over many generations, the farmers of our State have taught us – not only simple economic lessons – but valuable life lessons….how hard work, kindness and pulling together can create a strong and vibrant economy. That’s what we’ll do as Arkansans – for all Arkansans – including all of parts of Arkansas and all people of our great State.

Third, letting Arkansas prosper means limiting the size and re-tasking the mission of state government.

Arkansas has some outstanding state employees who are committed to serving Arkansas’ citizens, and eliminating their jobs is not the objective. But reducing the cost of state government by eliminating unnecessary duplications and creating a smaller, smarter more efficient state government is the objective. And the goal is to reduce the cost of government for every Arkansan. According to House Majority Leader Westerman’s studies, since the year 2000 – in the last 12 years – the cost of Arkansas state government has grown at a whopping rate of 140 percent while the average Arkansan’s income has grown at only 35 percent during the same time period. In the last 12 years, the cost of state government has grown by more than three times the rate of the growth of our ability to pay for state government. Obviously, that is an unsustainable course that must be reversed.

Letting Arkansas prosper means re-tasking the State’s agencies to the priority of helping - or better yet – letting Arkansans be successful in their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. We will move to the process of evaluating every dollar state government spends to this criteria: Does it let Arkansans be successful? Or are we simply perpetuating an unnecessary bureaucracy?

And let me briefly say something about economic development in Arkansas. Arkansas’ communities are the building blocks of our economy, and therefore the building blocks of our State’s prosperity – not state government. In the coming months I will be introducing my “Plan for 21^st Century Economic Development in Arkansas.” It’s a plan that distributes economic development to Arkansas’ cities and counties, and creates– instead of just one centralized economic development engine in Arkansas – 150 or 200 economic development engines in Arkansas. This approach will mean that communities will be empowered to choose their own futures and create partnerships to make their vision a reality, with the State supporting their efforts, not controlling them.

It’s a plan about which I am enormously excited and hope that I’ll have the opportunity to share it with Chambers of Commerce and civic clubs across Arkansas.

Finally, letting Arkansas prosper means regaining the intended balance of power between the states and the federal government.

Letting Arkansans prosper requires getting government out of our faces, off our backs and out of our pocketbooks. There is no question that from Obamacare to the EPA, the federal government is increasingly encroaching on the fundamental rights to property and privacy, those rights considered by our Founders to be the twin pillars of liberty and freedom.

Washington is not going to give back the ground it has taken from the States; the States are going too have to push back. But Arkansas cannot and will not stand alone. If we try to stand alone, we will be squashed like a June bug on the sidewalk in the summertime. But the great news is that we won’t have to stand alone. As your Governor, I will lead our State to join a coalition of other like-minded states and governors who – together- can become an irresistible political and legal force to recover the Constitutional Democratic Republic gifted to us by our Founders.

If necessary, I will stand on the border of our State and say “No! Not in Arkansas!” to a federal government that would attempt to infringe or destroy those fundamental rights guaranteed to us by our Creator, including and especially the right to keep and bear arms.

If we make these changes, if we become the prosperous people we should be and can be, we don’t need another professional politician at the helm. We need a businessman. A businessman who’s had to make a payroll, who’s had to fight smothering and strangling over-regulation just to keep the doors open, who’s provided health insurance for his employees. Someone who’s been under the regulations instead of over them and someone who knows that state government can be managed with business-like efficiencies. And someone who not only has a vision for what Arkansas and Arkansans can be, but a passion to lead us there.

Arkansans have every right, reason and resource to be one of the most prosperous people in the Nation. It is time we rejected the failed programs of the past and the failed policies of the past; policies that have been perpetuated by an establishment caretaker mentality. It’s time we take our place at the top the list, at the head of the line and say to the rest of America, “Watch us! We’ll show you how it’s done in Arkansas!”

If you share these dreams and embrace this vision of a prosperous and successful Arkansas, please pledge your vote and give me your help. You can do both at CurtisColeman.com.

God bless you! May God bless Arkansas! And may God bless America!

Thank you!

[1] U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_state/gsp_newsrelease.htm

[2] Institute for Justice, “License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing” http://licensetowork.ij.org/ar

[3] Education Week, State Report Cards http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2012/16src.h31.html?intc=EW-QC12-LFTNAV

[4] Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, http://www.americaspromise.org/our-work/grad-nation/~/media/Files/Our%20Work/Grad%20Nation/Building%20a%20Grad%20Nation/BuildingAGradNation2012.ashx

[5]Joel Kotkin, distinguished presidential fellow at Chapman University. Reprinted in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on 05 February 2012, Section H, with permission from the Autumn 2011 edition of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal (city-journal.org).

Let’s Start Being Who We Are

Curtis — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:00:02 +0000

Well, my dear friends, today’s Commentary is the last…at least for awhile. I’m going to miss having this opportunity to visit with you.

by Curtis Coleman

With the formal announcement of my candidacy for Governor last week, it’s necessary for me to discontinue the daily Coleman Commentaries, at least in this current format. I want to say “Thank you!” to the folks at this fine radio station for giving me this very special privilege, and my deeply-felt gratitude to the exceptional sponsors who’ve made the daily Coleman Commentary possible.

You can read more about my vision for Arkansas at CurtisColeman.com. And you can read my entire announcement statement at NewSouthConservative.com.

With the prayers and counsel of my family and friends, I made the decision to offer myself as a candidate for Governor of Arkansas because I believe Arkansans have every right, reason and resource to be one of the most prosperous and successful people in the Country. And the changes we need to make to become who we can be and who we are not complex:

We need to reform the tax code in Arkansas from being one of the most job-unfriendly, anti-business in the region to one that attracts new businesses to Arkansas with better paying jobs for Arkansans.

We can dramatically improve our educational system in Arkansas by restoring to all parents – regardless of ethnicity or financial ability – the right to choose where their children go to school and what they’re children are taught.

We can re-task state government to getting out of your way, out of your face, out of your pocketbook and off your back.

And for Arkansans to prosper, we must regain the intended balance of power between the federal government and the states.

Thank you again my dear friend. I look forward to meeting you soon! Those websites again are CurtisColeman.com and NewSouthConservative.com.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.

Saving the Republic

Curtis — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:42:13 +0000

Cynicism runs deeper than I’ve ever seen it in our State and Country. Never have I heard so many people express their pessimism and hopelessness about the future of our Country. Can we ever recover the Nation we seemed to have lost?

by Curtis Coleman

Skepticism and cynicism are running deeper in the psyche of Arkansans and Americans than I ever witnessed. It seems more people believe the Country – the land of the free and the home of the brave – is lost. They don’t see a path or have a hope to recover the Constitutional Republic gifted to us by our Founders.

But I see a path and I have a great hope.

The path doesn’t start in Washington. I share the view of Senator Jim DeMint who recently said that Washington is a lost cause for now.

But there is a path to recovering the freedoms and liberties guaranteed by our Constitution, and that path starts in the States, and hopefully in Arkansas.

We can recover the intended balance of power between the States and the Federal Government. We can stop the erosion of our right to own property and the invasion of our right to privacy, considered by our Founders to be the twin pillars of liberty and freedom.

Washington is not going to give back the ground it has taken from the States; the States are going too have to push back. But Arkansas cannot and will not stand alone. If we try to stand alone, we will be squashed like a June bug on the sidewalk in the summertime. But the great news is that we won’t have to stand alone. Arkansas can join with other like-minded states which – together- can become an irresistible political and legal force to recover the Constitutional Republic gifted to us by our Founders.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.

The Dignity of Making Things With Our Hands

Curtis — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:22:32 +0000

There is a striking skilled-labor shortage in America. Earnings for four-year college graduates have actually been dropping over the last decade while the average annual salary for manufacturing jobs has risen to over $73,000 per year.

by Curtis Coleman

None of them were from Arkansas because we don’t produce nearly enough skilled craftsmen in our educational system, and they lived in Tennessee or Missouri where they got to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. By the way, as I recall the average salary of a non-management employee at Nucor is about $88,000 per year.

Giving our children the opportunity to graduate with a chance of success in life means putting a greater emphasis on producing skilled craftsmen and tradesmen in Arkansas. When did we lose the dignity of a trade, of making things with our hands and not just our head?

I am not advocating discouraging our children from a four-year or a post-graduate degree. Let’s continue to encourage Arkansas students to create new technologies and new solutions for the challenges of the 21^st century. But at the same time, let’s stop ignoring our children who want to earn a great living and create wealth and independence for themselves and their families by excelling at a trade or skill. That means simple changes like putting “shop” back in high school and moving our outstanding two-year community colleges up the higher education “feeding chain” in Arkansas.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.

A First Class Education

Curtis — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:58:55 +0000

Arkansas has some of the finest schoolteachers in the nation, teachers who love teaching and who love their students. Yet a credible report on education shows that only 45% of Arkansas’ high school graduates are prepared for success in life when they graduate.

by Curtis Coleman

Arkansas is in desperate need of improving its high school graduation rate of only 74 percent, and a recent report revealed that Arkansas is one of ten states in the country where high school graduation rates are actually declining. And the report that suggests Arkansas is 5^th in the nation in education also said that we’re 45^th in the nation in graduating high school students who are prepared for success in life. I think that’s a much more important measure of how effectively we’re educating our children.

Arkansas has some outstanding teachers. They’re not the problem. But public school teachers around the state consistently tell me they spend an average of 42% of their time just filling out paperwork. And as their students get older, they progressively lose control of their classrooms out of fear of litigation.

Giving our children the opportunity to graduate with a chance of success in life means restoring the rights of parents to control where their children go to school, what their children are taught, and then letting the education money follow their children to the school of their choice. I call that moving public education from a government monopoly to a free market economy, and it is inarguable that a competitive free market consistently produces a superior product or service to that of a monopoly.

And that means raising our goals for the education of our children from simply guaranteeing an equal education to giving all of our children – regardless of ethnicity or financial ability – an equal opportunity at a first class education.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.

Eric Holder: Government Can Ban Home Schools

Curtis — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:39:20 +0000

According to the Attorney General of the United States, our government would not be violating anyone’s rights if homeschooling is completely banned in America.

by Curtis Coleman

Mr. and Mrs. Uwe Romeike are refugees living in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. They’re modern-day refugees from Germany who sought asylum in the United States because they’re devout Christians who want to homeschool their children. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany.

A federal district court judge granted the Romeikes asylum here against the wishes of our Federal government. The government appealed that decision to the Board of Immigration appeals and won. Then the Home School Legal Defense Association appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals where the case will be heard.

Michael Farris, the founder and chair of the Home School Legal Defense Association, recently wrote an article about the case made by government lawyers representing Attorney General Eric Holder during the court hearing for the Romeike family.

The government’s attorneys argue, Mr. Farris wrote, “that there was no violation of anyone’s protected rights in a law that entirely bans homeschooling.” Be certain you get this: Your government is arguing that a nation violates no one’s rights if it bans homeschooling entirely.

The U.S. Attorney General is saying so long as a government bans homeschooling broadly and equally, there is no violation of your rights. He’s arguing this under the equal protection portions of the Constitution but ignoring the fundamental liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.

Regardless of how you feel about homeschooling, you should be shocked and alarmed that an agent of our government would ever consider making such an argument. If you follow that argument, make a list of every fundamental right and liberty you possess as an American and understand that, if the Attorney General has his way, his government can ban every single one of them as long as it bans them equally for everyone of us.

Armed Guards in Schools

Curtis — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:00:56 +0000

Following the tragic shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, there’s a hot debate raging in the nation whether schools should have armed security guards. One proposal would facilitate an increased federal presence in schools.

by Curtis Coleman

Parents across the nation are increasingly concerned about the safety of their children in schools…a far cry from when our children walked to school without fear and the worst worry most parents had about their children at school was whether or not they had done all their homework.

But there is a new threat to schools and parents disguised as a solution. It’s a possible proposal for the federal government to regulate (read that “dictate”) armed security guards in schools. If this becomes the law, local school districts, parents and state governments will be paying for armed guards in our schools as dictated by the federal government.

It reminds me of the words of President Ronald Reagan who said “the most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Parents don’t need to relinquish the safety of their children anymore than they need to relinquish the education of their children to an inept federal government.

This is a new and important form of school choice: Local schools – their parents, teachers and administrators – must have the right to decide if they want armed guards in their schools. The federal government has no business dictating this, nor do state governments for that matter.

This must be a choice made by local communities and their schools. Anything else constitutes a new encroachment and a new erosion of the very best kind of government there is…local government.

If parents want their children protected by armed guards while they’re in school, that should not only be their right, it should be their choice.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.

The Arkansas I Can See

Curtis — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:00:06 +0000

Today marks the beginning of the last two weeks of the Coleman Commentary, at least for now.

by Curtis Coleman

This is the first of the last nine Coleman Commentaries, as today marks the beginning of the last two weeks in which the Commentaries will be broadcast…well, at least for now.

On Thursday of this week, I’ll make the formal announcement of my candidacy to serve the Great State of Arkansas as its Governor. The announcement will be made at 11:30 a.m. in the Old Supreme Court courtroom in the State Capital in Little Rock. I will be greatly honored if you can attend.

But because of this announcement, the Coleman Commentaries will not be broadcast after this month, at least not in their present form. So this is a poignant development for me. It’s been an extraordinary privilege and honor to be allowed to share my thoughts and my heart with you five days a week. In some ways we’ve become like family, as I’ve had the opportunity to meet you as I traveled around the State, or I received kind and complimentary notes and emails from you.

The views expressed in my Commentaries have been unapologetically conservative. And I’ve found myself right in the ideological heart of most Arkansans who, like me, love their God, their families and their country – and are willing to give their lives if necessary to defend any of those.

I believe great days are ahead for Arkansas and Arkansans. Arkansas can become – not just a regional leader – but a global leader. And Arkansas will move to the top of the list and the head of the class. That’s the Arkansas I can see.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.

The Only Person Who Hates Divorce as Much as God

Curtis — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:00:47 +0000

Having experienced a devastating divorce myself almost 20 years ago, I know first hand how painful and harmful a divorce can be to every member of the family. And I know the shame and stigma that can be attached.

by Curtis Coleman

For years after going through a divorce, I would look in the mirror and see only a bright neon “D” flashing on my forehead. And I was pretty sure that was all everyone else saw also.

Part of my healing came when I heard a pastor say one Sunday morning, “The Bible says ‘God hates divorce.’ And the only person who may hate divorce as much as God is a divorcee.”

That was certainly true for me. And divorce’s devastating destruction is being felt throughout our nation. In fact, marriage itself is in a steady decline. Nearly 80 percent of all adults were married in 1980, but today that number has fallen to 52 percent. Forty percent of children in America are born outside of marriage. Tragically, that number climbs to 71 percent in the African American community.

According to a report from The Heritage Foundation, the collapse of marriage correlates strongly with child poverty. A child raised outside of marriage is six times more likely to experience poverty than a child who grows up in an intact family, and 71 percent of poor families with children are headed by single parents.

We can talk about creating more jobs and more prosperity for Arkansans, but the fundamental fact is that we are in desperate need of a spiritual rebirth of the traditional American family. That’s the simple and irreplaceable solution to our burgeoning welfare state, our Medicaid crisis and the escalating tragic child poverty in America. Amazing isn’t it? The family is the simple cure for the collapse of our culture, the tragedy of poverty and the escalating violence in our nation.

Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.