Governing: State and local government news and analysis
The new administration has aggressively pulled back from consumer protection and corporate regulation, leaving it up to the states to protect Americans from abusive business practices.
Pre-employment transition services can be a powerful resource to prepare high school students with disabilities for future careers.
All states are in compliance with federal REAL ID regulations as the implementation date looms this week, 20 years after Congress passed the mandate. But uptake among residents varies.
The California city has evolved over and over but not always for the better. A new mayor promises to be a uniter, but that's going to require some adjustments on her part.
Matt Privratsky was appointed to serve as an interim city council member in St. Paul after the previous member resigned. He’ll cast some consequential votes.
Workforce development programs should address dual challenges: Supporting the economic mobility of workers while simultaneously meeting the skills needs of in-demand industries.
States are anxiously awaiting potential cuts from Congress. In the meantime, their costs are already rising even as enrollment has decreased.
Counties have relationships with essentially every federal agency. They have to prepare for the biggest policy changes seen in decades.
Education savings account programs are encountering some legislative and judicial setbacks. Policymakers should work to keep these programs from being chipped away.
A growing number of state leaders want the federal government to forbid the use of food stamps to buy sodas and candy. It’s not a new idea, but the current administration has signaled its support.
Only five states have seen eighth grade reading scores go up since the pandemic. A look at two Tennessee districts show how they’ve achieved improvement.
Despite a shift in the definition of the term “smart city” in recent years, the effort to make cities smarter continues, and it has evolved to include new technologies — and even tech-agnostic approaches.
What happened in a Milwaukee courthouse is an escalation of the Trump administration’s assault on the rule of law. And it won’t keep us safer.
Gov. Greg Abbott has brought school vouchers to Texas. It's an achievement that can be studied by politicians of all parties.
A new law allows for removing elementary school children from a classroom, and then assessing the causes of the problematic behavior. Schools may need funding for more counselors to do so, however.
Traditional pensions and 401(k)-style government plans have undergone major changes in portfolio structure since 2000, mostly for the better. But recent market gyrations remind us that there are always opportunities for improvement.
In contrast to what’s going on in Washington, state and local leaders are leveraging the technology to make government genuinely work better.
New legislation would shield officers from prosecution for acts taken in the line of duty. Critics say no one should be unaccountable.
Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, and a presidential executive order would create unfunded mandates and unintended consequences, two former Republican secretaries of state argue.
There are a number of steps that state and local leaders could take to narrow the funding gap by tens of billions, making the most of the money that is available to keep the faucets flowing.
To address the housing crisis, we need to pick up the pace of development without sacrificing commitments to low-income residents and environmental protections.
Starbase, the Texas home of SpaceX, will likely vote to become a city next month. Then the work of creating a government from scratch will begin.
Letitia James and other Democratic attorneys general have emerged as Trump’s leading antagonists, with lawsuits that have been essentially relentless.
Most of Alabama may be covered in forests, but asphalt still reigns on school playgrounds. The Alabama Forestry Foundation wants to change that.
The causes of these alarming gaps in equitable access to emergency care are complex. Fixing the problem won’t come from patchwork efforts or temporary fixes.
By cutting out middlemen and dealing directly with pharmacies, Ohio’s Medicaid system saved money even as it dramatically increased payments to pharmacists.
Programs in Colorado and Illinois home in on finding and supporting health-care practitioners willing to work — and hopefully remain — in underserved rural areas.
These programs align with core American values. Democrats shouldn’t be the only ones defending them.
Voters in three states enshrined Medicaid expansions in their state constitutions. Those states could be on the hook if Congress cuts program funding significantly.
More than 1.1 million college students from other countries inject billions of dollars into local economies and support hundreds of thousands of jobs. Losing them over fears of federal immigration policies would be a blow for cities and towns across the country.
