The NEA Recommends the Book Gender Queer, So I Read It.
Gender Queer is considered the most banned book in America. At least 138 school districts in 32 states have banned the book from their libraries. But let’s be clear, “banning”…
Education Reform
A Much Needed but Partial Great School Rethink
School “reform” is probably only slightly younger than schooling itself. Americans have advanced numerous waves of education “reform” phases, from the very beginnings of government schooling under the Massachusetts Bay…
There Is Hope for Education
Expanding school choice, scrutiny of curriculum containing critical race theory, parental rights legislation, academic transparency laws, banning sexually explicit books from school libraries and classrooms—Randi Weingarten, president of the American…
Goodbye to Bad Education
The Hamilton Southeastern School District, which sits just north and to the west of Indianapolis, decided in early March they’d rather eat $80k on a contract for school surveys purported…
The Crisis of Exploitation in the Classroom: The Past Is Prologue
Education is the secret to happiness, comfort, and prosperity. Ignorance is the bedfellow of misery, poverty, and hardship. But education is missing in too many communities. Why? A combination of…
The Crisis of Exploitation in the Classroom: Educational Malfeasance
It is the role of schools and our teachers to inculcate critical thinking and eschew indoctrination. Unfortunately, our teachers are underpaid and overworked and overstressed and underappreciated. Administrators often look…
The Crisis of Exploitation in the Classroom: Teachers’ Unions
Teachers’ unions are to the education of students what a ball and chain are to a swimmer. Their counter-educational mission is the collective maximization of pay and benefits coupled with…
The Crisis of Exploitation in the Classroom: Growing School Competition
The abysmal state of public-school education controlled by teachers’ unions has given birth to private and charter schools as competitive alternatives for ambitious and industrious parents and students. That is…
Catharsis Comes for the Education Monopoly
This School Choice Week—which runs through Friday, January 28—many activists are celebrating 2021 as the “year of school choice” and hailing advances that charter schools, private school subsidies, and other…
The Benefits of a Philanthropic “Impostor Syndrome”
In mid-December, Education Week’s “Rick Hess Straight Up” blog featured an as-usual interesting post by Hess, “Three Cheers for Impostor Syndrome.” A resident scholar and director of education-policy studies…