Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Imagine someone whose childhood ranks at the very bottom in every dimension—neglect, foster homes, adoption into a family that breaks up—but who, unbeknown to any of the people around him, has an intellect at the very top. As an adult, he brings his intellect to an account of what such a childhood looks and feels … Read more
“Dual enrollment has been a wild boost to my life and my career,” says Noah Adalbert, a recent graduate of Geneva College in western Pennsylvania. Through dual, also called concurrent, enrollment programs, high school students can take college classes while still in high school. Colleges typically offer classes at a reduced rate for high schoolers, … Read more
People these days worry about the rising prices of gasoline and milk, but there’s another destructive inflation that has gone unchecked for years: grade inflation. Just like monetary inflation, which makes your bank account look great until you’re rudely awakened by the reality that you can’t buy as much as you used to, grade inflation … Read more
When contemplating the issue of school choice, it’s most important to focus on how we can improve educational outcomes, particularly for children from low-income communities. But, as a fiscal economist, I can’t help thinking about how school choice is also good news for taxpayers. And I also can’t help but notice that opponents are often … Read more
Homeschooling, charter schools, and other “alternative” learning approaches are now mainstream. It wasn’t long ago that “normal” schooling meant public school, understood as some variation on the theme of classes punctuated by the sound of a bell, lunch in a cafeteria, and detours to run around with beat-up gym equipment. Catholic kids had similar experiences … Read more
The white upper middle class is deranging American politics. We should have seen it coming. In 2010, America’s last famous novelist, Jonathan Franzen, launched on the reading public Freedom, his tale of a striving family headed by Walter and Patty Berglund. They were gentrifiers in St. Paul, Minn. The paterfamilias was a lawyer at the … Read more
Debate kids, like theater kids, are a type. Those of us who were debaters instantly know the look: the off-kilter neckties, the boxes of Tic Tacs, the stacks of three-ring binders jammed with old case drafts and printouts of evidence, the fingertips slightly stained with ink from Bic pens. And, of course, there’s the tendency … Read more
It is probably fair to say that Americans are highly polarized right now. Public schooling is likely a reflection of, and contributor to, that division. A reflection, because political control of schools is likely to replicate the divisions and animosities of the electorate. A cause, because public schooling requires people with diverse views and backgrounds … Read more
Why would you want to go to college these days? I am not just talking about COVID issues–assume the virus restrictions go away. When I went to college, almost every course was serious. Even “Physics for Poets” was intended to convey important knowledge. Now if you want a rigorous education you have to select courses … Read more