June 15, 2024
Reimagining Early Education
For years, conservatives have dropped the ball on early childhood education policy, almost entirely ceding the playing field to the left. This has led to programs that lack guidance from some important conservative intuitions, like fiscal restraint, the centrality of family and the power of markets. Early childhood education is a crucial kitchen-table issue for…
December 12, 2023
Virginia’s Gov. Youngkin Offers A Republican Path On Pre-K
The public wins when Democrats and Republicans are both offering principled solutions to pressing challenges. That’s too rarely been the case when it comes to early childhood education. For a public seeking more accessible, appealing, and affordable options, the political response has disappointed. Democrats have offered expensive, heavily regulated plans to jam more four- and five-year-olds into…
August 17, 2023
The ‘Utah Family Miracle’ and Why It Matters
Utah ranks at the top of many rankings of state performance across America. But perhaps the Beehive State is best known for its top rankings on the economic front. The “Utah economic miracle” — marked by exceptional economic growth, a favorable business climate and high rates of economic mobility — has garnered attention across the…
August 12, 2023
Why Ending Child Services Is the New Defund the Police
Can you imagine if the New York Police Department invited Defund the Police activists to train their officers? That’s what the New York State Family Court and the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) are doing. In a June webinar for almost 400 ACS workers, parents, child attorneys and family court judges, advocates who want to…
August 1, 2023
Can AI Make People Want to Have Children?
Self-help gurus love to tell people to visualize their goals. Tony Robbins says, “Starting your day without visualizing your goal is like starting your day without breakfast.” In this space, it’s not just about figuring out where you’re going, but actually picturing your future self — how that person will feel, what that person might…
July 17, 2023
The Problem with Lived Experience
“The shift among nonprofits and funders towards valuing lived experience has been a journey,” Anna Verghese, executive director of the Audacious Group, told the Chronicle of Philanthropy earlier this spring. Verghese, whose group includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, and the Skoll Foundation, says this shift has been “the result of generations…
July 15, 2023
Yonkers’ Only Charter School Illustrates Just How Broken the System Is
To what lengths will teachers’ unions and their allies go to destroy charter schools? Eduardo LaGuerre and Sobeida Cruz are in the process of finding out. The couple raised their three children in Yonkers. It wasn’t the best public school district, but they hired tutors to fill in the gaps. Two decades ago — when…
July 3, 2023
Child Welfare’s Ideological Enforcer
University of Houston professor Alan Dettlaff is the founder of upEND, a movement dedicated to abolishing child protective services and foster care because of their alleged systemic racism. Dettlaff is active on social media, where he spends his time attacking rigorous academic research, encouraging social media mobs to insult others in the field, and even demanding…