Josh Barro wrote earlier this week that Vice President Kamala Harris has the remarkable fortune to run in a general election without having staked out any unpopular positions in a Democratic primary—at least not since she ran for president five long years ago. That means she enjoys the ability to claim some positions in the political center that can address her weaknesses and boost her chances of victory. “Harris’s biggest political liability,” Barro argued, “is that she may be seen as too politically extreme, and she can reposition herself toward the center without penalty ..read more

Jonathan Kozol leads a discussion on race with high schoolers in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 2016. His latest book continues a career-long quest for equality in education. Jonathan Kozol is a legend. His work is like an eclipse, casting a long shadow over the decisionmaking and motivations of many people I respect, admire, and have learned from. Writers love words and, in a recent New York Times interview, Kozol recounted that the poet Archibald MacLeish, who taught him at Harvard, encouraged him to use strong ones. “There is a tendency to assume that the extremes of expression are always wron ..read more

Dr. Anthony Fauci waits to take the podium after President Donald Trump addresses the White House press corps in April 2020, just weeks into the Covid-19 outbreak. The nation came to rely on Fauci as a guide through the coronavirus pandemic, but his messaging was muddied in a stew of science and politics. “Experts should be on tap, not on top,” Winston Churchill advised. The adage leaped to mind while reading the self-indulgent memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, by Anthony Fauci, M.D. Both the book’s title and the degree following the author’s name make it clear Fauci want ..read more

Coming out of the Republican National Convention, in its fixation on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the GOP platform, the education commentariat seems to be getting some big things wrong as it contemplates a possible second Trump administration. This isn’t unusual, given education’s progressive bent and the field’s inclination to caricature Republicans. But it’s especially significant, given that (as I write) RealClearPolling reports that the aggregated betting markets give Trump a 60% chance to claim the White House this fall. I’ll have more to say about all of this in the fal ..read more

Nick Melvoin, member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss LAUSD’s decision to ban cell phone use during the school day, which will take effect in January 2025. Doug Lemov detailed the effects of increased cell phone usage for Education Next in “Take Away Their Cellphones … So we can rewire schools for belonging and achievement.” Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or here on Education Next. — Education Next The post The Education Exchange: Los Angeles Says No More Cell Phones in Class appeared first on ..read more

Three decades ago, the College Board “recentered” the SAT. Now, it’s “recalibrating” Advanced Placement. Though both adjustments in these enormously influential testing programs can be justified by psychometricians, both are also probable examples of what the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan famously termed “defining deviancy down.” Citing Durkheim, Moynihan was referring mostly to crime that was rising across much of the country when he wrote in 1993, but his seminal essay addressed education, too. He observed that America was growing accustomed to low achievement and failing schools—this ..read more

Textbooks tell us that political parties pursue power, interest groups protect their welfare, and think tanks conduct research on policy-relevant topics. These distinctions have never been absolute. Historically, parties adopted platforms designed to win elections; think tanks have always had a partisan coloration. But lines that differentiate these types of political organizations blur today as never before. This election year, Democrats are accusing Donald Trump of running on a platform written by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank known for its policy advocacy. They poin ..read more

Nina Thorup Dalgaard, a senior researcher at VIVE, The Danish Center for Social Science Research, joins the Education Exchange to discuss the rise in students receiving special education, and how meeting the individual needs of all those children has become more challenging. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or here on Education Next. — Education Next The post The Education Exchange: More U.S., European Students in Special Education appeared first on Education Next ..read more

In Late Admissions, Glenn Loury offers readers an unvarnished look into his life. In a photograph of the John Marshall Harlan High School chess team, I stand in the lower right corner, smiling in a striped collared shirt. I appear to be looking just to the side of the camera. Compared to my six classmates, I look like a mere child who has somehow found his way into the picture. But my presence there is authentic. Due to a combination of intellectual precociousness and a registration error that led me to skip a year and a half of elementary school, I entered high school at age twelve. Precocio ..read more

Open enrollment in public schools is a form of school choice that allows students to attend schools other than the one assigned to them by their school district. Though often less visible than policies such as charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts, K–12 open enrollment is rising in popularity across the nation, and 73 percent of school parents support it. As of 2023, 43 states permit or mandate some degree of open enrollment, but only 16 states have strong open-enrollment laws. Since 2021, 10 states have significantly improved their open-enrollment laws. For example, Id ..read more