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Blog 3 Columns

  • School Choice Week: It’s Kind of a Big Deal Now

    School Choice Week: It’s Kind of a Big Deal Now0

    Next week – January 24-30 – marks the sixth annual National School Choice Week. Created to “raise awareness of quality K-12 education options for children and families in communities across the country,” the week features a whopping 16,140 events showcasing the importance of letting parents choose the education they believe best suits their child. In

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  • Saudi Cleric Issues Fatwa Against… Chess?

    Saudi Cleric Issues Fatwa Against… Chess?0

    The next Bobby Fischer may not come from the Muslim world. According to The Guardian, the token game of intellectuals now has a fatwa issued against it: “Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti has ruled that chess is forbidden in Islam, saying it encourages gambling and is a waste of time. Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh was answering a

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  • Is there a ‘positive right’ to happiness?

    Is there a ‘positive right’ to happiness?0

    An amusing citation from Margaret Thatcher reads: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” The socialists, however, were not the only ones who would run out of other people’s money. Democracies are quite capable of duplicating this feat. The question is this: What entitles us to acquire other

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  • Is Europe dying?

    Is Europe dying?0

    More people in Europe are dying than are being born, according to a new report in a major demography journal, Population and Development Review. In contrast, births exceed deaths, by significant margins, in the United States, with few exceptions. The researchers find that 17 European nations have more people dying in them than are being

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  • Go Home, Harvard. You’re Drunk.

    Go Home, Harvard. You’re Drunk.0

    Yesterday, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education issued a report aimed at reforming the college admissions process. The report’s recommendations were met with much applause from media outlets, and have been endorsed by dozens of other institutions. However, after reading through them, I find myself having a bit of a Walter Sobchak moment and thinking, “Am

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  • Gallup: Americans abandoning political parties

    Gallup: Americans abandoning political parties0

    Gallup released a poll on January 11, 2016 reporting that the percentage of Americans identifying with political parties is near historical lows. Here’s what Gallup had to say: “In 2015, for the fifth consecutive year, at least four in 10 U.S. adults identified as political independents. The 42% identifying as independents in 2015 was down

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  • Chaos in the Public Schools

    Chaos in the Public Schools0

    The superintendent of St. Paul (MN) Schools is assigning extra staff to local schools in an attempt to curb violent behavior. Most recently, a high school student gave a teacher a traumatic brain injury for interfering in a fight. Unfortunately, the St. Paul Public Schools district isn’t the only education system wrestling with discipline issues.

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  • Why a New Computer Program May Improve Writing Proficiency

    Why a New Computer Program May Improve Writing Proficiency0

    I admit to rolling my eyes when I first read the title, “Can a Curious Computer Improve Student Writing?” in Slate Magazine. “Honestly!” ran my internal conversation, “Haven’t people realized by now that students need more than a computer program to become better writers?” But I changed my mind as I read the article, primarily

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  • Truly, what if?

    Truly, what if?0

    Generally, we Americans are quite proud of our overall military history. Yes, there’s discontent and guilty consciences about Vietnam and our recent incursions into the Middle East, but even in these feelings there seems to be a presumption that America can defeat anyone, we just shouldn’t do it as much. These memes give you a

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