Outside the Beltway

Yet another example of the foolishness of having firearms in the schoolhouse.

Students across the country are staging 17-minute protests at 10 am in their time zones.

Kids are more likely to be killed driving to school than shot while there. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and prevent them.

Mike Jeffcoat rejected a prospect, in writing, on account of marijuana being legal in his state, adding, “You can thank your liberal politicians.”

The faculty would like to strip away a 20-year-old honor in light of several statements in violation of the institution’s core values.

If a law enforcement officer with 30 years of experience can’t stop an active school shooter, what makes anyone think a teacher with a gun can?

President Trump is pressing the idea of arming teachers to stop shootings in schools.

The Department of Education announced yesterday that it will no longer investigate civil rights complaints from transgender students regarding bathroom access in public schools.

Two classic pieces of American Literature have been banned from the curriculum in Duluth, Minnesota. This is a mistake.

Combining universal and mandatory (and free) college-board exams with a program for targeting college recruitment of disadvantaged groups could–if coupled with a commensurate financial commitment by the state to such groups–go some distance in bringing more qualified economically disadvantaged groups into higher education. 

The school district in Biloxi, Mississippi has removed ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ from the 8th-grade reading list because it “makes people uncomfortable.”

A stupid comment about Hurricane Harvey cost a Florida professor his job.

The Supreme Court ruled today that states may not exclude church-run schools from an aid program with a wholly secular purpose.

A Federal appellate court has ruled that a transgender student must be allowed to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.

Musings on the costs of college.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday in a case dealing with whether Missouri can deny a religious school from participating in a program to make school playgrounds safer.

When a prominent political scientist committed suicide yesterday, I was deeply struck by how much he was like not only me but most of the people in my professional circle.

The Supreme Court has decided to return the case involving a transgender student’s right to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity to the Fourth Circuit rather than deciding it during this term.

Not surprisingly, the Trump Administration has revoked guidelines to public schools that required accommodation of transgender students.

Despite two Republican defections, Betsy DeVos was confirmed today as Secretary of Education.

Journalistic malpractice has real consequences.

In a somewhat surprising opinion from Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court upheld the University of Texas’s race-based admissions program.

Begun, the bathroom wars have.

My latest for War on The Rocks, “Professional Military Education and the Rigor Problem, has posted.

More accurately, some thoughts on commentary about higher ed.

A divided Supreme Court heard argument today in a case involving affirmative action in college admissions that is before the Court for the second time in two years.

Going to or, preferably, graduating from college makes it far more likely you’ll have a job. The numbers don’t lie.

Protests by students at Princeton are causing some people to finally pay attention to some inconvenient truths about America’s 28th President.

Paradoxically, the children of affluent parents are less happy than those of the poor.

The racial saga at Mizzou has not been solved with the ouster of the president and chancellor.

Rolling Stone faces yet another legal headache over last year’s story about a campus rape that never took place.

Massive boycotts and protests likely spell the end of Tim Wolfe’s tenure as president.

Nude photos of hundreds of students in one Colorado high school are being distributed.

Instead of eliminating the Department of Education, Ben Carson wants to give it a new, bizarre, and dangerous mission.

When may I shoot a student?

Up to 13 people are dead and as many 20 injured after another mass shooting on a college campus.

A Texas 9th Grader named Ahmed Mohammed was arrested because school officials and police refused to believe that the clock he built wasn’t a bomb.

International relations prof mostly assign readings by male scholars. Female profs are slightly less likely to do so.

The National Labor Relations Board refused to certify an effort by athletes at Northwestern University to unionize.

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to wade back into the thorny issue of race and higher education.

A proposed California law would require all students who attend public school to be vaccinated, with limited exemptions for medical reasons.

Lee Siegel takes to the NYT to explain “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans.”

A wealthy alumnus has given Harvard $400 million, sparking a heated debate.