Here’s How To Actually Reverse The Baby Bust
The best way to promote fertility isn’t funding parenthood. It’s stopping the government programs that discourage people from having babies.The best way to promote fertility isn’t funding parenthood. It’s stopping the government programs that discourage people from having babies.How to make American education great again
Imagine these words as the first speech delivered by Donald Trump’s incoming secretary of education.
Today, I am here to deliver bitter medicine: American education has failed. Teachers and parents, administrators and government — and even students — all bear some responsibility.
Just as Sputnik spurred the urgency that sent Americans to the moon, we need a bold initiative to revolutionize education.
The most common explanations for our educational crisis are inadequate funding, overuse of standardized testing, and systemic prejudice. They are false.
Our schools do not lack funding. No country spends more on public education.
The poor results of standardized tests indicate our failures; they are not the cause.
Our schools are not prejudiced. The most aggressive education reforms since 1955 directly aimed to eliminate systemic discrimination.
The diagnosis
For decades, we ignored signs of trouble, but the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the depth of our challenges. The problems are so pervasive and complex that there is no quick fix. We cannot merely repair; we must rebuild.
Since 2020, American families have struggled mightily. The declining quality of education prompted affluent families to opt out of public schools, leaving middle- and working-class families with diminished resources and influence to push for reform. States' refusal to enact school choice reforms widened the wealth gap and limited generational mobility.
But lower- and middle-class families bear some responsibility, too. The rise of single-parent households, less common among affluent families, has been catastrophic. When the only adult in the home works up to 60 hours a week to make ends meet, there is little time for homework help, PTA meetings, or engaging with school officials. Even in households with two working parents, time and energy are often in short supply.
Teachers, for their part, have good reason to despair. Despite the monumental importance of their work, many are underpaid. They face administrators who value standardized test scores above all else.
Meanwhile, declining standards for decorum and discipline, often justified in the name of “social justice,” have made schools unsafe for both teachers and students.
Violence and insubordination create an environment unfit for serious learning. Some parents treat schools as day-care centers or demand good grades for minimal effort. Worse, parents of disruptive students often refuse to ensure that their children do not rob others of the opportunity to learn.
Yet teachers, too, have failed. They inflate grades to keep their jobs but do no favors for students unprepared for future challenges. This, in turn, lowers the quality of education for students ready for more advanced work, driving gifted students out of public schools.
Another harsh truth is that many teachers are unprepared for the job. The education system has failed for so long that many teachers have never mastered the material they are supposed to teach. Colleges steer future educators toward education majors, where coursework focuses more on leftist “social justice” ideology than on subject mastery. Some graduates believe their mission is to “dismantle” an “unjust” society by creating anti-American activists.
When these activist teachers enter classrooms, they often abandon their duty to transmit America’s culture, knowledge, and values. Instead, they teach students to disdain their nation, its people, its past, and its way of life. This undermines social cohesion and deprives disadvantaged students of the tools they need to succeed.
Outdated curricula exacerbate these issues. Most schools still use models from the late 20th century, failing to address how computing, the internet, and artificial intelligence have transformed how we read, write, and learn. Even in innovative schools, teachers often struggle to balance the needs of non-native, non-English speakers with those of native English speakers, diluting the educational experience for the latter.
Our colleges and universities are also broken. Admitting underprepared students has lowered academic standards nationwide. General education curricula often assume a need for remediation, leaving motivated students without the challenge or preparation they deserve.
Government-run financial aid has inflated tuition costs while diminishing the value of college degrees. Proposals to cancel student debt signal to universities that they can continue raising prices without consequence, encouraging predatory admission policies that saddle students with unmanageable debt.
The prescription
How do we revitalize American education? Nothing short of an academic Sputnik will suffice. Just as Sputnik spurred the urgency that sent Americans to the moon, we need a bold initiative to revolutionize education.
- We will create K-12 curricula prioritizing history, civics, and an understanding of our government.
- We will eliminate curricula that divide Americans by race, class, religion, sex, or sexual identity.
- We will implement school choice nationwide.
- We will end federal student loan programs, allowing private lenders to evaluate borrowers' ability to repay. Conditional lending will force colleges to lower tuition and revise admissions and program offerings.
- We will expand vocational training and enhance opportunities for gifted students.
- We will raise teacher credentialing standards to ensure advanced subject knowledge.
- We will enforce decorum and discipline in schools. Uniforms will unify student bodies, and measures like suspension and expulsion will ensure that classrooms are conducive to learning.
- We will revise college accreditation standards to reflect post-graduation success and employment metrics.
- We will penalize public colleges and universities that engage in discriminatory admissions practices.
And that is just the beginning.
The destiny of our nation depends on education. The effort to revitalize our schools must be as bold as our aspirations. Together, we will bring American education into the 21st century. Together, we will make American education great again.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearEducation and made available via RealClearWire.
Kamala Harris hemorrhaging support among young men — and Planned Parenthood's deleted meme hints at why
Democrats are panicking over recent polling data indicating Kamala Harris is not only deeply unpopular with American men, broadly speaking, but increasingly with young male voters.
The Harris boosters at Planned Parenthood Action recently posted then quickly deleted a meme that unintentionally illustrated the alienating approach that might be causing Democrats' retention problems with young men.
The PPA posted the "Girl Explaining" meme, which features a disheveled young woman with an exposed midriff yelling into the face of an exhausted and ostensibly apathetic young man at a concert.
The misleading caption for the post was:
PROJECT 2025 IS A COMPLETE POLITICAL TAKEOVER OF OUR RIGHTS. THEY WANT DONALD TRUMP AND JD VANCE TO WIN SO THEY CAN BAN ABORTION NATIONWIDE. THAT'S WHY WE NEED TO VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS AND TIM WALZ, TWO POLITICIANS WHO HAVE SPENT THEIR CAREERS FIGHTING FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS.
Contrary to the suggestion of the pro-abortion outfit, Trump has disavowed Project 2025 and has repeatedly underscored that he would not support a nationwide abortion ban.
'They accidentally depicted the real state of politics in 2024.'
The desperate regurgitation of these falsehoods was not, however, the most telling part of the now-deleted post. Instead, Planned Parenthood appears to have shared a meme hinting at the obliviousness of the left to the numbing affect of its hectoring of young men.
While numerous critics responded by noting the "left can't meme," a co-host from "The Right Thoughts" podcast, who goes by Enguerrand VII de Coucy on X, wrote, "It's hilarious that Planned Parenthood misunderstood this meme format to such a catastrophic degree that they accidentally depicted the real state of politics in 2024, the poor unhappy boy being shrieked at by a woke girl."
Democrats' pro-abortion, anti-Western messaging and accompanying critiques of tradition, normalcy, and masculinity — both shrieked and calmly communicated — are clearly not resonating with a great many young men.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, recently indicated that there has been a profound shift on campuses, reported Vanity Fair.
'If Donald Trump wins, this is how he wins.'
"I've been doing this for 12 years. This is not normal. The energy is off the charts. You have a younger generation, Gen Z, who experienced a lot of — they would say — lies and deceit during COVID, and a lot of their life being altered," said Kirk. "There is this pent up 'rebellion energy' that has never come out."
Kirk noted further that young men
are profoundly more conservative than people would have expected and, in fact, are the most conservative generation of young men in 50 years. They want to be part of a political movement that doesn’t hate them. Those are their words, not mine. The cultural blob of all left-wing influence has definitely had an undertone that if you’re a straight, white, Christian male, that there’s something wrong with you. Or you must apologize. Or you're a colonizer.
The Guardian reported that in 2016, 51% of young men identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party. That plummeted to 39% in 2023, and now the majority of young men want to see Republicans elected.
The leftist think tank Data for Progress noted in a report Tuesday "a significant gender divide exists among young voters, with young men showing more conservative tendencies than young women." According to Data for Progress, young men are evenly split between Harris and Trump.
Citing the apparent expertise of John Della Volpe, Vanity Fair indicated that Democrats win when they secure 60% of the youth vote — but this is far from guaranteed. While Harris has reportedly won over young women like that represented in the meme by 67% to 28%, Trump is winning Gen Z men by 58% to 37%.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the growing gender gap extends to various issues, including two issues Democrats discuss ad nauseam on the campaign trail: abortion and student debt. Neither of these issues animate or mobilize male voters anywhere as much as their female counterparts and for good reason.
Young men have increasingly been steered out of colleges — adding to their disenchantment with leftist diversity initiatives — such that women now account for 60% of all college students and carry the super-majority of student-loan debt.
Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, told the Guardian that in 2022, 49% of Gen Z men said that the U.S. had become "too soft and feminine." Last year, she said that 60% of the cohort said the same.
Blaze News previously highlighted Democratic strategist James Carville's thoughts on what might be driving this trend.
"If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election," Carville told the New York Times earlier this year. "I'm like: 'Well, 48 percent of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?'"
As if anticipating Planned Parenthood's meme, Carville added, "A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females."
"'Don't drink beer. Don't watch football. Don't eat hamburgers. This is not good for you,'" continued Carville. "The message is too feminine: 'Everything you're doing is destroying the planet. You've got to eat your peas.'"
Democrats' alienation of young men could preclude them from keeping the White House.
"It's extremely serious," Mike Madrid, a nominally Republican strategist who co-founded the pro-Harris Lincoln Project, told The Hill. "If Donald Trump wins, this is how he wins."
"This is part of a broader dynamic, a bigger trend that we've noticed and we've been watching for a longer time than both candidates have been on the national scene," added Madrid.
Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist involved with "White Dudes for Harris," told The Hill, "There is an ongoing fight about masculinity in America today and the future of masculinity and I think Democrats as a whole have not done a great job of engaging in that fight and I think we need to do a better job of elevating voices that can go have those tough conversations in spaces where those people are."
In the final stretch before Election Day, the Harris campaign is reportedly making one final appeal to young men with ads on Yahoo Sports, sport betting platforms, and on gaming sites. Time will tell whether this was a more effective strategy than spending weeks accusing young men who don't like Harris of misogyny.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Report: After 6 Years Of Measly ‘Payments,’ Most Student Loan Borrowers Owe More Than When They Started
It’s long past time for taxpayers to stop subsidizing woke indoctrination that doesn’t make students smarter — or richer.Congress Should Make Universities Pay For Handing Out Useless Degrees
America’s youth are being pushed into a one-size-fits-all college track that saddles many with debt — without preparing them for careers.Supreme Court Nukes Biden’s Unlawful Student Loan Bailout — Again
SCOTUS rejected an application from the Biden administration to vacate an injunction outlawing its new student loan bailout program.Education Department Attacks Republicans, Touts Biden’s Agenda in Official Letter
The letter from Miguel Cardona potentially violates the Hatch Act, which prohibits partisan political activity by executive branch employees.Today's top stories
www.theblaze.com
freebeacon.com