WHAT WE’RE READING
Jill Barshay discusses the “stunning decline” in the share of Americans who believe that a college education is “very important,” even as enrollment data appear to indicate students are still going to college:
Americans may be increasingly critical of higher education without being ready to give up on it. People can believe that college is too expensive, too political, overrated or no longer worth what it costs—and still believe that a college degree is the best bet for themselves or their own children.
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Eden Shamy reports on how the race for Texas House District 118—targeted by Democrats—pits an architect of Texas’s voucher program against a political organizer aiming to end vouchers, the STAAR test, and state takeovers.
EXTRA CREDIT:
Chad Aldeman, “Child Poverty Is Down. And Yet So Are Reading Scores.”
Jenny Anderson, “The Two Things That Broke Parents’ Trust in Schools”
Thomas Arnett, “Most Venture Capital and Philanthropy Put Education Innovation on the Wrong Clock”
Nicole Ault, “Lowering the Bar for High-School Graduates”
Laura Bornfreund, “Five Things Principals Can Do to Protect Kindergarten’s Three Indispensables”
Aaron Churchill and Chad L. Aldis, “How Funding and Accountability Reforms Helped Fix Charter Schools in Ohio”
Michelle Croft and Carrie Hahnel, “Stop Perfecting the Rating. Start Building the Support.”
Tim Daly, “We Need to Talk About 504-Maxxing”
Mike Goldstein and Sean Geraghty, “The $42,000 Question”
Nora Gordon, “Should MoCo Teachers Get a Special Property Tax Credit?”
Ian Kingsbury, “Let Charter Schools Be as Flexible as Microschools”
John Kristof, “School Lunch and School Choice”
Marty Lueken, “The Impossible Standard for ESAs: Zero Misuse”
Bruno V. Manno, “Career Pathways and the Unfinished Work of Excellence”
Chris Minnich, “AI-Powered Instruction Needs Precision. Right Now, It’s Not Even Close.”
Rachel M. Perera, “What the Trump Administration’s Recent Guidance on School Discipline Gets Wrong”
Michael J. Petrilli, “AI, Messy Jobs, and the Future of Schooling”
Andrew Rotherham, “Four Kinds of Teachers in the AI Moment, Plus Science of Reading Has a Gym Membership Problem. And Fish!”
Tresha Ward, “New York City Already Has Integrated Schools. The Mayor Should Visit Them.”
Daniel Weisberg, “Make the Governor Responsible for New York’s Schools”
Jordan Weissmann, “How One City Made Gains on School Integration Without Trying”
Conor P. Williams, “AI & Back-to-School Night: Anxious Parents, Nervous Teachers and Chill Coaches”
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation. Click here to subscribe for sharp analysis of the week’s biggest K–12 debates, curated commentary from across the ed-policy world, and lively discussion—including reader reactions and pushback.
