More news outlets are reporting what many of us have been pointing out for years — the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t actually what caused academic achievement to plummet; it was occurring…
New research shows that Americans’ perception of quality teachers is generally more meaningful than whether they’re wearing red or blue. A recent nationally representative survey study, with funding in part…
Minnesota’s troubling and persistent literacy challenges finally spurred the legislature to act during the 2023 legislative session when the state passed the Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act. Inspired…
Minneapolis Public Schools, the state’s third-largest district, is continuing plans to build a brand new $105 million school to rehome Anishinabe Academy. The PK-5 school “is dedicated to serving and…
The Minnesota Office of Higher Education’s latest student debt report shows that students who earned certificates and associate degrees from the state’s technical and community colleges completed school with significantly…
Amid the last-minute flurry in this spring’s legislative session to push bills to the governor’s desk, one bipartisan bill made the cut: a push to heavily regulate social media for…
Minnesota should take the recent offer of the National Assessment Governing Board and opt into the newly announced, federally funded expanded high school tests. Last week, the National Assessment Governing…
Critics of private school choice have long contended that such policies drain public school budgets. A new analysis of two decades of federal spending data says otherwise. Marty Lueken and…
Here’s the bad news: Minnesota is still nowhere close to pre-COVID student achievement in either math or reading. Now, here’s the silver lining. Minnesota is (barely) on the road to…
Last month, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala. indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on 11 criminal counts — wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank,…
As governors from both parties announce they intend to participate in the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), Minnesota Democrats are doubling down. Canned responses from legislators including Rep.…
The newest iteration of the Minnesota Principals Survey, conducted in November 2025 and newly released in Spring 2026, can give policymakers a glimpse into the perspectives of principals, assistant principals,…
Happy Statehood Day, Minnesota! Minnesota officially became a state in 1858, making today Minnesota’s 168th birthday. The North Star State’s growth has been full of ups and downs, but one…
A spring teacher survey finds strong support for education savings accounts (ESAs) among K-12 educators, including 74 percent of public school teachers, which is consistent with last year’s results. Conducted…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that she intends to opt the state into the new federal scholarship tax credit program, making her another Democratic state leader to do…
Beginning in fall 2026, every K-12 public school in Minnesota will be required to align instruction with the state’s new social studies standards. School boards will have to decide how…
In 2018, the Center for American Progress studied high school graduation requirements in each state and compared them to basic entrance requirements to universities in that state. The verdict? Most…
Even though high schoolers need at least 8 hours of sleep per night, over three in four high schoolers are classified as having insufficient sleep schedules. Unsurprisingly, students who sleep…
National Teacher Appreciation Week is a time to recognize the commitment and impact of educators across the country. But beyond the celebratory headlines (guilty!), new survey data points to a…
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! This week, parents and students are hopefully flooding teachers’ desks with notes, gift cards, and kitschy mugs. But what are the policies that teachers would really…
National Teacher Appreciation Week kicked off yesterday, with today recognized as National Teacher Day. It was first celebrated in 1953 after Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded Congress to set aside a day…
Have we squandered one of our greatest treasures?
The premise that higher spending will yield better academic results has, in practice, fallen short. So, too, has the idea that more funding reliably translates into higher teacher salaries. With…
School choice continues a 250-year tradition of American education.