Kate Bierly is a Higher Education Policy Analyst at Next Generation Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Originally from California and now a proud Texan, Kate is dedicated to advancing policies that promote freedom and opportunity in higher education.
Yesterday I stood alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in Austin as he announced a sweeping effort to keep hostile foreign influence out of Texas classrooms. The governor called for legislation prohibiting public schools from accepting foreign money or partnering with foreign governments, and proposed barring H-1B workers from those schools. His message was clear: Hostile...
The University of Michigan has discovered that the best way to prepare students for adulthood is to protect them from anything that might make them uncomfortable. Beginning in fall 2027, the university’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts plans to shield first-year students from the consequences of their first-semester grades. Students’ letter grades will...
During a recent Texas Senate Higher Education Committee hearing, lawmakers asked an important question: Is Texas doing enough to protect our universities from hostile foreign influence? The executive director of the newly established Texas Research Security Council, Kevin Gamache, Ph.D., answered in the affirmative. HB 127, he told lawmakers, “provides the flexibility for the universities...
A few weeks ago, I received a call from a very frustrated friend. She is exactly the kind of teacher every parent hopes their child gets. She is dedicated, thoughtful, and has high expectations for her students. The issue that prompted her call was not a disagreement over curriculum or school resources, but ice cream....
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents received widespread attention when it voted in February 2024 to close its Qatar campus. Many viewed it as a decisive stand against foreign influence and national security risks. But in reality, the “closure” is far less conclusive than advertised. While the Texas A&M name and standalone branding...
Replacing America’s declining schools of education. It’s time to dismantle one of the most degraded sectors in American higher education: schools of education. The colleges responsible for training and certifying the majority of our nation’s teachers have become factories for mediocrity and indoctrination—the embodiment of what Allan Bloom termed “the closing of the American mind.”...
Every Friday at Tehran University, thousands gather on campus for prayer. When the sermon ends, the chants begin: “Death to America.” And yet, Texas universities maintain active academic partnerships with that same institution and its affiliated network. The question Americans should be asking is not whether Iran wants nuclear weapons — it does — but...
The workgroup numbers for the Texas State Board of Education are finally out, and they reveal a historic milestone for our state’s education system. As the SBOE moves toward the completion of this monumental process, it is clear that they have assembled a team with more history experts and more frontline Texas teachers than ever...
Lincoln’s natural rights statesmanship should be our guide. If Hayek taught us to inquire about who ought to decide and Lincoln taught us to ask to what end, then the question of immigration compels us toward a third and inescapable question: Where is the line drawn? The principles of subsidiarity and federalism demand that matters should be resolved...
If economist Friedrich Hayek taught us to as who ought to decide, and Abraham Lincoln taught us to as to what end, then the question of immigration compels us to ask a third and inescapable question: Where is the line drawn? In the instance of Minneapolis, the line is both wrongly drawn, and drawn at...
In my earlier op-ed, I argued—drawing on economist Friedrich Hayek—that the Department of Education embodies the fatal flaw of all central planners: the illusion that distant authorities can gather, process, and act on local knowledge better than the people on the ground. Hayek’s central insight is about who should rule; decisions should be pushed down...
“The Department of Education is being torn apart in real time,” the New York Times declared this week. The Trump administration has kicked off the boldest federal education shake-up in 45 years, carving up its core functions across Labor, State, Interior, and HHS. To understand why this was inevitable, we must go back to the...