Under the current standards of review, 1 in 5 school districts in Texas received a D or F in their yearly evaluations. 42 percent of all Texas students are not on grade level in math, reading, science, or social studies. While all of this is happening, superintendents are earning obscene salaries and school districts are...
Higher education is losing its luster. Once a beacon of opportunity, the traditional four-year degree has seen a steep decline in public confidence, dropping from 60% of Americans expressing strong faith in 2015 to just 36% in 2024. Young men, in particular, are opting out, with only 41% of high school-educated men aged 18–24 enrolling...
China’s race to be a maritime superpower presents the greatest threat to the U.S. since the British burned down the White House in 1814. On April 24, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report on China’s naval modernization, noting that, “China’s navy is, by far, the largest of any country in East Asia, and sometime between...
Every Friday morning I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Somehow it is already May, and the Texas House will start working Saturdays tomorrow as they speed toward June 2. Meanwhile, the numbers on President Donald Trump’s first 100 days are dazzling—although...
Sometimes—though I will admit it’s rare—serious policy discussions can turn into comedy gold. In my recent op-ed, I discussed the capture of social-emotional learning (SEL) by DEI as I experienced it while in the Stanford Teacher Education Program, where I received my Master’s in Education. Apparently, my critique didn’t go over well with one of...
For years, would-be higher-education reformers have warned that America’s higher education crisis—soaring tuition, crippling student debt, and weak learning—was rooted in a dangerous myth: every high school graduate should go to college. In 2025, the proof is glaring. Public confidence in colleges has crashed to 36%, down from 57% in 2015. The college-for-all dream, though well-intentioned, has inflated...
After Texas passed the strongest anti-DEI legislation in the country last year, the faculty and administrators who opposed it predicted apocalypse. They insisted that professors would leave Texas and no talented prospects would come to replace them. They said students would wander their campuses lost in despair without DEI’s identity-based support centers and programs that...
The proposed Dallas-to-Houston bullet train, once heralded as a transformative piece of Texas infrastructure, suffered a significant setback this week. Federal officials announced the abrupt termination of a $63.9 million planning grant for the high-speed rail project, halting its momentum just months after it was awarded. This decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation signals...
The Lone Star State’s population has exploded over the last decade with no signs of slowing down, adding 612,000 new Texans just last year. While this growth has been great for our economy (world’s 8th largest), it has stressed the limits of the state’s infrastructure from roads to water and electricity. Earlier this month, it...
One day, as part of my student-teaching at Stanford, I was explaining a math lesson to a fourth-grade classroom, when a boy became disruptive. I repeated my directions to him, but then he got up from his seat and tried to bite me. Shaken up about this, I decided to bring this to my supervisor’s...
For the first time in years, Texas parents finally have access to the truth about how their schools are performing. After years of legal challenges and strategic delays by the very school districts that were being graded, the Texas Education Agency has released long-overdue school accountability ratings. This is more than just a policy update—it’s...
Texas is America’s manufacturing and energy export powerhouse. If the Trump administration envisions a true American energy renaissance on the horizon, Texas must lead. But before Texas can lead, it must get its own grid in order. Decades of federal and state subsidies—the latter now thankfully dead—have powered an overinvestment in periodic wind and solar...