A New Digital Divide
What to know: U.S. schools are realizing their mistake, “as screens saturate classrooms,” and they’re going back to physical books.
The TPPF take: “Ed tech” overpromised and under-delivered.
“The amount of time students are spending glued to taxpayer-subsidized screens in the classroom is hard to determine, but one estimate puts it at more than 20% of instructional time—a number that is only growing post-pandemic,” says TPPF’s David Dunmoyer. “But now that the Covid-19 dust has settled, we have the data, and it overwhelmingly shows that school-issued devices are worsening student outcomes—and it’s not even close.”
For more on ed tech, click here.
Boycotts and Football
What to know: The NAACP, unhappy with states that have redistricted their congressional representation, has called for black athletes to boycott southern schools.
The TPPF take: The response so far has mostly been crickets from college-bound athletes.
“Young men and women who have spent years competing and proving they are the best at what they do may have difficulty understanding the Democrats’ argument that black people can’t be elected to Congress unless they are in segregated districts where they can only vote for each other,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester.
For more on college athletics, click here.
No Matter How Small
What to know: Arizona has passed a bill that will mandate child support from the date of conception, not just from the date of a child’s birth.
The TPPF take: Fatherhood begins at conception.
“The conversation around fatherhood tends to start at the birth certificate,” says TPPF’s Hannah Bruck. “That includes child support orders and enforcement mechanisms. That architecture matters. But it starts nine months too late. A Texas single mother with one infant can expect to spend nearly half her annual income on base costs and childcare alone in her child’s first years of life.”
For more on fatherhood, click here.