Let the Kids Rule School Boards

In the Midst of a Bipartisan Attack on Their Educational Rights, It’s Time for Young People to Fight Back

California kids, do you follow the news about the culture wars over the boards that oversee your schools?

If you do, you’ll see these wars portrayed as political contests between groups that want to take education in different directions. You’ll see reports about loud conflicts between progressives and right-wingers, and fights between parents’ groups and teachers’ unions.

But you won’t hear much about the role of students in these debates. Because there isn’t one. School boards are meetings of adult politicians; kids are rarely even present (much less heard) in those loud …

by Joe Mathews | November 14, 2023

A Mid-Century Playbook for Saving Progressive American Education

Fifty Years Ago, Parents United to Get the Far-Right John Birch Society Out of Their Schools

by Matthew Dallek | September 19, 2023

This May, an email landed in my inbox. The correspondent, who’d come across my new book on the John Birch Society, wanted to share how members of this far-right anticommunist …

Who Needs Student Debt When You Can Get Together for a ‘Conversation’?

The 19th-Century Women Who Educated Themselves Outside the Ivory Tower Offer Inspiration for Learning Today

by Emily R. Zarevich | September 11, 2023

On a dark, chilly evening in November 1839, a woman in Boston, Massachusetts, convened a party at her friend’s house. That might seem an unremarkable event, but this was not …

California, Keep Your Schools Open. No Matter What

Floods, Fires, Strikes, and More Cause Closures—And Students Are Hurting

by Joe Mathews | April 4, 2023

We may have very good reasons to close our local K-to-12 schools for a day or two, or even for a week.

But we should keep them open anyway.

That’s because, in …

California Sticks Its Schoolkids’ Futures in a Vise

Even with Record Education Funding, Escalating Retirement Costs and Expensive New Demands Have Brought School Districts to the Brink

by Joe Mathews | August 20, 2018

Don’t squeeze your kids too hard as you send them off to another school year, because the state of California is already squeezing your kids hard enough to hurt their …

The Verdict Is in—California’s Dickensian Courts Are Failing Us

Our Clogged Legal System Creates Overcrowded Prisons, Underfunded Schools, and Housing Shortages

By Joe Mathews | May 8, 2017

Dig deep enough into any of California’s biggest problems, and you’ll eventually hit upon a common villain: our court system.

California’s housing shortage, its poverty, its poor business climate, and …

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