Why California’s Kids Should Go on Strike

As COVID Collapses Budgets, It’s Up to Children to Save Their Schools

Dear California Kids,

Don’t let us adults destroy your futures! This time of “distance learning” and COVID-19 chaos is the opportunity of a generation—maybe a century—to fix what’s so very wrong with how California treats you. And right now, you have unprecedented power. I am begging you to use it.

Before COVID-19, California wasn’t doing well by its 9.1 million residents under age 18. Now in crisis, the state’s adults are conspiring without your input to make things even worse for you. By June’s end, your governor and legislature will likely …

by Joe Mathews | June 2, 2020

The Pioneering Cornell Anatomist Who Sought to Bring ‘Honor’ and ‘Duty’ to College Life

At the Turn of the 20th Century, Burton Green Wilder Railed Against Frivolous Activities and Thought Privileged Students Should Hold Each Other to Higher Standards

by Richard M. Reid | November 8, 2018

In 1901, Cornell University students created a new holiday on campus, called “Spring Day.”

Many faculty members objected to the holiday, but few were as visible and vocal as professor Burt …

Why College Rankings Are Anti-Diversity

To Boost Prestige, Magazines Pressure Universities to Leave Poor Students Behind

By Kim A. Wilcox | October 24, 2016

In the next several weeks, millions of high school seniors will apply to colleges and universities across the nation. If you are one of them—and if you come from a …

California’s New Education Architecture Is Already Failing

The New System Is So Incoherent That We May Not Know If It's Helping Poor Students

By Joe Mathews | October 6, 2016

Is California abandoning its poorest students?

That question would be dismissed as absurd by our state’s education leaders, especially Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education. For years, they …

Using Art to Help Undocumented Students Become More Visible, On Their Own Terms

A Poet’s Powerful Example Inspired Immigrant Students in South L.A. to Dream Bigger

By Ky-Phong Tran | July 7, 2016

For three years, I was a high school English teacher at 103rd Street and Broadway, the southernmost tip of South Los Angeles, a stone’s throw west of Watts. Many Californians …

Are Universities Cheating Millennials?

Colleges Are Churning Out Box-Checkers in an Economy that Rewards Risk-Takers

May 2, 2016

It’s official: Millennials—those between 18 and 34 years old—are the largest generation in the U.S., surpassing in numbers the formerly dominant baby boomers (51 to 69 years old). Boomers’ college …

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