The title is ironic given that the platform opposes school choice, the one policy that allows students regardless of ZIP code to get the education they deserve. Opposition to school choice is not an isolated policy, however; the platform conflates public schools with all education and assumes that the only way to improve education in this country is to throw more funding at public schools rather than find different avenues that allow students, teachers, and communities to thrive.

“For too long,” the platform states, “we have short-changed our children by underinvesting in our nation’s public schools and in our higher education system.” One problem: There is no evidence suggesting that U.S. schools are in any way underfunded, despite the persistence of the myth that they are.

As of July 2024, per the Education Data Initiative, American schools spend an average of $17,280 per student per year, which amounts to $857.2 billion a year in total spending. For context, the average U.S. private school tuition in 2024 was just $12,832 per year.

If public schools are spending far more per student than private schools are, how can they be underfunded? If more funding were the answer, why would test scores have stayed flat or even dropped over the last two decades as inflation-adjusted spending has doubled? Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz knows something about this; in his state of Minnesota, elementary test scores dropped below the national average for the first time in decades in 2022 despite the Walz administration having thrown more state funding at public schools. […]

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After a full week of isolated “preparation,” President Joe Biden committed political suicide Thursday night in the first presidential debate. He struggled to put together a coherent sentence, with former President Donald Trump at one point telling moderators he was unsure what Biden was trying to say. And while Trump delivered a tempered and strong performance, Republicans cannot assume their polling and debate performances will be enough to win this November. The party must keep its foot on the pedal of ballot operations.

Biden’s performance rocked the left-wing apparatus, with the left fretting that he should not and cannot be the Democratic nominee. Biden spent the night incoherently rambling, muddling words, lying at least 20 times, and, when not speaking, standing with his mouth agape. […]

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Most Americans’ eyes tend to glaze over at these lofty projections of ever-growing health spending — or the long-term fiscal predicament it causes. A new study, however, provides much more tangible evidence as to the true effects of rising health care costs. In some cases, it costs people their jobs.

The study, released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, attempts to get behind the reasons health costs increase. In some cases, rising health care costs could result from people in an area becoming wealthier and therefore spending more money on care. The researchers controlled for this variable by examining areas where hospitals merged — because such mergers are associated with increasing prices but no commensurate increase in health care quality. […]

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More Texas babies than ever in recent history are escaping pre-term murder after the state enacted a heartbeat law in 2021, but corporate media are using a new study that blames the lifesaving protections for a jump in infant mortality to vilify pro-life policies and promote Democrats’ extreme abortion agenda.

The data, published in JAMA Pediatrics this week, claims there was an 8.3 percent increase in infant deaths in the Lone Star State after the lifesaving law, which bars abortion beyond the presence of a fetal heartbeat except in certain cases, went into effect in September 2021. […]

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Lucy Letby, who worked for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) in a neonatal intensive care unit, is being retried for the attempted murder of one of her patients. Last year, a jury convicted Letby of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others, while acquitting her of two murders and deadlocking on the murder of four babies.

We may never know the specific circumstances behind each of the tragic deaths Letby is associated with. But regardless of whether she was to blame for some, or none, of the children who passed, it’s very clear what is to blame for all of them: Britain’s National Health Service. […]

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Two federal judges enjoined portions of President Joe Biden’s latest student loan bailout scheme on Monday. Simultaneously, another federal judge heard arguments on the constitutionality of the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel and prosecutors’ efforts to gag Donald Trump. Meanwhile, on Monday, Hunter Biden’s legal team filed three new briefs in the Delaware federal court where a jury recently convicted him on three counts related to his purchase of a gun.

The Supreme Court added to the busy legal news day by announcing it would hand down decisions from the remaining cases this term on Thursday and Friday, in addition to the previously scheduled Wednesday decision day. Here’s your lawsplainer for all these developments. […]

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Smartphones are so bad for kids that even far-left Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom just called for them to be banned from schools.

This follows the emergence of cell phone use as a big issue of our time, with the promotion of kids’ mental health tied to the subtraction of the smartphone. The consequences of ubiquitous smartphone use in childhood are vast and unfolding. Yet, given new research and data, we know definitively that our youth are more anxious and depressed than ever, and this is tied to the rise of smartphone use during their years of formation and growth.

Many leaders are sounding the alarm on the deficiencies of American children in their interactions with the world. New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has rightly called this phenomenon “the great rewiring of childhood.” For most kids today, childhood is less about running, playing, and feeling the stuff of the Earth; it is now more about information transmission and faux socialization through an inadequate medium, the smartphone. […]

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“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.” So said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry when he signed a bill to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom in the state.

The Louisiana law has caused outrage from the left and the liberal intelligentsia. The ACLU has already announced it will be challenging the law in court as an unconstitutional establishment of religion. David French argued in The New York Times that rather than respecting the rule of law, Landry is defying it because the Supreme Court already ruled on the issue in Stone v. Graham in 1980. “To teach respect for the rule of law, he’s defying the Supreme Court?” French asked incredulously. […]

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In California, voters with no government ID can still vote so long as they show a gym membership, credit card, utility bill, or other low-security identification.

Individuals wishing to register to vote in California are prompted on the secretary of state’s website to provide their driver’s license identification number and/or the last four digits of their Social Security number. But both sections give applicants the option to select a box indicating they lack that form of identification. […]

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Nothing proves that what goes around comes around like presidential debates. In their last meeting, Joe Biden gratuitously slammed Donald Trump for his Covid response. In their upcoming debate this Thursday, Trump should return the favor and remind viewers of the effects Biden’s open-border policy has had on America’s fentanyl crisis.

In 2020’s final presidential debate, Biden attacked Trump for America’s 220,000 Covid deaths, saying, “Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America,” then adding that “the president still has no comprehensive plan.” […]

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