Recent Viewpoints

Kerby Anderson The National Assessment of Educational Progress is often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. For most of the states, this hasn’t been a report card you would want to show anyone. But four southern states stand out because they have shown improvement. Alabama and Louisiana had math and reading scores higher than they were in 2019, before Covid. Mississippi fourth graders topped the country in math and reading. If you look at recovery statistics, Alabama was first…

Penna Dexter To address what they see as the problem of social inequities between students, education bureaucrats have implemented “reforms” in grading practices aimed at promoting ”equity” in student outcomes. In a new survey conducted by the Thomas Fordham Institute, an education-policy think tank, 52 percent of teachers said their school or district had adopted at least one of these so-called  “equitable” grading policies. The survey reveals a distinct lack of enthusiasm among teachers for these policies. One of the…

Kerby Anderson Yascha Mounk has been watching the battle over the impact of social media on young Americans. On one side are psychologists, like Jonathan Haidt, who has written about this for many years and has published his book, The Anxious Generation. On the other side are the skeptics who remind us that we tend to exaggerate the impact of new technologies. Mounk says, “In this battle, I have until now chosen to be a non-combatant.” What changed his mind?…

Kerby Anderson Kenneth Rogoff is a Harvard University economics professor. On an X post, he identified himself as the Harvard economist who predicted back in 2018 that “A decade from now, Bitcoin is more likely to be $100 than $100,000.” He obviously, got that prediction wrong since Bitcoin has consistently been at or above $100,000 for months. He explained his mistake by saying that he was far too optimistic about the U.S. coming to its senses about sensible crypto regulation. As…

Kerby Anderson David Brooks writes in The New York Times about “America’s New Segregation.” He isn’t talking about racial segregation but instead is focusing on class segregation. Essentially, we are talking about self-segregation. He quotes the book Diminished Democracy which observed that Americans used to join cross-class community organizations like the Rotary or the Elks clubs. But gradually, highly educated people left them for professional organizations filled with others more like themselves. Dan McLaughlin agrees with David Brooks but then…

Kerby Anderson Six months ago, I recorded a commentary on the idea of universal basic income. UBI is a fiscal program to pay a regular income to everyone without any conditions. At the time, I quoted research that showed that giving people free money didn’t improve their situation. I wanted to return to this discussion because of an article in The Argument, which is a new left-wing publication with an impressive list of contributors. Kelsey Piper writes that “Giving People…

Kerby Anderson Today is Labor Day. Although this day was set aside to honor trade and labor organizations, I believe it is a day when Christians can also consider how they view work and labor. The Bible has quite a bit to say about how we are to view work, and so I devote part of a chapter in my book, Making the Most of Your Money, to a biblical view of work. First, we are to work unto the Lord in…

Penna Dexter The year was 1977. I was a baby Christian living in a suburb of Los Angeles. I volunteered to man the book table at an event at our church put on by a new organization: Focus on the Family. Before the program even started, attendees were stopping at my table, buying books with titles like DARE TO DISCPLINE, HIDE OR SEEK, PREPARING FOR ADOLESCENCE, WHAT WIVES WISH THEIR HUSBANDS KNEW ABOUT WOMEN.  A kind man approached to thank…

Kerby Anderson Jeff Dornick argues that “We Need to Rethink AI Before It Destroys What It Means to Be Human.” He begins by reminding us that America was built on the foundational belief that we are created in God’s image. We are free agents and should not be managed and should not be made to be obsolete. He then shows how AI and robots will be taking over more and more human functions. He talks about the self-driving robotaxi and…

Kerby Anderson Earlier this month a federal judge struck down a government regulation that protected the Little Sisters of the Poor. Once again, they will have to go to court. The case has been going on for more than a decade. When we discussed it recently, one of my guests said she first heard about it and studied it while in law school. When the Obama administration crafted the Affordable Care Act, they required that employer-sponsored insurance cover the cost…

Kerby Anderson President Trump has been promoting the positive impact of his tariffs, while his critics argue that ultimately Americans will be paying the price for his tariffs. The editors of the Wall Street Journal point to inflation data to argue that American households will be paying. However, they also acknowledge that an increase in consumer prices hasn’t shown up yet, perhaps because companies had large cash reserves. Tim Carney argues that if you dig into the data, the question…