Are You Kidding Me?

New research shows students in 2023 are making less progress in reading and math than their counterparts were prior to the pandemic. Rather than catching up after the return to in-person schooling, students fell even further behind. How can this be and what can we do about it? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and visitin...

Single-parent households are more common in the U.S. than in any other country. Can we afford to ignore this reality when discussing issues of poverty and economic mobility? This week, Naomi and Ian are joined by Melissa Kearney, Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and author of the new book “The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behin...

Over the summer, the California State Board of Education proposed its new math framework, a nearly 1,000 page document that has generated considerable controversy. While some are criticizing the overt political content within the framework, the more important question is: Will the framework actually help students learn math? This week, Naomi and Ian are joined by Brian Conrad, mathematics professo...

On October 2nd, England’s Department of Education announced it will back all head teachers who ban smartphone use in schools, even during break times. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, during the 2019-20 school year, 77% of public schools in the U.S. said they did not allow phone use during school hours, yet many schools still struggle to enforce such policies. W...

75 percent of 10 year-old black children are not at grade-level proficiency in math or reading. How is this possible? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Robert Cherry, adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the new book The State of the Black Family: Sixty Years of Tragedies and Failures—and New Initiatives Offering Hope. As an economist and journalist, Robert...

In Bernalillo County, New Mexico, 68 children under the age of one overdosed on fentanyl in 2022 alone. How did this happen? And how can we fix it? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Maralyn Beck, founder and executive director of the New Mexico Child First Network. Maralyn explains how New Mexico’s “public health approach” to babies born substance-exposed is leading more children be lef...

Are black children over-reported and over-represented in the child welfare system? Are their cases more likely to be substantiated than those of white children? Are black children placed in foster care at a higher rate? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Brett Drake , Professor of Data Science for the Social Good in Practice at the Washington University in St. Louis. Brett and a team of...

Can government child welfare agencies demand that foster parents adhere to certain ideological viewpoints, even if they are in opposition to those parents’ religious or personal beliefs? In Oregon, this remains to be seen. In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Jonathan Scruggs, Senior Counsel and director of the Center for Conscience Initiatives with Alliance Defending Freedom. Jonathan is...

Why does it take so long for some states to find safe, permanent homes for foster children? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Sarah Font, Associate Professor of Sociology at Penn State University. Sarah recently published a report card for AEI, ranking states based on how long children wait in the foster care system to find a permanent home. The measures from the report card are taken f...

In the fall of 2020, the school board of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology unanimously voted to eliminate its merit-based, race-blind admissions process. The school principal then went on record saying that she wanted more brown and black children despite minorities representing 80 percent of the school’s students. In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Asra Nomani , au...

How has woke ideology transformed schools and other institutions for young children, and what can parents do about it? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Karol Markowicz , columnist at the New York Post and co-author of the new book, Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation . Karol compares the current progressive attempts at indoctrination of youn...

In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Richard Gehrman , the executive director of Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. A new report from Safe Passage examines 88 child maltreatment fatalities in Minnesota from 2014-2022. Racial disparities in the data were evident. Black children represented 28 percent of the fatalities, but they only make up 18 percent of children in the state. Substanc...

The latest artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, is capable of writing entire essays in a matter of seconds. Just two months after its release, over 30% of college students admit to using it for some of their work. How will ChatGPT affect education, and what can educators do about it? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Rick Hess , a senior fellow and the director of education policy...

What is a teacher’s role in the classroom and how do students learn best? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Daniel Buck , teacher, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Fordham Institute, and author of the new book, “What Is Wrong with Our Schools?” Daniel describes the philosophy of education, beginning with the classical view that teachers are the authorities in the classroom and their primar...

In the summer of 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a cell phone captured video of a white police officer shooting a black man. The viral clip sparked mass protests and violent riots, culminating in Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teenager, going to Kenosha to defend it against the protestors. The media portrayed these incidents as another example of racism in law enforcement and irresponsible gun ownership. B...

The last few decades have seen a huge growth in scientific research on early brain development, showing that the earliest years in a child’s life are pivotal in laying the foundation for long-term success. Funding for early childhood policy has mostly focused on non-parental care, in the form of daycare, universal pre-K, and Head Start. Are there alternative policy solutions to help parents with y...

This fall, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments challenging race-based admission policies at the University of North Carolina and Harvard. Despite previous rulings that have upheld constitutional preferences to achieve a racially diverse study body, the court is widely expected to rule against this form of affirmative action. How have American policies on children evolved politically and how...

Two weeks after three-year-old Shaquan Butler was found dead at a homeless shelter in Queens, two more young children were fatally stabbed by their mother inside a family shelter in the Bronx. There were plenty of warning signs in both cases, and even worse the, Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) had already been investigating the families prior to the murders. What keeps social workers...

A century after the Supreme Court’s infamous ruling that children are “not mere creatures of the state,” there is a rising belief today that government is better suited than parents to decide what’s best for children. Increasingly, teachers and school administrators are making critical decisions about students’ upbringing without parental consent or even knowledge. How will this ideology affect th...

The Biden administration recently announced its decision to forgive $10,000 in student loans for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Is this policy the best way to help kids? Is it even legal? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by David French, senior editor at The Dispatch and columnist for The Atlantic. David explains that this $400 bi...

Following the Dobbs decision, how can policymakers and adoption agencies ensure that adoption is one of the options women consider when they find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Elizabeth Kirk , director of the Center for Law and the Human Person at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. Elizabeth explains that adoption is not often consi...

What lessons can policymakers and child welfare workers learn from those with personal experience in the foster care system in order to best support vulnerable children? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Tori Hope Petersen , former foster youth, current foster mom, and author of the gripping memoir Fostered. Tori describes how she navigated her way to a life of college graduation, athle...

Public policy often looks at race, social class, and gender when analyzing educational inequality. But what impact could religion have on academic performance? In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Ilana Horwitz , Assistant Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Tulane University and the author of God, Grades, and Graduation . Ilana breaks down the findings from a nationally repre...

Are college professors allowed to write about the differences between men and women? Can they speak out about the importance of strong families in creating strong societies? The short answer is no. In this episode, Naomi and Ian are joined by Scott Yenor, Professor of Political Science at Boise State University and the author of The Recovery of Family Life. Scott was recently investigated by his e...

A new AEI report found that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the largest enrollment declines in the history of American public Schools. 85 percent of school districts across the country had enrollment losses the year after the pandemic started, and almost half of districts saw declines of 3 percent, a seven-fold increase from the prior year. Why are Americans fleeing public schools? In this episode, N...