For release noon Aug. 9 and thereafter (735 words) Even school children recognize and respond to the personalities of politics. Given a quick across-town drive, a young Hoosier on Memorial Day managed to shake hands with two mayors, one leading the South Bend “West Side Parade” at 8:15 a.m. and another on Main Street in Mishawaka at 9 a.m. Other politicians worked the sidelines, their names and functions not as well recognized. At a recent…

For release noon Aug. 3 and thereafter (677 words) As a classroom teacher, I’m not crazy about on-line schools. I like to think that I can challenge, question, excite and ignite students in a way no Internet program ever could. I’m also a realist. If Indiana wants to improve high school and college graduation rates, we must make education as flexible as possible. On-line learning is the way to do that. On Aug. 23, the…

For release noon July 27 and thereafter (735 words) I suggested in an earlier article that aerial photography of the border between barren Haiti and the heavily forested Dominican Republic was a predictor of the recent Haitian earthquake devastation. Not the earthquake, mind you, but the devastation that followed. The property-rights vacuum that encouraged Haitians to cut trees down without replanting also motivated them to skimp on construction durability. When the “big one” came, buildings…

For immediate release (708 words) “If the press is stopped and the people kept in ignorance, we had much better have the first magistrate and senators hereditary.” — John Adams A delegation from Izvestia sat in our conference room one afternoon in the late 1970s as the long-running regime of Leonid Brezhnev came to a close. They were eager to tell us why Soviet journalism was better than ours. Their presentation went something like this:…

For release Tuesday noon July 20 and thereafter (670 words) Lindan Hill, director of Marian University’s leadership academy that will train Indiana principals to transform bad schools, has ideas that may strike fear in the hearts of the education establishment: The fastest way to improve education is to get “powerful teaching” into the classroom. Effective principals should spend a majority of their time – “50 percent minimum” – observing the teaching and learning process. Regardless…

For release Tuesday noon July 13 and thereafter (539 words) Viewers of the World Cup finals last weekend were treated to the pageantry of the “beautiful game” but little of the reality of post-Apartheid South Africa. That is unfortunate, for it includes important lesson for the rest of the world. Beginning with the obvious, Apartheid was blatant and brutal. Black South Africans were held down by multiple levels of interlocking economic restrictions. Minimum-wage legislation was a…

For release Tuesday noon July 6 and thereafter (663 words)I don’t want 19-year-olds buying alcoholic beverages any more than I want non-citizens or dead people diluting the power of my vote. That’s why I don’t mind showing my driver’s license when I purchase a six-pack or when I go to the polls on Election Day. In a somewhat ironic coincidence, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s 2005 “Voter ID” law on Wednesday, and on Thursday…

For release Tuesday noon June 22 and thereafter (1,020 words) Newsweek’s ranking of the nation’s best public high schools gives disproportionate attention to one variable of school quality: the percentage of students who take an Advanced Placement or similar test. It should also focus attention on one of the rarely questioned yet more mercenary institutions in the educational bureaucracy: the designer of the Advanced Placement program, aka the College Board.            This is the organization best…

For release Tuesday noon June 15 and thereafter (726 words) Recessions are characterized by their length and severity. The average number of months from high to low in recent business cycles was 10 months. With respect to the current recession, however, the economy seems to have taken 18 months to start its recovery. U.S. output declined by about four percent from its high in 2007, and overall employment declined by six percent. In Indiana, employment…

Editors: for release in connection with Flag Day, Monday June 14 (526 words)The U.S. flag is a powerful symbol. It is in outer space, on T-shirts and bumper stickers. We pledge allegiance to it. Coffins of heroes have been draped with it. It flies in even other nations. It’s been burned in protest and praised in song. You can understand why we have a Flag Day. It’s that Pledge of Allegiance I want to talk…