Liberal: Education a Problem for Democrats
“Some proponents of public schooling, and some politicians, have given short shrift” to rising fears “public schools can’t meet an acceptable standard,” frets The New York Times’ Jessica Grose. They even “wave away parental fears about kids falling behind by characterizing the concept of learning loss as a ‘hoax’ or suggesting that parents shouldn’t have a say in what schools teach. But if, for example, your third grader is now struggling to read because remote first grade was a disaster, that’s very real and could have long-term ramifications.” And polls suggest “voters care more about education than abortion, immigration and climate change.” Indeed, emails from her privileged, mostly Democratic readers show major concerns about school-board politicization and “prioritizing things like social and emotional learning over the basics of reading, writing and math” as well as neglect of kids with “learning differences.”
Libertarian: A Tax-Driven Migration
“Tax burdens are one driver of migration,” especially of high earners, notes Chris Edwards at the Washington Examiner. “Elon Musk apparently saved half a billion dollars when he moved from California, with its 13.3% top income tax rate, to Texas, with its zero rate.” Overall, “For households with incomes above $200,000, California is losing two households for each one it gains, and New York is losing three households for each one it gains.” Meanwhile, “Florida is gaining more than two top-earning households for each it loses,” and “West Palm Beach has a booming finance industry fueled by transplanted New York-area entrepreneurs.” A race to the bottom? “New York and Florida have about the same population, but the latter provides its state and local services with 26% fewer government employees than the former.”
Iran watch: How Biden Can Help Protesters
“The death of a young woman in police custody has set off protests nationwide” in Iran, observes Bloomberg’s Bobby Ghosh, “calling for the very thing Raisi . . . routinely accused foreigners of plotting: regime change.” So President Biden’s challenge “is to help the protesters without allowing the regime to portray them as American stooges.” There are ways: exempting from “sanctions Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which can provide internet connectivity to Iranians,” and making clear “any Iranian official linked to abuses against protesters will be subject to sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act.” “Iran’s protesters know the grave risks they take when they challenge the regime” so “Biden should reward their bravery by helping them to be heard above the noise created by Putin.”
Culture critic: Death of a Royal Chronicler
“When the Queen died a fortnight ago, it was widely speculated that the perfect writer to describe both her death and its aftermath was Hilary Mantel, but now that will never be,” laments Spectator World’s Alexander Larman. Mantel’s “sudden death” at 70 “robs English literature of one of its most distinctive and fascinating voices.” Her historical Wolf Hall books, which went to screen and stage, are “uncompromising novels that sold in the kinds of numbers that far less distinguished airport reads usually do,” read by “people who would generally avoid the kind of difficult, intellectually penetrating books that Mantel specialized in.” Even after becoming famous, she never lost “her intellectual integrity.”
War beat: Putin’s Key Weaknesses in Ukraine
“Morale and cohesion are critical” to military victory, yet Vladimir Putin’s “troops have yet to demonstrate much” of either, contends Dov Zakheim at The Hill. His partial mobilization is “unlikely to change that.” Ukrainian fighters, by contrast, have maintained cohesion “and a remarkable level of morale.” Putin’s “threat to employ tactical nuclear weapons is likely a reflection of his growing panic” that his “conventional operations” will fail. Yet it would be his generals, not him, who order troops to unleash any tactical nuclear operation, and they, “likely far more than he, would recognize that doing so could create an existential risk to Russia itself.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board