The Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem think tank, has released a legal and policy analysis, by Prof. Avi Bell and myself, of the European Commission’s recent “settlement guidelines” – a ban on funding Israeli entities located across, or, more importantly, conducting any “activities” in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Gaza. I’ve […]
Archive | Education
Bryan Caplan’s Voter Achievement Test
By Ilya Somin on October 10, 2013 1:38 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Education, Political Ignorance
Widespread political ignorance has persisted despite major increases in education and IQ, and in the availability of information through the media. But economist Bryan Caplan – a leading academic expert on political knowledge suggests a possible solution – the Voter Achievement Test: After years of reflecting on voter cognition,… I’ve come up with a remedy […]
My Balkinization Post on Whether Political Ignorance Can be Overcome through Education and Information Shortcuts
By Ilya Somin on October 6, 2013 3:48 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Education, Political Ignorance
The fourth in my series of Balkinization guest-blogging posts on my book Democracy and Political Ignorance is now up. It explains why it is extremely difficult to overcome political ignorance through information shortcuts, education, and other conventional strategies for increasing public knowledge.
Off-GPA-Balance-Sheet: Splitting the Higher Education Tension Between Education and Credential Through Online Education
By Kenneth Anderson on September 26, 2013 8:48 pm in Academia, Education, Higher Education, Online Education
The New York Times has a useful article today on MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses. Reporter Alan Finder points out that online education has been around in one form or another for a decade. What’s different today is the rise of the MOOCs; the article walks through the three leading MOOC providers – EdX, […]
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on September 6, 2013 8:09 pm in Democracy, Democracy and Political Ignorance, Education, Political Ignorance, Voting With Your Feet
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently gave a speech lamenting widespread political ignorance in the United States: Two-thirds of Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told the crowd that packed into a Boise State ballroom to hear her Thursday. About one-third can name the three branches […]
Private Schools Increase Political Knowledge and Reduce the Danger of Political Indoctrination
By Ilya Somin on September 1, 2013 6:30 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Education, Political Ignorance
Allison Benedikt’s Slate essay arguing that if you send your kids to private school you are a “bad person” who is undermining the “common good” has drawn many responses. Art Carden, Kevin Grier, Kevin White, and Megan McArdle have pointed out most of the flaws in her logic. But both Benedikt and her critics have […]
The Fiduciary Foundations of Federal Equal Protection
By David Kopel on August 4, 2013 3:46 pm in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Education, Equal Protection, Fifth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, Originalism, Supreme Court
Does the federal government have to adhere to the equal protection of the law? President Andrew Jackson certainly thought so. He vetoed in 1832 the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States, and based his veto message on constitutional grounds–among them, that the Bank was special interest legislation, created not for good of […]
Getting the Details of Online Courses Right Is Likely to Be More Difficult Than Anticipated
I’m afraid I’ve been absent from blogging for quite a while, but am eager to pick it up again on a more regular basis … and one reason I’ve been away from blogging is some work on online higher ed. There’s a lot of discussion about MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and while […]
Must Public Schools Collect Dues for Public School Employee Unions?
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided an interesting case concerning the collection of union dues for public school employees in Michigan. In Bailey v. Callaghan, a divided panel upheld Michigan’s Public Act 53 which provides: ““A public school employer’s use of public school resources to assist a labor organization […]
Desire to Homeschool Not a Basis for Asylum
This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided Romeike v. Holder. Judge Sutton’s opinion for the court begins: Uwe and Hannelore Romeike have five children, ages twelve, eleven, nine, seven and two, at least at the time this dispute began. Rather than send their children to the local public schools, they would prefer […]
Louisiana Supreme Court Rules Voucher Plan Violates State Constitution
In a 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court of Louisiana has ruled that a statewide educational voucher plan is unconstitutional. The decision is here.
A Call For Drastic Changes In Educating New Lawyers
By Nick Rosenkranz on February 11, 2013 1:30 pm in Academia, Education, Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
New York Times coverage of the mid-year ABA meeting, and the report of its Task Force on the Future of Legal Education, here.
How to stop school shootings right now: Abolish pretend “gun-free zones”
Real gun-free zones (enforced by metal detectors backed up by armed security guards) are fine for certain buildings. Pretend gun-free zones (bans on gun carrying by licensed people, but no procedures to keep out criminal gun carriers, and exacerbated by the absence of armed security) are magnets for mass killers. There is a reason why […]
Education and Voting Rights for Knowledgeable Children
By Ilya Somin on November 7, 2012 1:03 pm in Democracy, Education, Political Ignorance, Voting Rights for Children
In response to my post arguing that we should grant voting rights to politically knowledgeable children, Paul Horwitz of Prawfsblawg makes the following suggestion: What spurred this post is Ilya Somin’s argument on the VC yesterday that knowledgeable children ought to be allowed to vote. He addresses some standard objections in his post, but a […]
That’s Some Poetic License
From 25 Spanish Plays for Emergent Readers (K-1, Scholastic), an item from a play about planets: Neptuno: Yo soy Neptuno. Nunca estoy solo. ¡Mi pequeño amigo Pluton esta a mi lado todo el tiempo! I’m not much on Spanish, but I’m told this means, Neptune: I am Neptune. I am never alone. My little friend […]