Catching Up and Self-Promoting
If you haven't read it, it's new to you!
I’ve been on a bit of a writing bender lately.
This spring, I had hunkered down to finish researching and writing a study that I’d been working on for ages. I also had to wrap up the editing of a series of reports I had commissioned.
But that meant I amassed a backlog of shorter-form pieces I needed to write. Many of those are now published.
But now I have four other projects breathing down my neck. First, I’m writing a study on how the faculty of the new higher-ed schools/institutes of “civic thought” differ from the faculty of traditional departments. Second, I’m writing an essay on how the Declaration is of, by, and for commentators while the Constitution is of, by, and for those who govern.1 Third, I’m writing an essay on Ben Sasse, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and the loss of statesmanship.2 Fourth, I’m writing a review of a best-selling book, and I’m seriously behind schedule.3
OK, my point is this: Rather than writing something new for today’s column, I’m just going to promote the already-published recent stuff I’ve penned and encourage you to check out some of it.4
The Country Lawyer I wrote a review of Lamar Alexander’s very good memoir for Education Next. He’s largely ideology-free, but he has conservative sensibilities, a passion for public service, and a desire to get things done. America will miss his contributions.
Yuppies I wrote a review of Dylan Gottlieb’s Yuppies, a very interesting popular history of 1980s young urban professionals, their takeover of NYC, and their influence on the broader culture. It’s a bit left-leaning for my tastes but it taught me a good bit, and I’m glad I read it.
Magnifica Humanitas I write often about Catholic social teaching, and I’ve been writing a good bit about AI lately. So I had some things to say about Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical…on AI. My essay at National Review summarizes the encyclical and explains its meaning and importance.
Faith Should Shape Not Justify There’s a great danger in using religion to “sacralize” your existing political views. That’s bad for the public square and bad for faith. I argue over at The Dispatch that we should instead allow the religion’s teachings to form our views.
Stop the AI Experiment on Kids AI is going to do longterm damage to students and schools. We cannot lose sight of this essential fact: Learning requires sustained effort on difficult tasks. I explain, again over at National Review, how America is blithely allowing AI to steal kids’ education.
COMMUNITY DAY My novel COMMUNITY DAY would be the perfect Father’s Day gift. The dad in your life will love it. Seriously. Get it now.
Governors to the Rescue I collected a mountain of data to show that America’s governors could dramatically change public colleges and universities—if they want to and have the gumption. My report on the power of governors in higher education explains the how and why along with some helpful graphics. I followed up on the report with a piece in Education Next explaining how today's governors should follow the lead of 1989's governors (i.e., the Charlottesville summit and the resulting wave of state-level K-12 reforms. I also followed up with a piece in City Journal arguing that Republican governors should think about higher-ed today like 1980s and 1990s Republican governors thought of welfare reform.
Why We Should Like Neighborhood Schools I’m a school choice zealot. I believe kids, families, schools, educators, communities, and society are better off when parents get a big say. But traditional, residentially assigned public schools have lots of value, too. In this short piece for Flypaper, I contend that we can and should appreciate both.
Conservatives and Policy Schools If we want better policy and smarter, more civil policy discussions, we need more public leaders to understand conservatism. Universities’ policy schools have done a poor job of ensuring viewpoint diversity among their faculties. In this piece, I team up with Rick Hess to explain the problem and solution.
Higher Education Series (from friends!) Since April, my publications series on higher ed has released three new papers. My MI colleague Carolyn Gorman wrote an excellent report on the history and recent mistakes of campus-based mental-health services. My former W. Bush colleague Terrell Dunn wrote an outstanding paper with everything you need to know about Workforce Pell. And my former AEI colleague Preston Smith wrote an eye-opening and endlessly helpful report on the return-on-investment of a variety of degrees.
The Best of Recent Governing Right If you’ve not kept up with recent Governing Right pieces, you might want to check out four columns from the last several weeks. I argued that striking down laws can be bad for democracy and deliberation. I wrote about the “seasoning” necessary to succeed to elected office and what GOP primary voters might be looking for in 2028. I explained why I think the era of ideological presidents is kaput. Lastly, I wrote about two very different faith-related documents: one on the horrors of October 7, the other on the wisdom of CST.
This may be a polarizing argument, but I absolutely believe it. I want to convince people to see these two documents in a new way.
This is going to be a banger. It doesn’t have a home yet, so if you’re an editor, hit me up.
If you’re the editor owed this review, mea culpa!
Even charity clicks would be appreciated.
I'm looking forward to the Sasse/Moynihan piece!