Benjamin Rothove:

Nearly three in four recipients of this year’s prestigious, federally funded Truman Scholarship have clear ties to Democratic politicians or progressive causes, a College Fix analysis found.

Approximately 43 of the 60 students have worked for Democratic politicians, advocated for progressive causes, or identify as left-leaning — continuing an annual trend exposed in past Fix analyses.

In contrast, only five scholars have worked for Republican politicians, advocated for conservative causes, or identify as right-leaning. The College Fix determined this information based on provided biographies, LinkedIn profiles, and email inquiries.

Asra Nomani

Soon after, this past November, lawyers for Fairfax County Public Schools filed a motion, alleging that Kate had committed a “fraud on the court,” an allegation that U.S. District Court Judge Rossie Alston rejected in late January, ruling that the school system “overreached” in attempting to dismiss the case. Alston noted that the Facebook messages hadn’t been authenticated. 

Indeed, after Chris testified, a Facebook official told the Fairfax County Times, “You can’t see deleted messages or conversations. Deleting a message permanently removes it from your Chat list.” The Facebook official added that “Facebook User” means an account has been “deactivated or deleted.”

The dueling – and deeply contradictory – narratives underscore the complexity of cases of alleged sexual assault and coverup, but the new information from Facebook raises serious questions about the veracity of Chris’s statements and the efforts by Fairfax County officials to flip the narrative on Kate and frame the alleged victim as the alleged “aggressor.” The Fairfax County Times attempted to purchase a court transcript of the heated testimony. However, in an unusual move by the court, a court reporter said, “By agreement between the parties and the Court, transcripts will not be released at this time. Thanks.” The school district’s lawyers have attempted to raise issues with the judge about routine reporting the Fairfax County Times has done while covering the trial. On Wednesday, the Fairfax County Times submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to identify the official representing the school district on the Zoom call with Chris. When someone communicates with a third party, it removes legal privilege. 

Kelley Meyerhofer

Newly released reports raise questions about the financial viability of Wisconsin’s public universities and signal additional cuts coming to some campuses in future years.

The University of Wisconsin System paid outside firm Deloitte $2.8 million to assess the financial health of its individual campuses. The reports released this week underscore the difficult financial forces facing most UW campuses and their unsustainable reliance on reserves to cover year after year of budget deficits.

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More.

Thomas Massie:

I questioned Intel Committee Chairman Turner about special treatment Congressmen get in the proposed FISA bill.

Instead of giving a carve out to Congress from unconstitutional spying, just require a warrant for all Americans!

Eric Hoover:

The latest @usedgov update is a doozy:

~16% of FAFSAs require a correction.

~30% of forms “are potentially affected by known processing or data errors.”

~20% require corrected tax data from IRS. Colleges will start receiving those forms “by May 1.” tinyurl.com/4ey3s4h6

By  Rachel Pritzker

Twenty years ago, in the mid-2000s, I was a partisan warrior, and my philanthropy was entirely dedicated to pursuing my ideological beliefs. At the time, I served as a founding board member of the Democracy Alliance, a network of philanthropists focused on advancing a progressive policy agenda.

But at a certain point, I came to see that my efforts, under the banner of “democracy,” were actually furthering the decline of democracy. Our passionate advocacy, while aimed at strengthening the country, was contributing to mounting gridlock and toxic partisanship. Democratic elected officials felt increasingly pressured to adhere to party orthodoxy rather than passing legislation through compromise, lest they be primaried by a progressive group for being insufficiently pure. Recognizing the extraordinary period of U.S. and global democratic backsliding in which we live, I have since shifted my philanthropy toward creating spaces, such as the Democracy Funders Network, where supporters of liberal democracy from across the political spectrum can step out of our ideological bubbles, build new relationships, and learn together how to defend democracy.

Caleb Wethington

A bill aiming to classify food containing a vaccine or vaccine material as a drug has passed and is moving to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

The bill, HB1894, was discussed in the Tennessee Senate on Thursday before a vote to send it to Lee’s desk.

“As introduced, defines food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material as a drug for purposes of the Tennessee Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,” the bill reads.

Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, spoke during the session about the bill, which he’s sponsoring.

“House Bill 1894 merely would require any food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material would have to be classified as a drug and labeled as such,” he said.

George Leaf:

Many Americans realize that our higher-education system is decaying, its standards in decline while costs continue to rise. Is this situation like a tooth with a cavity that can readily be fixed? Or is the decay so deep that we need something far more serious, such as a root canal?

David Barnhizer’s new book, Conformity Colleges, strongly suggests that we must have the latter. His subtitle explains that we suffer from “the destruction of intellectual creativity and dissent.” That’s an accurate diagnosis.

An emeritus professor of law, Barnhizer has written a no-holds-barred exposé of the tragic fall of our institutions of higher education. Our colleges, he states, “have turned into a one-sided process where true believers who see the world through an ideological lens have taken control.” Instead of graduating thoughtful, mature people who can employ reason to evaluate claims and arguments about the world, our schools produce increasingly large numbers of people who act as “social justice warriors,” single-mindedly following the lessons drummed into them in college.

David Blaska:

Small solace that he can’t be worse than Jennifer Cheatham, who presently is cloning herself over at depends-on-the-context Harvard U. Can anyone tell the Werkes why, say, a Tommy Thompson would not do a bang-up job as superintendent of Madison schools? Or a Scott McCallum, whose degree is economics? Who else could produce tangible results? Why not a Barry Alvarez, Judith Faulkner, Kevin Conroy, Zach Brandon, Kaleem Caire, Paul Soglin, Mike Gallagher, or Paul Ryan — all successful managers of complex institutions?

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Ernest Hemingway, Henry Ford, Harry Truman, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg never got college degrees. Never futzed up Madison’s public schools, either!

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The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”

My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results

2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results 

Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.

“An emphasis on adult employment”

Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]

WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators

Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results

Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.

When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?