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** 1. Supreme Court case provides yet another reason for school choice ([link removed])
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By Guy Ciarrocchi

Arguing this week before the US Supreme Court, the attorney for the Montgomery County (Maryland) School Board said the district had to take away parental choice: too many students want to opt out of their lessons. Imagine: parents didn’t want their children to be compelled to read or have to listen to a teacher read to them sexually explicit and gender-searching books.

The books at issue include “Pride Puppy,” “Jacob’s Room to Choose” and “Born Ready.”

This Supreme Court case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, is perhaps the most important parents’ rights case in years. At the same time, perhaps unintentionally, it’s the most important new argument of school choice since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of school choice (tuition vouchers) in Zelma v. Simmons-Harris in 2002.

Why It Matters. Tragically, as has been the case for over a decade, many public schools — especially in the suburbs — have been shifting the focus off of academic excellence and onto social and political causes. And, all too often, they are leading the culture wars, especially when it comes to race, sex, and now gender discussions. To the surprise of most of us, “educators” and school boards decided that what was wrong with America wasn’tfalling test scores ([link removed]) but that not enough six-year-olds had considered their gender.

And as we have learned across suburban Philadelphia, many districts have policies that willfully and purposefullywithhold information from parents ([link removed]) about issues concerning their child’s sexual behavior, gender confusion, and mental health. The arrogance, the disrespect for parents, and the contempt for common sense is almost immeasurable in too many districts

Continue Reading ([link removed])
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** 2. Public misbehavior shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘a Philly thing’ ([link removed])
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By Thom Nickels

At the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, a Lithuanian artist had an idea about how to bridge the loneliness created by forced government lockdowns. Benediktas Gylys created an interactive live stream work of art, a futuristic looking round shaped object that looks as though it had fallen to earth from a flying disk.

The assumption at that time was that the people smiling and waving in front of the lens would abide by PG-13 family standards. Reality hit, however, when the Portal in both cities began attracting people who acted out in bizarre fashions. Suddenly young people in New York and Dublin were stepping on the Portal, flashing body parts and doing drugs in front of the lens. The wholesome mission of bringing people together had turned into a joke.

Vandalism was soon to follow.

Philly thieves attacked the Portal and cut the copper cables connecting the metal to its power generator and then stuffed the stolen goods into a large recycling bin they then took to a local scrap dealer. In another incident, rocks were thrown at the lens and completely shattered it. City officials sprung into action and covered the Portal in a dour covering reminiscent of an autopsy sheet.

Why It Matters. Billy Penn.com, an arm of WHYY, took the vandalism lightly with the headline: “Philly breaking the Portal is the least surprising story of 2025.” (The implication suggested that Philadelphians destroy everything so why would anyone be surprised.) The Philadelphia Inquirer muted its outrage: “The Philadelphia Portal is getting a facelift after vandalism left it out of commission since early February.”

When you think about it, since 2020 Philadelphia has been about “facelifting” the damage created by hooligan thugs, many of them with a leftist political agenda.

Continue Reading ([link removed])


** 3. Lightning Round
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* Kyle Sammin: Trump isn’t an outlier — he’s the culmination of a trend ([link removed])
* Mark Umansky: All voters deserve a voice in our primaries ([link removed])
* Beth Ann Rosica: Regardless of the reason, UPMC’s policy change is good for kids ([link removed])
* Paul Davis: The Treasury Department’s report on fentanyl-related threat patterns ([link removed])
* Nathan Benefield: Bring domestic steel manufacturing into America’s Golden Age ([link removed])

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** 4. New Podcast
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This interview dives deep into the Democratic primary for District Attorney featuring candidate Judge Pat Dugan.


** 5. What we're reading
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Everyone who voted for Donald Trump knew he would bring change. Everyone also knew he favored raising tariffs. But the speed and method of doing so has left a lot of Americans bewildered and the economy scrambled. The reason, Peter Coy wrote this week for The Free Press, is that everything about trade has suddenly become very uncertain ([link removed]) . “Right now, everybody believes that the world will be different in a week or a month or a year than what it looks like right now,” one CEO told Coy. Maybe it will settle down soon — it is still very early in Trump’s term — but until things become more settled, we should look for the big money to stay on the sidelines and the economy to suffer.

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— The Editors at Broad + Liberty
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