Dear Colleagues:
Work from our Center for Education Policy team has lawmakers’ attention. In a recent U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) cited our new senior research fellow Jay Greene’s study with James Paul, “Diversity University: DEI Bloat in the Academy.” <[link removed]>
Sen. Cruz pointed to a finding from the study documenting that the University of Michigan has 163 people with the “formal responsibility for providing [diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI] programming and services.”
Here's What Else We’re Following
Creating opportunity in the face of racial discrimination. State lawmakers opened up more learning opportunities for children around the U.S. in 2021 than ever before. Considering the impacts of COVID and the prevalence of critical race theory’s racially discriminatory ideas, the timing couldn’t be better. As I wrote for the Goldwater Institute <[link removed]> this week, “Allowing parents to choose how and where their children learn is an education policy that respects our rights and allows competing ideas to flourish. We must still defend those rights, though, from pernicious ideas such as racial prejudice.”
“So to parents and policymakers: Embrace the new choices in education, and do not retreat from condemning racial prejudice. The former is our hope for the future. The latter is required in the meantime,” I said. Read on <[link removed]>.
Upcoming Event
At the State Policy Network (SPN) annual meeting this year I will speak with Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the Georgia Policy Foundation, and Michael Chartier, senior director of policy initiatives at SPN, about the long-term expectations for learning pods after the pandemic. Will the trend last and what policies are needed to make pods successful? Our session will be held on September 1. You can register for the event here <[link removed]>.
Warmly,
Jonathan Butcher
Will Skillman Fellow in Education
Center for Education Policy
Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity
The Heritage Foundation
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