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Seizing the Moment: A State Education Agenda for 2023 <[link removed]> - State lawmakers should act quickly to help students to recover from the learning losses they experienced during the pandemic lockdowns. K–12 education is cumulative: Students who fall behind in one school year are less prepared for more technical material in the next year. Learning losses do not happen overnight, and neither does dramatic improvement. The longer that state legislators wait to give families more quality learning options, the more students will be at a disadvantage. This Backgrounder offers state officials proposals to help every child succeed, along with ideas for protecting free speech on college campuses. If implemented, these solutions will help to remake K–12 and higher education into an experience for students that helps them to advance in school and in life. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]> and Lindsey Burke <[link removed]>
  
'Wokeness,' politicization of the military 'alarming,' warns Rep. Michael Waltz <[link removed]> - Rep. Michael Waltz <[link removed]>, R-Fla., criticized the priorities of the U.S. military after a report from the Heritage Foundation revealed politicization of the armed services. According to data from the Heritage Foundation, 68 percent of active military members <[link removed]> have witnessed politicization of the military, including a decrease in physical fitness standards, and a focus on climate change. Waltz called the trend "alarming," and said it was more than a Republican talking
point. Heritage Expert: Tom Spoehr <[link removed]>
The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database Tops 1,400 Cases - <[link removed]> The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database now includes 1,412 proven instances of election fraud, and our legal center is monitoring many other ongoing
prosecutions. The database <[link removed]>, which provides a sampling of recent election fraud cases, demonstrates the vulnerabilities within the electoral process and the need for reforms to secure free and fair elections for the American people. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]>
Big Tech-Aligned Group Funnels $3 Million to Nevada’s Largest County for the 2024 Election <[link removed]> - Clark County was among the jurisdictions that former President Donald Trump’s campaign challenged <[link removed]> after he lost the 2020 election. On Jan. 17, Deputy County Manager Les Lee Shell submitted a grant application to the Clark County Board of Commissioners. “Authorize the County Manager or his designee to execute the submission of a grant application and accept the award from the Center of Tech and Civic Life, in the amount of $3,000,000.00 for expenses related to election administration during the upcoming elections. (For possible action),” the document from Shell to the board says. Heritage Expert: Fred Lucas <[link removed]>
 
Do Chinese Donations Explain Biden’s Energy Policies? <[link removed]> – Under Biden’s anti-fossil fuel energy policies, Americans have been left with higher costs and a weaker economy while China has gained a larger market for its “green energy” wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle batteries. Could the money and the policies be related? The New York Post reported <[link removed]> that tens of millions in donations to
the University of Pennsylvania came from Chinese donors after the Penn Biden Center was first announced in 2017. Heritage Expert: Diana Furchtgott-Roth <[link removed]>
Heritage Special Report Calls for New Congress to Lead Exhaustive Investigations into COVID Pandemic <[link removed]> - The Heritage Foundation today released a comprehensive special report <[link removed]> that lists the many questions that lawmakers should be asking in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The truth is that a lot of failures we saw within the federal government’s COVID response predate both the Trump and Biden administrations,” says report author and Heritage senior research fellow Robert Moffit <[link removed]>. “These are deeper problems that need to be addressed because poor government actions caused real harm in our society—from learning declines in children to failed businesses.” Heritage Expert: Robert Moffit <[link removed]>

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