This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
Since 2016, governments, media, and tech companies have warned about online disinformation targeting adults. Far less attention has been paid to the information tools increasingly shaping children, even as such “kid-safe” platforms become more embedded into the internet’s trust infrastructure.
One significant child-focused platform, <a href="https://www.kiddle.co/">Kiddle</a>, delivers a striking pattern of geopolitical and ideological framing that softens authoritarian regimes and extremist movements while presenting itself as a trusted educational resource. Foreign terrorist organizations, like Hamas and Hezbollah, are whitewashed. Russia’s war on Ukraine is downgraded to a “<a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Vladimir_Putin">military operation</a>,” mirroring Kremlin language, while Joseph Stalin’s role in Russian history is <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Joseph_Stalin">reduced</a> to his success in building a “strong, modern nation.”
Launched in 2014, Kiddle, which bills itself as a visual search engine for kids, appears prominently in Google searches, often ranking near the top of results. When asked for child-safe educational resources, ChatGPT recommended Kiddle alongside legacy institutions like Encyclopædia Britannica, World Book, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian.
While it boasts far <a href="https://analytics.explodingtopics.com/website/kiddle.co">less traffic</a> than other search engines, Kiddle’s role in information infrastructure gives it outsize influence, as schools, libraries, and even PTAs link to the site. The International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE), an association with 100,000 education stakeholders, <a href="https://iste.org/blog/5-safe-search-engines-for-kids">recommends</a> Kiddle on its website, noting that “results are vetted by editors.” The top referrer of traffic to Kiddle in early 2026 was DiscoveryK12, an online homeschool curriculum.
Yet the content is less kid-friendly than expected. The platform’s article on <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Vladimir_Putin">Vladimir Putin</a>, for example, offers a softened portrayal of the Russian president. Putin is presented as a peacemaker who is “known for ending the Second Chechen War.” When it comes to Putin’s successive wars of territorial conquest, Kiddle users learn only that under Putin, Russia “took control of Crimea” and “supported a war in eastern Ukraine.” While the need to present information to children in simple language can be appreciated, this characterization is jarringly at odds with nearly a decade of horrific warfare.
&#8220;<a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Hamas">Hamas facts for kids</a>&#8221; informs young readers that “Hamas grew out of an Islamic charity” and supports “Palestinian nationalism,” meaning that it “believe[s] in the idea of a Palestinian nation.” Kiddle says that the U.S.-designated terrorist group’s “fight is with Zionists.” The word “terrorist” is mentioned just once, at the bottom of the article. Former Hamas leader and October 7 planner <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Yahya_Sinwar">Yahya Sinwar</a> is portrayed as a “very important leader” who “said he wanted to work for ‘peaceful, popular resistance’ against the Israeli presence.”
Iran’s <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps">Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps</a>, meanwhile, is “a special part of Iran’s military” whose goal is to “protect the Islamic Revolution.” Curious kids will also learn that the IRGC “work[s] to keep the country stable.” The late Ayatollah Khamenei, Kiddle <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Ali_Khamenei">claims</a>, “supported Iran’s nuclear program for peaceful uses.” He was also a “strong supporter of the Persian language” with a penchant for poetry. No mention is made of the 2025-2026 protests during which state forces — acting at Khamenei’s direction — killed around <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/2026-01-25/ty-article/.premium/some-30-000-iranian-protesters-may-have-been-killed-in-two-days-officials-reportedly-say/0000019b-f437-d174-a3bf-fc3f07170000">30,000 civilians</a>.
Occasionally, a Russo- and Sino-centric view of key conflicts and figures shines through. “<a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Hassan_Nasrallah">Hassan Nasrallah facts for kids</a>” acknowledges that Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, but it notes that “some countries like Russia and China have different views.” Kiddle even clarifies that Russia considers Hezbollah a “legal social and political organization.”
“<a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Uyghur_people">Uyghur people facts for kids</a>” makes no mention of the genocide against China’s Muslim minority ethnic group, Chinese state-run concentration camps, or any of the abuses committed against these people. In a similar vein, the article on the <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology">Wuhan Institute of Virology</a> leaves out the most important single fact about the center: it is considered the likely <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/house-panel-concludes-covid-19-pandemic-came-lab-leak">origin point</a> of COVID-19.
Despite positioning itself as a trusted educational resource for children, Kiddle reveals almost nothing about who controls its platform or how its editorial decisions are made. The site publicly identifies no editors, no leadership team, no ownership entity, and no meaningful editorial standards governing politically sensitive material presented to children.
Ownership is obscured behind a U.S.-based privacy proxy. Kiddle does not disclose its founders, does not claim nonprofit status, and provides no public explanation of its governance structure despite operating as a heavily trafficked educational platform embedded across American schools and libraries.
The site’s Google-adjacent branding makes understanding the nature of the platform much more difficult. Its search bar features the Google logo with the term “Custom Search.” In 2016, EdTech Magazine <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2016/02/kiddle-google-powered-search-kids">reported</a> that while Kiddle was not affiliated with the search giant, its results “are powered by Google, tailored to the needs of kids.” The site’s name seems like a reference to Google, and its primary-color-heavy logo is a distinct echo of the search giant. Schools, libraries, educational blogs, and even professional <a href="https://www.joplinpubliclibrary.org/e-content">educational</a> <a href="https://opes.lexrich5.org/our-school/media-center/pioneer-research-resources">organizations</a> <a href="https://www.stedschool.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=129202&amp;type=d&amp;pREC_ID=1357451">have</a> <a href="https://google.com/url?q=https://www.keyacademycharter.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2019079&amp;type=u&amp;pREC_ID=links&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1779295257713384&amp;usg=AOvVaw17N30chxJ7_b8YqT3cf8iA">repeatedly</a> described Kiddle as a Google product or as “developed by Google.”
Kiddle’s <a href="https://www.kiddle.co/privacy.php">privacy policy</a> states that the platform uses cookies “to personalize content and ads” and shares user information with advertising and analytics partners. That language raises a red flag concerning Google’s own <a href="https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/14170968?hl=en">advertising protections</a> around child-directed services, which expressly forbid cookies that personalize ads. When I tested the site, Kiddle served children ads for cybersecurity threat reports, shopping extensions, mobile phone plans, steroid-related supplements, Robux acquisition guides, and other commercial content unrelated to education. Some ads solicited personal information directly through lead-generation forms — a clear violation of Google’s child-protection-related privacy policies. (Neither Kiddle nor Google responded to a request for comment for this article.)
A 2016 investigation by EdSurge <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-03-01-kiddle-aims-to-keep-kids-searches-safe-appropriate">suggested</a> that Russian-born entrepreneur Vladislav Golunov—previously <a href="https://www.theregister.com/security/2016/04/11/anonymised-search-engine-page-found-on-kid-friendly-search-site/946335">associated</a> with the search engine Lukol—may be the site’s creator. But a decade later, we still don’t know who owns, operates, or oversees the site.
Kiddle has plans to expand into AI, with a new website, <a href="https://kiddle.ai/">kiddle.ai</a>, already live. Branded as “AI for kids,” the product is scheduled for release in July. DNS and hosting records show overlap between kiddle.ai and a subdomain, deepseek.kiddle.co, which references the Chinese AI company DeepSeek. While the exact relationship remains unclear, the appearance of Chinese AI branding alongside an opaque educational search platform with unknown ownership structures and problematic content raises further questions about who is building systems designed to engage kids at an important inflection point in the history of digital information.
None of this establishes definitively that Kiddle has a relationship with America’s enemies. But it does underscore how little transparency exists around a platform increasingly trusted to mediate information for children. A search engine recommended by schools, surfaced by Google, and cited by AI systems operates with no publicly known editors, no disclosed governance structure, and no meaningful public accountability.
That combination — institutional trust, opaque control, ideological framing, child targeting, AI amplification, and hidden governance — is what makes Kiddle more than just another strange corner of the internet. The platform has quietly embedded itself into the infrastructure through which children learn about war, politics, terrorism, and history. And almost nobody appears to know who is shaping that information, how those decisions are made, or whose interests it serves.
***
This is republished with permission from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. The original can be found <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/kiddle-search-engine-kids">here</a>.
Ashley Rindsberg is an investigative journalist and founder of <a href="https://npov.io/">NPOV</a>.

Two boys using laptop

The Kid-Friendly Search Engine That’s Not Friendly With The Truth

Education

Internet

MI x DW

Technology

When Zohran Mamdani served in the New York State Assembly, he voted for a plan to hire more teachers and build more classrooms in New York City to keep class sizes small.
As mayor, Mamdani has other priorities.
Mamdani&#8217;s 2027 budget, which he unveiled last week, includes $122 million for new teachers and $1.5 billion for classroom construction. That may seem like a sizable investment — but according to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, this budget puts the city more than <a href="https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/letter-from-nyc-comptroller-lander-re-2025-class-size-plan-certification/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$13.01 billion</a> behind its goal to keep class sizes small.
If Mamdani wanted to find the money, he could re-evaluate the billions of dollars the city spends on its <a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2024/12/following-asylum-seeker-odyssey/382850/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">migrant population</a>. New York City spent $1.41 billion for asylum seeker cash, rent, and food assistance and services 2023, $3.70 billion in 2024, and <a href="https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/accounting-for-asylum-seeker-services/fiscal-impacts/">$3.02</a> billion in 2025. New York&#8217;s sanctuary city status proved so costly that Mamdani&#8217;s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, warned the Biden administration that unless it got the southern border under control, New York would have to cut back on social services for migrants.
Mamdani, who signed an executive order reaffirming New York&#8217;s sanctuary city status shortly after taking office, plans to pursue “a new path of defiance through compassion&#8221; where New York cares for everyone regardless of whether they pay taxes or not.
During his budget unveiling, Mamdani said he “refuses to kick structural challenges down the road for someone else to solve later.” For that reason, Mamdani has declared an &#8220;extension&#8221; for the class size plan — an extension that does not appear to have an end date. In the meantime, Mamdani is framing his refusal to deliver on the education improvement plan he himself voted for as a good thing for students.
“Our administration believes deeply in the state law capping class sizes and I am proud to have voted for this mandate during my time in the state assembly,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This extension will generate approximately $500 million in savings in the upcoming fiscal year, but more importantly it will allow us to implement an achievable plan that better serves our students and our teachers.&#8221;
New York City Council Member Vickie Palladino disagrees.
&#8220;Smaller class sizes mean more classrooms and more teachers, which he doesn&#8217;t have the money to do,&#8221; Palladino told The Daily Wire. Mamdani is &#8220;operating a budget by bailout,&#8221; she added, &#8220;hoping that down in the road, in 2028, he&#8217;ll get a Democratic president to give us a $10 billion, $20 billion, or maybe more. But by that time, the middle class will be gone.&#8221;
New York public schools are already suffering. The State Education Department&#8217;s annual report shows that only <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/05/us-news/nearly-half-of-students-across-ny-state-fail-to-make-the-grade-on-math-english-tests-data/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">22%</a> of fourth graders were proficient in reading and only 29% in math.
A report from the comptroller&#8217;s office also showed that bullying and drug-related incidents have increased this year. New York also <a href="https://www.news10.com/capitol/comptroller-drugs-and-bullying-up-but-serious-violence-near-zero/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changed</a> how it collects data, now only reporting assaults or possession of weapons if the school refers the student to the police, the act would count as a felony, and the offender is at least ten years old.
The extension isn&#8217;t Mamdani&#8217;s only proposed public education shakeup. The mayor is planning to phase out New York City&#8217;s gifted student program over concerns that some children might be receiving a better education than others.
&#8220;I will return to the previous policy,&#8221; Mamdani <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/nyregion/mamdani-schools-gifted-and-talented-program.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said,</a> referencing former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to end the gifted program. &#8220;Ultimately, my administration would aim to make sure that every child receives a high-quality early education that nurtures their curiosity and learning.”

TOPSHOT-US-MAMDANI-FISCAL-BUDGET

Mamdani Says He Can’t Pay For School Improvements, But Spends Billions On Migrants

New York City

Sanctuary Cities

Zohran Mamdani

Authorities charged a Tennessee school board member with assault after he called a young female student “hot” last month during a board meeting. 
Washington County School Board member Keith Ervin <a href="https://johnsoncitypress.com/news/373972/washington-county-school-board-member-keith-ervin-charged-with-assault/">faces</a> a simple assault charge after he was caught on camera touching a student board member named Hannah Campbell on her shoulder before saying, “God, you’re hot. Damn. Where do you go to school at?” After the comment, Ervin leaned over and gave the girl a side hug as a few others present at the meeting laughed before moving on. 
The incident occurred on April 2, 2026, during a school board meeting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=977US_SUGg8">streamed</a> on YouTube. 
The girl’s father filed a complaint on April 3 and a grand jury returned a true bill on May 11 with the assault charge, the Johnson City Press <a href="https://johnsoncitypress.com/news/373972/washington-county-school-board-member-keith-ervin-charged-with-assault/">reported</a>. Ervin reported to the Jonesborough Police Department on May 18 and will make his first court appearance on August 7. 
In a statement, the Washington County Board of Education said it was aware of the charges.
“The Board reiterates that Mr. Ervin’s actions do not reflect the standards, policies, or values of the school district. The Board remains committed to ensuring a safe, respectful, and appropriate environment for all students and staff,” the board said. “Since this is an open legal matter, neither the Board nor any district official has any further comment.”
The board, which censured Ervin during an emergency meeting days after the comment was made, said it could not remove him because he was “independently elected.” 
At a later meeting, Campbell called the school board cowards for not taking more action. 
“To begin, I want to address Ervin’s actions, which were not only unwelcome, but sexist and derogatory,” she said. “I know this because he has not behaved this way with any of our male members, nor do I believe that he ever would. I do not wish to beat a dead horse, as everyone here has clear context as to what happened was wrong.”
In a statement after public outrage over the comment, Ervin said he was not referring to the girl’s appearance. 
“Last week at the board meeting I wanted to congratulate a student who did a great job sharing thoughts with all that was in the room,” he said. “When I mentioned she was hot, I meant she was on a roll. It was nothing to do with her appearance.”
Ervin has been on the board since 2006 and his school board bio describes him as a self-employed dairy farmer on the board of directors for the Washington County Farm Bureau. He is also a member of Bethesda Methodist Church. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire on the assault charge.

612222368_1294989445999112_8267564507158645690_n

One Creepy Word At A School Board Meeting Changed Everything

Police

Public Schools

Tennessee

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is touting a 66% increase in per-student education spending since taking office, but state reading scores show that the massive cash infusion has done little to improve literacy, and in some cases, student performance has worsened.
Newsom celebrated the spending increase this week, boasting on social media that California now spends a record $28,282 per student as his administration makes what he called “historic investments in public education.” But state proficiency data complicates the governor’s victory lap: black students’ reading proficiency remained flat at 32% between the year before Newsom took office and the most recent reporting year, despite billions in additional educational funding. White students, meanwhile, saw reading proficiency fall from 65% to 62% over the same period.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reading proficiency of black students in California in the year before Newsom took office: 32%
In the most recent year: 32%
So, a 66% increase in spending led to a 0% increase in reading proficiency. <a href="https://t.co/62o27hKNWy">https://t.co/62o27hKNWy</a>
— i/o (@avidseries) <a href="https://twitter.com/avidseries/status/2055339577032708227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
The figures raise fresh questions about whether Newsom’s education agenda has translated into measurable classroom gains, or whether the Democratic governor is using ballooning budgets to score political points while academic outcomes stagnate.
When Newsom entered office in 2019, California’s K-12 schools received roughly $17,423 per student from state, local, and federal funding sources. Under his proposed 2026-27 budget, that figure has climbed to more than $28,000 per student, representing one of the sharpest spending increases in the nation. Newsom has repeatedly framed the increase as proof that his administration is transforming public education, describing California’s school funding as “the envy of many other states.”
Yet long-running arguments from teachers unions and education officials that low funding was the primary driver behind California’s lagging academic performance now face greater scrutiny. California was once near the bottom nationally in per-pupil spending, but now ranks among the top tier of states. Student outcomes, however, have improved in tandem.
Critics argue that much of the additional funding has gone toward expanding bureaucracy, new state initiatives, and higher compensation packages rather than directly improving core academic performance. Some districts have used the additional funding to shore up payroll and pension obligations even as enrollment declines and test scores remain weak. 
The disconnect is particularly stark for minority students, whom Newsom and other California Democrats frequently invoke when defending higher education spending. Despite the governor’s 66% funding increase, black students’ reading proficiency has not improved during his tenure, raising questions about whether the state’s historic spending spree has failed to move the needle for one of the groups Democratic politicians most often claim to prioritize. In California, at least, Newsom’s record spending has so far produced a record bill, without the record achievement.

62. Munich Security Conference

Gavin Newsom Brags His Constituents Are Spending More Money To Make Kids Dumber

California

Gavin Newsom

spending

New York City operates the nation’s most expensive public schools, and they are empty.
The city’s proposed Department of Education <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/budget/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2026/03/Department-of-Education.pdf">budget</a> is $38 billion, an 8% increase from last year. At the same time, enrollment continues to decline. Last year alone, New York City <a href="https://x.com/dany_egorov/status/2052395204510994473?s=20">lost</a> 3,500 pre-K and kindergarten students. This is not an anomaly. The School Construction Authority <a href="https://dnnhh5cc1.blob.core.windows.net/portals/0/Capital_Plan/Demographic_projection_Reports/Volume%202-2026.pdf?sv=2017-04-17&amp;sr=b&amp;si=DNNFileManagerPolicy&amp;sig=pl1f%2BywRLsn%2BsVXvRXNIEbkxmnewwAydpZBsa%2F8kIm4%3D">projects</a> that enrollment will decrease by another 153,000 students over the next decade. This decline is mostly due to demographic changes — since 2000, the <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/an-education-agenda-for-new-york-citys-next-mayor">number</a> of children born in the city has decreased by more than 20%. But also, New York families are increasingly <a href="https://cbcny.org/research/competitive-nyc">choosing</a> charter schools and homeschooling.
Currently, 380 schools — nearly 25% of all city schools — already <a href="https://cbcny.org/sites/default/files/media/files/CBCTESTIMONY_DOE-Prelim-Budget_03232026_1.pdf">operate</a> below 60% capacity.
Maintaining a sprawling system of underenrolled schools is fiscally irresponsible and educationally unsustainable. Even left-leaning publications such as the Atlantic have <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/new-york-city-schools-budget/686971/">acknowledged</a> the growing crisis facing NYC school districts with shrinking student populations.
New York City’s political leaders can no longer avoid reality. The mayor and chancellor should create a strategic plan to merge and close underenrolled schools, ensuring a better allocation of the education budget and improving academic outcomes.
My new report for the Manhattan Institute, <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/what-to-do-about-nycs-empty-schools">“What to do about NYC’s empty schools,”</a> analyzes the city’s enrollment declines and offers recommendations for rightsizing the district, particularly by addressing underperforming and underenrolled schools.
The underenrollment problem is getting worse. Last year, 112 city schools had fewer than 150 students; this year, that number has risen to 134. One <a href="https://www.nycenet.edu/offices/d_chanc_oper/budget/DBOR/galaxy/galaxybudgetsummaryto/default.aspx">school</a> currently employs 21 staff members for just 28 <a href="https://apps.schools.nyc/dsbpo/sbag/default.aspx?DDBSSS_INPUT=K319&amp;fy=2026">students</a>.
Charter schools, by contrast, face much stronger accountability pressures. Because they are funded on a per-pupil basis, shrinking enrollment forces them to adapt or close. Nationwide, charter schools represent only 7.5% of total student enrollment but accounted for nearly 12% of all school closures in 2021.
District schools face no comparable pressure. The NYC DOE continues to fund underenrolled schools as though they were operating at full capacity, <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026/03/23/nyc-school-budgets-zohran-mamdani-hold-harmless-enrollment-decline/">costing</a> taxpayers nearly $388 million annually.
Unfortunately, city leadership has repeatedly shown an unwillingness to address this problem. Last March, New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels canceled a plan to <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/03/us-news/nyc-scraps-plan-to-close-school-at-center-of-hunter-college-professors-racist-hot-mic-scandal/">close</a> Community Action School after a parent made a racist comment on a Zoom meeting. The school remained open so students and their families could “process and recover from” the scandal. The comment was despicable, but it should not have prevented closing a failing school. Community Action School went from 229 students in 2020 to 141 in 2024. Its students&#8217; academic performance is below the district’s average.
More recently, Chancellor Samuels pulled back a plan to close and relocate three schools. One <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/11/opinion/mamdani-keeps-bankrolling-failure-in-nycs-schools/">proposed</a> for closure lost 240 students over five years and had only 54% of its eighth graders reading at grade level. This decision to throw good money at failing schools lowers educational standards across the board. By keeping bad schools afloat, we leave less money on the table for successful schools to open and expand.
New York City students desperately need high-quality education. Despite record spending, only about half of New York students are proficient in reading (53%) and math (57%), <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/05/us-news/nearly-half-of-students-across-ny-state-fail-to-make-the-grade-on-math-english-tests-data/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the results of 2024–25 New York State assessments
The decision to close and merge schools is a serious one and should be carefully considered. It creates disruption for students and staff — and it can have a small negative <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/short-and-long-term-impacts-school-closure-student-outcomes">impact</a> on students’ outcomes. But refusing to act is even more damaging for students and taxpayers alike.
The Mamdani administration will inevitably have to address this reality, given the continuous decline in student enrollment and the <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/12/opinion/zohran-mamdanis-unbelievably-dishonest-budget/">budget</a> gaps the city faces. The city cannot continue operating a school system designed for a much larger student population that no longer exists.
Other major cities — including <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-11-20/bps-proposes-closure-of-three-more-schools-by-2027-amid-sharp-enrollment-decline">Boston</a>, <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-school-board-closure-vote/">Philadelphia</a>, <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2026/02/27/hisd-approves-plan-to-close-12-schools">Houston</a>, and <a href="https://www.ideastream.org/education/2025-12-09/cleveland-school-board-approves-sweeping-consolidation-plan">Cleveland</a> — are already dealing with this problem and have approved plans to close schools. It is time for New York City to follow suit. Every year the city delays action, it wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars maintaining half-empty buildings instead of directing resources toward effective classrooms and student achievement. Students deserve a school system focused on quality, accountability, and academic success — not one committed to preserving empty seats and bureaucratic inertia.
***
Danyela Souza Egorov is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

American Primary School: Interior of Modern Empty Classroom with Desks for Students

The Ghost Classrooms Haunting America’s Education System

A patriotic middle school assembly celebrating America’s upcoming 250th birthday sparked protests and backlash from left-wing parents in Southern California this week after critics objected to the event’s alleged ties to organizations like Turning Point USA and The Heritage Foundation.
The event, dubbed “History Rocks 250,” was held at Canyon Hills Junior High School and focused on American history, the country’s founding principles, and civic pride ahead of the United States’ 250th birthday celebration next year.
But before the assembly even began, protesters gathered outside the school holding signs reading “No politics in school,” while some parents reportedly kept their children home entirely over fears the presentation would push a conservative political agenda.
Much of the controversy centered on reports that organizations affiliated with Turning Point USA and Heritage Foundation had helped coordinate the broader “History Rocks! Trail to Independence Tour,” which is tied to America’s semiquincentennial celebration.
“I’m concerned about the views of Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025,” grandparent Debra Esquivel said while protesting the event.
Parents <a href="https://abc7.com/post/controversy-surrounds-history-rocks-250-assembly-canyon-hills-junior-high-chino/19066944/">interviewed by local media</a> expressed fears that conservative ideology was being inserted into the classroom under the banner of civic education, despite school officials repeatedly stating the assembly would simply focus on American history and the nation’s founding.
“The things they teach and the ideas that they like to bring into communities and into students are concerning to me,” parent Kristi Hirst said. School officials and district leaders pushed back forcefully on the criticism, insisting the event contained nothing political or controversial.
“They will be learning about the founding documents and also about the American Revolution,” said Sonja Shaw. “This is nothing new. It’s in our curriculum.” The assembly itself appeared largely straightforward and patriotic in nature.
Students and faculty opened the event with the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem before participating in history-themed trivia games and presentations about the American Revolution and the country’s founding ideals.
One student emcee asked classmates questions about colonial America, while another delivered remarks praising the United States as a place where generations of immigrants came seeking freedom and opportunity. “What makes America special is that for generations families all over the world have come here, searching for freedom, opportunity and the chance to build a better life,” one student said during closing remarks.
Featured speaker Katharine Gorka, a senior adviser for civic education at the Department of Education similarly emphasized America’s openness and national identity. “We are the most welcoming country on earth, and I love that about this country,” Gorka told students.
After the assembly concluded, multiple students reportedly said the event felt like a normal school rally focused on American history rather than partisan politics. “I think they politicized something that’s not political,” Gorka later said.
The backlash puts a fine point on how reflexively hostile some have become towards conservative organizations and overt expressions of American patriotism, even when the actual content presented to students remained centered on basic civics and national history.
The reaction highlights the increasingly polarized atmosphere surrounding patriotism, civic education, and American history in schools — particularly in deep blue states like California, where even celebrations tied to the country’s founding can quickly become ideological flashpoints.

19061769_canyon-hills-JHS-TN-img

Woke Parents Protest As School Dares To Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday

Woke Parents Protest As School Dares To Celebrate America's 250th Birthday

Politics

Turning Point USA

Woke Culture

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, Manhattan Institute fellow Danyela Souza Egorov takes a look at ballooning public education spending and asks: What are we getting for this money? Her answer may surprise you.
***
American K-12 public education spending <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED679904.pdf">reached</a> $1 trillion for the first time in 2024.
But what are students getting for that money?
While <a href="https://edunomicslab.org/roi-over-time/">spending grew</a> by 56% since 2013, reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as “the nation’s report card” — declined. Over the next decade, national student enrollment is <a href="https://bellwether.org/publications/how-student-enrollment-declines-are-affecting-education-budgets/?activeTab=2">projected</a> to decline by 5.5%, around 2.7 million students.
There are some bright spots. According to the Georgetown University Edunomics Lab, students in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia have seen <a href="https://us19.campaign-archive.com/?u=179e2a9db6ce62a03ab6a0a74&amp;id=1262a5adf2">some</a> recent gains, with Mississippi <a href="https://www.progressivepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/PPI_Mississippi-Marathon.pdf">leading</a> in reading improvement.
However, most states with increased education budgets have not improved student outcomes, and some have even experienced declines.
What they have done is hire staff. A lot of staff.
K-12 staff <a href="https://edunomicslab.org/staffing-v-enrollment-trends/">grew</a> from 5.9 million in 2014 to 6.6 million in 2024, even as schools served about 1 million fewer students. This disconnect between spending and enrollment has resulted in situations such as a Chicago school <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/chicagos-empty-ghost-schools-teach-us-about-how-system-failing">with</a> 28 staff members for 27 students.
There’s also a Memphis charter <a href="https://www.tnfirefly.com/news/memphis-shelby-county-school-board-renews-public-charter-school-despite-enrollment-of-just-14-students">school</a> that was renewed despite having only 14 students enrolled — it may have helped that the principal is <a href="https://dailymemphian.com/email/23233/view">married</a> to the Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent, who is responsible for charter renewal — and 112 New York City schools projected to enroll <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-york-city-public-schools-enrollment-zohran-mamdani">fewer</a> than 150 students, effectively creating micro schools and raising per-pupil spending to <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/30/us-news/nyc-doe-projected-to-spend-over-42k-per-student-this-school-year-the-most-in-the-country/">approximately</a> $42,000.
But while lots of states are snatching up staff, they’re not all spending money the same way. Take the four largest states — Florida, Texas, California, and New York — which collectively educate 34% of American students.
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://manhattan.institute/subscribe?utm_source=DailyWire&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=reihan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here for more Manhattan Institute content.</a></h3>
The red states are expanding school choice. Florida dedicates nearly 12% of its budget to school choice programs, <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/2026-edchoice-spending-share-rankings">more</a> than any other state. Currently, 53% of Florida students attend a school of their choice rather than the one assigned to them by the government based on their home address. Texas recently passed a bill <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/national-school-choice-week-republican-states">allocating</a> $1 billion to the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, now the largest first-year education savings account program in the country, with over 274,000 students <a href="https://comptroller.texas.gov/about/media-center/news/20260402-texas-comptrollers-office-releases-comprehensive-overview-of-texas-education-freedom-account-applications-1775142014682#:~:text=%E2%80%9CTexas%20didn't%20just%20meet,showed%20up%20in%20record%20numbers.%E2%80%9D">applying</a> in its first year.
Meanwhile, California and New York are moving to limit school choice for families. California previously saw rapid charter school growth, with about 80 new schools <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED558484.pdf">opening</a> annually. However, <a href="https://edsource.org/2019/new-era-for-charter-schools-newsom-signs-bill-with-compromises-he-negotiated/618099">a 2019 law</a> that allowed local school boards to deny charter applications <a href="https://laist.com/news/education/buffeted-by-change-california-charter-schools-continue-to-grow-amid-scrutiny">reduced</a> new charter openings from 80 in 2014 to 12 in 2023.
Similarly, New York has imposed limits on school choice. Statewide, charter schools enroll <a href="https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/migrant-influx-helps-curb-new-yorks-k-12-enrollment-decline/#:~:text=Enrollment%20in%20charter%20schools%20grew,Homeschool">about</a> 7% of students, with higher concentrations in major cities like Buffalo (25%) and New York City (16%), where the number of charter schools has been capped.
This gap may widen next year as states decide whether to participate in the Federal Scholarship Tax program, which offers taxpayers a $1,700 dollar-for-dollar federal tax reduction for donations to scholarship-granting organizations.
Participation requires states to opt in, and neither California Governor Gavin Newsom nor New York Governor Kathy Hochul has done so. As two of the top states in federal tax payments, their nonparticipation could result in California losing $3 billion and New York losing $1.5 billion in potential donations from their residents that will benefit low-income kids in the other 27 <a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/27-states-opting-into-federal-school-choice-program-IRS-Congress/818087/#:~:text=States%20are%20awaiting%20rules%20defining,building%20is%20pictured%20on%20Feb." target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a> that have already opted in, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YTP9avQpzmXRpQ96zxQ0w60g81A3cdK8/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Democrats for Education Reform. On Tax Day, all four senators from California and New York <a href="https://www.kelly.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MCG26237.pdf">joined</a> 30 Democrats to propose repealing the program.
Differences in how states allocate the $1 trillion on education resources will continue to influence where families live and how many students can access high-quality education. As David Shor, head of a major Democratic consulting firm, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-david-shor.html">told</a> the New York Times, “education has gone from being basically one of the best issues for Democrats to basically neutral now.”
As red states continue to expand family choice in education spending, Democrats will inevitably face challenges in explaining to voters policies that limit educational options for families.
Danyela Souza Egorov is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Mother hold hand schoolboy walking to bus. Energetic pupils running crossway.

Schools Received More Money Than Ever. Parents Aren’t Seeing The Results.

Charter Schools

Florida

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), never a group to shy away from radical posturing, has officially <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2026/03/12/chicago-teachers-union-plans-to-join-may-1-no-school-no-work-day-of-action-wants-classes-canceled?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23559714611&amp;gbraid=0AAAAA9e-Tg6UY-KZu4aY-vqEU5Q5EQU0F&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwntHPBhAaEiwA_Xp6Rne5i-_eFc1MaVw8HXTBnMkL6ujFJ6xP1F5YdsN8qKwMcpc80urKABoCOCQQAvD_BwE">declared its intent</a> to abandon the classroom on May 1. In a move that effectively amounts to a one-day strike, the union’s 730-member House of Delegates approved a resolution joining a national movement calling for a day of “no school, no work, and no shopping.”
The CTU isn&#8217;t just asking its members to walk out; it’s demanding that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the school board use state law to excuse students so they can participate in what the union calls “civic action.”
The choice of May 1 is no coincidence. While the date’s origins trace back to the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, it was quickly co-opted by the global far-Left. In 1889, the Second International—a collection of socialist and labor parties—designated it as a day of demonstration. By 1917, it became the premier state holiday of the Soviet Union, complete with Red Square parades featuring tanks and missiles intended to signal the &#8220;proletariat&#8217;s&#8221; triumph over capitalism.
While the United States spent decades trying to distance itself from these connotations—establishing &#8220;Loyalty Day&#8221; and &#8220;Law Day&#8221; on May 1 to counter communist influence—the CTU appears eager to revive the day’s most radical sentiments.
The CTU&#8217;s resolution reads less like an educational mandate and more like a manifesto from a bygone era of class warfare. The union’s demands are explicitly political and heavily flavored with the &#8220;tax the rich&#8221; rhetoric synonymous with communist agitation.
According to the resolution, the CTU intends to:
<ul>
<li data-path-to-node="10,0,0">Target the Wealthy: The union is demanding that the government “tax the rich to support our schools,” echoing the classic Marxist refrain of wealth redistribution.</li>
<li data-path-to-node="10,1,0">Abolish Enforcement: In a direct challenge to federal law, the union is calling for “ICE out of our cities,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.</li>
<li data-path-to-node="10,2,0">Attack &#8220;Authoritarianism&#8221;: The resolution rails against &#8220;MAGA politicians,&#8221; &#8220;billionaire donors,&#8221; and &#8220;corporate interests,&#8221; claiming these groups are &#8220;attempting to cement authoritarian power.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
CTU Vice President Jackson Potter stated, &#8220;Teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities &#8230;&#8221; Meanwhile, CTU member Kevin Moore justified the walkout by claiming &#8220;public education is under attack,&#8221; asserting that taking children out of school to participate in political rallies is a way of &#8220;teaching our students how to use their voice.&#8221;
Instead of math and literacy, the CTU wants students to engage in &#8220;age-appropriate&#8221; civic education, which apparently includes &#8220;mass resistance training&#8221; and &#8220;political education,&#8221; according to the union&#8217;s <a href="https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/mayday-resolution/?link_id=2&amp;can_id=17ebc6e1a278c81ea80307c4c5703485&amp;source=email-ctu-members-vote-to-join-may-1st-no-school-no-work-no-shopping-day-of-civic-action&amp;email_referrer=email_3140500&amp;email_subject=ctu-members-vote-to-join-may-1st-no-school-no-work-no-shopping-day-of-civic-action">resolution</a>. The union is also using the platform to weigh in on foreign policy, writing, &#8220;Trump has illegally declared war on Iran built on lies and deception.&#8221;
Mayor Johnson, a former CTU organizer himself, signaled support for the &#8220;direct action,&#8221; though he vaguely promised to ensure &#8220;no loss of instruction time&#8221;—a difficult feat when the union is actively calling for &#8220;No School.&#8221;
As the CTU pivots from education to overt political activism, it remains to be seen how Chicago parents will react to their children being used as pawns in a movement that shares more DNA with the Soviet Union’s &#8220;Workers&#8217; Day&#8221; than with the American classroom.

OPED-CHICAGO-TEACHERS-WALKOUT-EDITORIAL-TB

‘No School, No Work’ Teacher Strike Takes A Page From Communist May Day

Chicago

Communism

Teachers Unions

U.S.

A male science professor at the University of Oxford is facing criticism from fellow academics for reportedly wearing large “plastic breasts” while teaching.
Matt Rattley, a <a href="https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/people/matt-rattley">lecturer</a> in biochemistry at Oxford’s St. Hilda’s College, went viral this week after a video was <a href="https://x.com/IsntWorkingPod/status/2048503195521909058">posted</a> on X with him talking about imposter syndrome. Rattley, who lists “they/them” pronouns on LinkedIn, has a long, wispy beard and appears to wear prosthetic breasts.
Oxford professor Michael Biggs <a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/04/29/why-is-oxford-indulging-a-lecturer-who-wears-his-plastic-breasts-at-work/">told</a> the British magazine Spiked that there is “a strong case that Mr Rattley is creating a degrading and offensive environment, especially for female students, which would constitute sexual harassment.”
Biggs added that adults should not bring “their sexual interests” to work, but that they should be free to do what they want in private.
Rattley has been a non-stipendiary lecturer at St. Hilda&#8217;s since October 2023, according to the college. St. Hilda’s was initially founded as an all women’s college back in 1893. The college did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a video pulled from his LinkedIn that has been viewed over 2.5 million times, Rattley discussed creating a website and the problem of “imposter syndrome.”
“The problem I&#8217;m running up against is some imposter syndrome — classic. Basically, what does it mean to be an expert in something?  Because it&#8217;s really not obvious to me at what point I could describe myself as an expert in something. I have expertise in things,” he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been teaching plenty.  My chemistry is pretty solid, but I think I still have this feeling that declaring myself an expert in something is a little bit uncomfortable.” 
Photos from his social platforms show Rattley frequently wearing dresses and with painted nails.
<div id="attachment_1086991" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1086991" class="size-full wp-image-1086991" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-scaled.png" alt="" width="2560" height="1300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-scaled.png 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-300x152.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-1024x520.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-768x390.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-1536x780.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-30-at-7.40.34-AM-2048x1040.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />LinkedIn.</div>
Journalist Jo Bartosch <a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/04/29/why-is-oxford-indulging-a-lecturer-who-wears-his-plastic-breasts-at-work/">wrote</a> in an article published Wednesday that no one in Rattley’s department has publicly addressed the controversy.
“No one in his male-dominated department has publicly criticised his sexist sartorial choices, and he has been pictured and filmed at professional events looking as though he has wandered in from a stag do,” she wrote.
Bartosch added that the university will not tell Rattley to dress appropriately to work, but will go after critics of transgender ideology. She added that it was insulting to female students and teachers that the university allowed Rattley to wear his fake breasts while teaching.
“Ultimately, a university is not a stage, nor a fetish club,” she wrote. “It is a place of learning, where young people ought to be able to study without being forced to navigate someone else’s exhibitionism.”

MixCollage-30-Apr-2026-07-53-AM-317

He’s Bald, Bearded, And Has Fake Breasts. He’s Also Teaching Kids At A Prestigious University.

LGBTQ

Oxford University

Social Issues

Transgender

World

For decades, Americans have viewed their primary adversaries as foreign nationals or international terrorist organizations. Yet this perspective has proven dangerously naive. Over the past 60 years, socialist and Marxist ideologies have taken root within our own borders, often hiding in plain sight. This internal threat operates not from distant shores but from within.
Recent events only underscore this concern. The arrest of a would-be assassin at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — reportedly a former “Teacher of the Year” — is deeply disturbing. It raises a critical question: how have individuals entrusted with educating our children become radicalized to such extremes? And more importantly — where is the line when freedom of speech ends and subversion begins?
<h3>Quietly Reshaping Society From the Inside Out</h3>
This enemy is not a shadowy cabal of spies but a network of socialist and Marxist-influenced elites who have methodically gained influence over key pillars of American life: universities, the legal system, media, political parties, and even religious organizations. Operating under the banners of progress, equity, and social justice, they have advanced while many citizens focused on daily responsibilities. The outcome has been a slow erosion of foundational American values and a deliberate division of people along lines of ethnicity, religion, and sexual identity and even splits amongst once close family members. The result is the gradual weakening of the nation’s core institutions and social fabric.
<h3>The Decimation of the Nuclear Family</h3>
One of the most striking impacts appears in the decline of the nuclear family. This trend began prominently in the black community. In the 1960s, roughly 80% of black children lived in two-parent homes. Today, that figure is reversed with 77% of black children born to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/693212/77-black-births-to-single-moms-49-for-hispanic-immigrants/">single mothers</a>. The problem has since spread nationwide. Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/12/12/u-s-children-more-likely-than-children-in-other-countries-to-live-with-just-one-parent/">data</a> show the United States has the highest rate of children living in single-parent households among developed nations — 23% of U.S. children under 18 live in fatherless homes, more than three times the global average.
Marriage rates have also hit historic lows, undermining the stable family structures historically linked to prosperity, child well-being, and social mobility. A prosperous country cannot long thrive without strong families as its foundation.
<h3>Academic Excellence Subverted into a Marxist Trojan Horse</h3>
Nowhere is the transformation more evident than in education. In public schools, social justice curricula emphasizing systemic racism, gender ideology, and equity have often displaced core academics. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores — the Nation’s Report Card — reveal reading and math proficiency at historic lows, with declines affecting students across demographic groups. Resources flow into DEI initiatives and “restorative justice” programs that prioritize emotional outcomes over measurable skills.
The human cost is profound: <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/most-us-would-fail-u-s-citizenship-test-survey-finds-n918961">surveys indicate</a> only about 19% of Americans under age 45 can pass the U.S. Citizenship Test, with many unable to name the three branches of government or explain the Bill of Rights. Older Americans pass at much higher rates (around 74% in some studies), underscoring that this reflects educational shifts rather than inherent generational differences. 
Teachers’ unions have sometimes embraced ideological language. During the 2022 Minneapolis strike, a union leader framed the effort as a fight against “the patriarchy” and “capitalism.”
Universities, once centers of free inquiry, now exhibit stark ideological imbalance. Faculty ratios have shifted dramatically, with liberal-to-conservative balances moving from roughly 2:1 in the mid-1990s to far wider margins today — often 10:1 or higher in many studies, with even greater disparities in humanities and education departments. In the national survey, Departments of Education faculty self-identify as Radical, Activist, Socialist or Marxist. This is especially concerning because they instruct the next generation of public-school teachers.
<h3>Propaganda Masquerading as Journalism and Advocacy</h3>
This academic capture influences media, law, and advocacy. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have faced scrutiny, including allegations in legal contexts of questionable practices while labeling mainstream groups. Media outlets often amplify such frameworks, shaping narratives through selective coverage. In politics, socialist ideas have moved from the fringes to mainstream Democratic platforms.
In November 2025, New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, as mayor — the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of America’s largest city. His administration prioritizes expansive government and redistribution. Similar dynamics appear in Minnesota: Minneapolis City Council includes self-declared Democratic Socialists of America members advancing related priorities amid ongoing challenges with crime and services. The 2020 unrest in Minneapolis, involving organized elements, accelerated “defund the police” experiments rooted in these ideologies.
<h3>Undermining Service to Citizens</h3>
Elected officials advancing such agendas can weaken state capacity and national cohesion. When civic education falters, informed citizenship declines — an outcome aligned with views that see the Constitution as an outdated instrument of oppression.
Religious institutions have also been affected. Some mainline Protestant and Catholic circles have incorporated critiques of “systemic sin,” shifting emphasis toward social justice over personal redemption. Sermons increasingly echo academic and media talking points on privilege and reparations.
<h3>Pattern Recognition and the Path Forward</h3>
This is not paranoia but observable pattern recognition. Socialist and Marxist influences advanced not through overt revolution but via tenure committees, HR departments, grants, and activist networks. They reframed compassion-based concepts like diversity, inclusion, and equity into tools against dissent.
Evidence surrounds us: politicized campuses stifling debate, advocacy groups facing credibility questions, socialist elected officials, schools prioritizing socialist ideology, unions opposing capitalism, coordinated protests and riots, and churches emphasizing liberal politics.
Americans must awaken to this reality. The adversary lectures from podiums, edits content, drafts laws, grades papers, and serves on councils — seldom wearing foreign uniforms. Reclaiming institutions require vigilance: restoring academic excellence and viewpoint diversity in universities, demanding transparency from nonprofits and unions, electing leaders focused on merit and results, and ensuring schools prioritize fundamentals — reading, writing, history, and civics — over grievance.
The republic was not lost overnight but inch by inch. The time to push back is now. Our children’s future and the nation’s character depend on it.
* * *
Kendall Qualls is an Army veteran, business leader, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. TakeCharge is a national nonprofit organization led by Kendall and Sheila Qualls focused on restoring strong families as the foundation for opportunity, dignity, and upward mobility.

Former President Obama Joins NYC Mayor Mamdani On A Visit To Child Care Center

The Quiet Campaign Weaponizing America’s Youth

DW Opinion

Family Values

Gen Z

Leftists

Legacy Media

Minnesota

Propaganda

Teenagers

New York City has paid almost $100 million to rent empty preschool classrooms, according to a shocking new report.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/04/20/us-news/empty-nyc-preschools-cost-taxpayers-nearly-100m-in-rent-alone/">reported</a> Monday that the city has paid $99.3 million over the last five years for rent and utilities on 28 buildings for preschool classrooms acquired through part of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “universal” preschool push. The spending on the empty classrooms has both former officials and NYC residents upset about the Big Apple’s latest use of taxpayer dollars.
“I don’t think it’s corruption. It’s incompetence,” a former city Department of Education official told the Post.
The official added that despite “such a significant need for pre-K seats,” many of the classrooms were empty because they were made available in areas without verifying demand. Meanwhile, other parts of the city have long wait lists for preschool seats.
The Post reported that de Blasio’s push for the“3-K For All” program, which provides full-day early childhood education for 3-year-olds, led to a mad dash for renting buildings that have yet to be used.
De Blasio blamed the empty classrooms on his successor, former Mayor Eric Adams, saying that “during my administration, we never had a problem filling Pre-K and 3-K seats because we did lots of parent-friendly outreach.”
“Sadly, the Adams administration ended those efforts and took a step backwards on early childhood education,” he told the Post.
For his part, Adams said that he “inherited a system with thousands of empty early childhood seats,” and he focused on “stabilizing providers and increasing enrollment, rather than simply expanding capacity.”
Seven of the vacant sites are expected to be opened up in the fall by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“New York City is continuing to invest in and strengthen early care and learning across the city, including expanding access to 3-K and improving access to Pre-K programs for families,&#8221; the New York Department of Education told The Daily Wire. &#8220;NYC Public Schools, in partnership with City Hall, is opening new Pre-K Centers and activating additional early childhood sites in communities where families need more access to programs closer to home.”
One of the empty sites is at Union Turnpike in Queens and has cost the city $10.8 million, according to the report.
“They realized [afterward that] it wasn’t a good location. … If they didn’t think the need was there, why did they pick the site in the first place?” the former Education Department official said.
Nearby business owner Larry Mottola told the Post that it was troubling that the government would waste money on unused buildings.
“They had beautiful classrooms, a stainless steel kitchen [and] there’s a beautiful playground around back,” he said. “It’s bothersome, [that] they would waste that kind of money for four years.”
Another parent said that it was frustrating that the government selected sites where there was no demand.
“It feels like a real misstep that we’re not even utilizing the space that’s being paid for,” said Jessica Setton. &#8220;De Blasio had good intention, terrible execution.&#8221;

Classroom

‘Free’ Daycare? See What A $100M Taxpayer Bill Got Instead

Bill de Blasio

Eric Adams

New York Post

This article is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, originally published in <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-college-florida-gender-studies-activism">City Journal</a>, Colin Wright argues that faculty at New College of Florida continue to advance activist scholarship in ways that undermine the state’s post-woke reforms.
* * *
When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pledged to rein in “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/13/1110842453/florida-gov-desantis-is-doing-battle-against-woke-public-schools">woke indoctrination</a>” in public education, he wasn’t bluffing. Over the last several years, he and the legislature have pursued an aggressive legal and governance strategy to push far-left ideology out of taxpayer-funded institutions. The justification is straightforward: the people have the right to demand that public universities not become subsidized activist factories.
Laws can close academic departments and impose subject-area bans on paper, but campuses are still run day-to-day by faculty and administrators who may not be interested in what voters want. When progressive activists dominate a university, they will inevitably try to circumvent the law.
Such efforts appear to be happening at New College today. Though the Gender Studies department was shut down at the Sarasota school, and Florida law forbids the use of state and federal funds to “promote or engage in political or social activism,” faculty continue to oversee work promoting activist pseudoscience, treat opposition to explicit content in K-12 libraries as equivalent to Nazism, and celebrate “queer bibliographies” and “resistance” to elected officials.
Consider a 2025 undergraduate thesis covering the “Evolution of Gender” in drama and fashion.
Nova Myhill, a professor of English and Theater, Dance &amp; Performance Studies at New College, sponsored the thesis, which explicitly lists “Gender Studies” as its “Area of Concentration.”
At a glance, the thesis appears to be a broad, benign survey of gender-expression conventions through fashion in the context of theater. But it quickly advances to extreme activist views of sex and biology. The opening section, titled “Our Idea of Sex,” portrays sex in humans not as “concrete” or “permanent” but as something “closer to being reflections of societal preconceptions than anything based only on ‘biology.’” It claims that the idea that humans have two sexes became widespread only “around the mid-1700s” due to “changing values of what was important within identity, class and gender beginning to take the utmost importance when using clothing as a symbol or sign of identity.” It even asserts that “there was a time when we conceived of the human race as only ‘one-sex’,” and that our “re-envisioning of the sexes” during the Enlightenment into two categories — male and female — actually “led to the differentiation and specific designation of reproductive organs; the penis, testicles, ovaries, and uterus.”
If this were the only undergraduate thesis at New College promoting such radical activist views, it might be dismissed. It is not.
In January 2026, the college approved and archived an undergraduate thesis in the Division of Humanities that engaged in political activism and covered Gender Queer and Fun Home — books the sexually explicit content of which has prompted parents to oppose their inclusion in school libraries. Myhill also sponsored this thesis and is thanked effusively in the acknowledgements.
Oddly, this thesis includes two abstracts. The first, more formal one describes an exploration of “book censorship, theft, and destruction,” framed as actions “employed to specifically target queer, trans, Jewish, and other marginalized communities,” and ends by describing the authors’ “queer works” as “an act of cultural legacy, heritage transmission, and resistance.” The second reads like a direct taunt of DeSantis and New College’s policy reforms:
<blockquote>This thesis is about queers, trans people, gender, Nazis, book burning, moral panics, censorship, Magnus Hirshfeld, pornography . . . queer bibliography, the Phantasma, classroom libraries, Ron DeSantis, what it’s like to be erased, and also how people fight back . . . so why not read it already?</blockquote>
This isn’t “academic” in any meaningful sense, but rather activist writing designed to indoctrinate, recruit, and promote activism.
In one section, the thesis classifies Gender Queer as essential reading and mocks DeSantis for displaying redacted pages from the book during his November 2023 debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom. It frames Florida’s higher education reforms as part of an “anti-gender movement” with “chilling reach.”
The thesis also compares Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Christopher F. Rufo’s rhetoric to the “paranoia and persecution of McCarthyism in the 1950s” and claims that he helped incite a “reactive moral panic” like the one behind Nazi-era book purges in 1930s Germany. It compares <a href="https://x.com/christopherrufo/status/1824307070839165333">Rufo’s tweet</a> about abolishing the college’s Gender Studies program to a “long and fiery radio address” delivered by “Joseph Goebbels.” Again, such comparisons are not objective scholarship but political activism.
Other recent theses at New College also veer in an activist direction, including a 2025 thesis on “Queer Resistance and the Fight for Change in Morocco,” a 2026 thesis on “Why Queer People Like Horror Films,” and another in 2025 titled “Who Holds the Mic?: Exploring Image, Control, and Identity in Queer.”
Of course, Florida’s higher-ed reforms don’t ban students from discussing controversial topics in class or engaging in activism in their free time. State leaders intended them to prevent public institutions from using public funds to “promote, support, or maintain” programs or activities that “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “promote or engage in political or social activism.”
The work required to shepherd student theses entails faculty time and labor, institutional oversight, and curriculum funded by and developed under the authority of the university. It strains credulity to present as legitimate scholarship works that push false, ideologically charged views of biology or that describe themselves as works of “resistance.” A process that produces such works appears to flout Florida law’s intent to prevent state and federal funds from being used to “promote or engage in political or social activism.”
None of this is to say that shutting down New College’s gender-studies department was in vain. The volume of activist “scholarship” produced at the institution has declined markedly, and that’s a true achievement.
Nonetheless, Florida’s academic reforms are not self-enforcing. As always, personnel is policy. True believers on the faculty will look for workarounds. If nobody is paying attention, abolished departments will soon reappear inside more traditional ones — in this case, the departments of English and Theater, Dance &amp; Performance Studies.
Institutional responsibility lies with the faculty and administrators who decide which scholarship to approve, endorse, or reward. New College’s trustees and the state legislature can pass resolutions and rewrite statutes, but they cannot monitor every thesis committee or syllabus. 
That requires constant vigilance, because the pattern is predictable: abolish the department, then watch its ideology migrate to the English department, the history department, or the library.
If New College wants to fulfill its evolution into a post-woke institution, its guardians should not approve scholarship that treats its vital reforms as analogous to a second Holocaust. Leaders should hold faculty accountable when they use university resources to resurrect discarded programs and pursue activism under new names.
* * *
<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/person/colin-wright">Colin Wright</a> is an evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute Fellow.

Menu