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.
***
As the United States marks its 250th birthday and Americans reflect on the nation&#8217;s Founding, we should also ask whether we&#8217;ve prepared the next generation to understand it.
The truth is, we haven&#8217;t.
On the <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)</a>, U.S. history is the worst-performing subject tested. Just 13% of 8th graders were proficient, and four in 10 couldn&#8217;t reach even a basic level in 2022. Scores have been declining since 2014. On the <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/civics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Civics NAEP assessment</a>, about one in five students was proficient, and nearly a third scored below even a basic level.
The country has already written down what a citizen should know — it just doesn&#8217;t require citizens to know it.
Immigrants who want to become Americans must pass a <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/learn-about-citizenship/the-naturalization-interview-and-test" target="_blank" rel="noopener">naturalization test</a> that requires them to name a branch of government, explain what the Constitution does, and say why the colonists broke from Britain.
Yet survey native born Americans with the same questions, and most fail. <a href="https://cands.org/research-national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A 2018 study found</a> that only 36% of American adults could pass a basic citizenship test — compared with a <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/naturalization-related-data-and-statistics/naturalization-test-performance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">95% pass rate</a> among immigrants actually required to take it.
We hold the people joining this country to a standard we don&#8217;t hold the people born into it. Much of that gap starts in the classroom, where history and civics have gradually been pushed to the margins.
<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Under No Child Left Behind,</a> schools were held accountable for reading and math. Students were tested in those subjects, and schools had to answer for those results. That worked, and it coincided with the largest gains across the nation.
But history and civics were largely left out of that framework. Schools were not held accountable for them, and over time, they received less attention. Today, the average elementary classroom spends <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/social-studies-and-science-get-short-shrift-in-elementary-schools-why-that-matters/2024/02" target="_blank" rel="noopener">roughly 16 minutes</a> a day on social studies — a fraction of the time devoted to reading and math.
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<a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/restoring-civics-education-all-50-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In a federal survey</a>, only 49% of 8th graders reported taking a class focused primarily on civics or government, and 8% had taken no such course at all.
After No Child Left Behind, the country moved to<a href="https://www.thecorestandards.org/about-the-standards/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Common Core</a> State Standards, which never set a single standard for what history students should learn. The Common Core governed reading and math, and its approach to reading taught students to stay inside &#8220;<a href="https://achievethecore.org/content/upload/3._Publishers_Criteria_for_Literacy_for_Grades_3-12.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the four corners of the text,</a>&#8221; answering only what the page itself revealed.
History is different. Students cannot fully understand the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution without understanding the grievances against King George III, the debates over independence, and the political philosophy that shaped the American Founding. Common Core may have addressed how students should read those documents, but it never addressed what they should know before they did so.
The result is a generation that may recognize the Founding documents without understanding why they were revolutionary. They may know the Constitution exists without understanding federalism or the separation of powers it created. They may hear arguments about socialism and capitalism without ever having studied the history from which those arguments come.
What a student actually learns increasingly depends on the state, and often the district, where he happens to go to school.
A <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much-thats-problem-libertarians-must-fix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2025 survey</a> found that 62% of Americans under 30 now hold a favorable view of socialism, and a third say the same of communism. These opinions were formed, for most of them, without ever having studied what this truly means in practice. A student who never studied the Soviet famines or the Cold War doesn&#8217;t know what it looks like when a government controls what people can grow, buy, or sell.
And these gaps certainly don&#8217;t remain in the classroom. They shape how young Americans understand the political, economic, and civic debates they inherit.
America 250 should be a national recommitment to teaching the story of the United States with defined content and accountability. Every graduate should leave school understanding the nation&#8217;s Founding, the Constitution, the structure of American government, and the events that have shaped the country since.
The real gift of America&#8217;s 250th would be a generation of graduates who finally understand the country they&#8217;re being asked to celebrate. Committing to truly teach it is the least this birthday should ask of us.
***
Jennifer Weber is a fellow for K-12 Education Policy at the Manhattan Institute.

Blackboard in Old-Fashioned School House

Let’s Mark America 250 With A Civic Education Revival

America 250

American History

Education

MI x DW

Qatar’s massive footprint in American education is facing renewed scrutiny as watchdogs warn that the Gulf state has poured billions into U.S. universities while disclosure laws remain weak, incomplete, and unevenly enforced.
The question is no longer simply whether schools are reporting foreign gifts. Critics say the more serious issue is what the money is buying: branch campuses, endowed chairs, research centers, faculty pipelines, academic programming, and influence over how future American leaders are taught to think about Israel, terrorism, political Islam, and U.S. foreign policy.
A <a href="https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-900026">Jerusalem Post piece</a> by Dr. Charles Asher Small, founding director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, argued that Congress already has the evidence but has failed to act. He pointed to the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1048/all-info">DETERRENT Act</a>, which has passed the House twice with bipartisan support but stalled in the Senate.
The bill would lower the foreign gift reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000, require disclosure of gifts to individual faculty and staff, create a public database, and impose financial penalties for non-compliance.
Small compared the problem to China’s Confucius Institutes, citing a 2019 Senate investigation that found nearly 70% of U.S. schools receiving more than $250,000 from Chinese government-linked Confucius Institutes failed to properly report the money. He said ISGAP’s “Follow the Money” findings revealed billions in Middle Eastern funding, primarily from Qatar, to U.S. universities that had not been reported as required. A later Department of Education review identified more than $6.5 billion in previously unreported foreign funding at a small number of institutions.
The scale of Qatar’s influence reaches far beyond campuses. A June Foundation for Defense of Democracies report estimated that Qatar has directed at least $400 billion into the United States since 2000, or roughly $1.2 million per Qatari citizen. The report called that figure a conservative estimate and said Qatari government or White House estimates could exceed $1.2 trillion.
FDD said Qatar, a country of about 330,000 citizens, has surpassed China as the largest foreign funder of American higher education by approximately $2 billion. The report cited the Department of Education’s foreign funding dashboard showing Qatar has pumped $8.8 billion into U.S. higher education since 2001.
That money is drawing attention because Qatar is not just another foreign investor. FDD described Doha as a patron of Hamas, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood, and said the country’s state-owned Al Jazeera Media Network amplifies Islamist propaganda. A June report from JINSA’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy similarly noted that Hamas’s political bureau has operated from Doha under Qatari state protection since 2012.
Those concerns have become harder to dismiss since the anti-Israel protest wave that followed Hamas’s October 7 attack. Universities were criticized for failing to shut down radical encampments, enforce campus rules, or protect Jewish students as anti-Israel activism turned into campus occupations.
A January Middle East Forum report focused on Georgetown University, which established its Qatar campus in 2005 through a partnership with the Qatar Foundation and has extended the arrangement through 2035. According to the report, Georgetown received more than <a href="https://www.meforum.org/mef-reports/qatars-multidimensional-takeover-of-georgetown-university">$971 million</a> from Qatar over 20 years through 76 contracts.
The report said the funding supported not only Georgetown’s Doha campus, but also faculty, scholarships, research initiatives, and endowed chairs on the Washington, D.C., campus, including Qatari-funded chairs in Muslim Societies, the History of Islam, and Indian Politics.
JINSA’s June 2026 <a href="https://jinsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Qatar-Higher-Influence.pdf">report</a> reviewed nearly 900 pages of documents released by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, including framework agreements, governance charters, intellectual property provisions, confidentiality agreements, and a direct contract between Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Georgetown’s Bridge Initiative.
According to JINSA, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a June 13, 2024, contract with Georgetown providing a <a href="https://jinsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Qatar-Higher-Influence.pdf">$630,000 grant</a>, split into three annual installments of $210,000, to support Bridge Initiative research related to Islamophobia. The report said the agreement required conferences on the “Globalization of Islamophobia” and called for consultation with a parallel Qatar-supported initiative on sessions, themes, and speakers.
JINSA also raised concerns about Northwestern University in Qatar’s relationship with Al Jazeera. According to the report, a 2013 memorandum covered research cooperation, journalism programs, scholarships, training opportunities, employment pathways for Northwestern Qatar graduates into Al Jazeera, and training by Northwestern faculty for Al Jazeera leadership.
The money appears to have flowed into the same academic space where the post-October 7 crisis later erupted, including Middle East studies, Islamophobia research, Israel and Palestine programming, anti-colonial scholarship, and foreign policy training. These fields shape how students understand terrorism, Israel, America’s role in the world, and the language used to describe political violence.
<a href="https://isgap.org/follow-the-money/">ISGAP has also said</a> Students for Justice in Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine helped lead the post-October 7 explosion of campus antisemitism. The group said its prior research found <a href="https://isgap.org/follow-the-money/">SJP had a direct connection to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood</a> and links to organizations that support or previously supported violence and terror.
Other watchdogs have raised similar concerns about the protest network. <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp">The ADL says </a>National SJP and local SJP chapters justified or glorified the Hamas-led October 7 attack and later became central organizers of the 2024 campus encampments. <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/tampa-bay/2023/10/25/desantis-shuts-down-usf-uf-pro-palestinian-groups">Axios reported</a> that Florida officials moved to deactivate university SJP chapters after citing a National SJP toolkit that framed Hamas’s attack as part of “the resistance” and told Palestinian students in exile they were “PART of this movement.”
A Jerusalem Post analysis reported that U.S. student protests against Israel were “orchestrated by Qatar-funded groups” and described the demonstrations as organized and generously funded. ISGAP has separately argued that foreign money from Qatar has had a direct effect on increasing antisemitic and anti-democratic activity at American universities.

Protest Against Anti Semitism and NSJP Conference At UCLA

Qatar’s Billions Raise New Questions About Foreign Influence On Campus

Israel

Qatar

The percentage of students claiming to have disabilities — and thus qualifying for accommodations such as extra time for assignments and tests — is higher than the percentage of male students at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
As reported by The New York Post, more than one-third of students enrolled in the law school — 37% — are also in UC Berkeley&#8217;s <a href="https://dsp.berkeley.edu/about/annual-report-and-data?">Disabled Students Program</a>. By comparison, male students make up approximately 30-33% of enrollees. The most common disabilities listed were emotional and psychological — primarily attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety, but occasionally depression as well. According to data from the Disabled Students Program office, 98% of the disabilities claimed by law students fell into those categories.
The change is staggering: in 2021, just 3% of UC Berkeley law school graduates were part of the Disabled Students Program. Among undergraduates, the number was slightly higher at 10%.
The dramatic swing has some critics wondering whether some of the claims are less about real disabilities and more about the fact that enrollment in the program allows students to have 150% or even 200% of the time allotted to students outside the program for the grueling legal exams they must pass in order to graduate.
Campus exam proctoring services have reported a dramatic increase in requests for accommodations that reflects the jump as well, more than tripling from under 4,000 in the 2021-2022 academic year to over 14,000 in 2024-2025.
Andrew Testerman, a graduate who dug into the program&#8217;s use and laid out his findings in a <a href="https://jamesgmartin.center/2026/06/the-law-school-accommodations-racket/">report</a> for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, commented, &#8220;We are asked to believe that students at elite law schools are significantly more likely to be disabled than our nation’s senior citizens.&#8221;
But the statistical anomalies did not stop there.
&#8220;At U.C. Berkeley, proportionally more women than men seek accommodations for ADHD — even though in the population at large, men are several times more likely to have this disorder,&#8221; Testerman wrote. &#8220;Thus, either many students are falsely claiming to be disabled, or the number of disabled students is truly staggering — to the point where disability status would in fact be the norm, and the exception would swallow the rule.&#8221;
Testerman also proposed a solution to the problem, arguing that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration could easily take action: &#8220;President Trump could go a long way toward solving this problem. A single executive order, together with revised administrative guidance and a notice of proposed rulemaking, could change the incentive structure.&#8221;

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder treatment

Students Claiming To Be Disabled Enroll At Prestigious Law School At Higher Rate Than Men

Students Claiming To Be Disabled Outnumber Men At Prestigious Law School

California

Disability

Law schools

As children raced through the halls of the Trump Kennedy Center waving miniature American flags and wearing Minuteman hats, Dr. Ben Carson stood at the center of what he hopes will become a new movement in children&#8217;s education.
The former Housing and Urban Development secretary, 2016 presidential candidate, and renowned neurosurgeon premiered “Star Spangled Adventures: The Movie” on Sunday as part of the <a href="https://americancornerstone.org/">American Cornerstone Institute&#8217;s</a> Little Patriots initiative, an effort designed to teach American history to children through books, films, and educational resources ahead of the nation&#8217;s 250th anniversary.
For Carson, the animated feature is about far more than entertainment. &#8220;In order for people to really develop patriotism, they need to know their history,&#8221; Carson said in an interview with The Daily Wire before the screening. &#8220;I was noticing that fewer and fewer people seem to know their history.&#8221;
The concern is one that animated nearly every aspect of the event. Throughout the afternoon, families packed the venue for patriotic activities before gathering for a screening of the film, which follows Liberty the Eagle through key moments in American history.
Carson argued that too many young Americans are being taught a distorted understanding of the country&#8217;s past. &#8220;Probably the biggest thing that&#8217;s missing is that we have a country with an honorable history,&#8221; Carson said. &#8220;There are those who have taken some of the bad things that have happened and tried to make that characterizing.&#8221;
While acknowledging that America has experienced failures throughout its history, Carson said modern education often focuses exclusively on those failures while ignoring the nation&#8217;s achievements.
The result, he warned, is a generation increasingly vulnerable to ideological movements hostile to America&#8217;s founding principles. &#8220;We look around and we see socialism and communism becoming acceptable,&#8221; Carson said. &#8220;Those things are not compatible with our Constitution.&#8221;
That concern helps explain why Carson chose animation as the medium for his latest project. The challenge, he said, was finding a way to communicate history to children without sacrificing historical accuracy. &#8220;We throw some humor in there, but it&#8217;s heavily weighted with facts,&#8221; Carson said. &#8220;We did it that way so that not only would the little kids enjoy it, but the parents, the grandparents, the teachers would learn also.&#8221;
The film boasts an unusually star-studded cast for an independent patriotic project. Kevin Sorbo voices George Washington, Gary Sinise portrays Robert E. Lee, Pat Boone appears as Abraham Lincoln, and actor John Schneider lends his voice to Revolutionary War militia commander Captain John Parker.
For Schneider, best known for his role on &#8220;The Dukes of Hazzard,&#8221; joining the project required little persuasion. &#8220;I love this country. I was raised to love this country and honor this country,&#8221; Schneider told The Daily Wire on the red carpet.
What motivated him, he said, was seeing what he described as a growing effort to rewrite American history. &#8220;After I turned 50 or so, I started seeing this revisionist history coming in and saying that our country was bad,&#8221; Schneider said. &#8220;It really aggravated me.&#8221;
Standing just steps away from children wearing colonial-era hats and red, white, and blue outfits, Schneider said the event represented something increasingly rare in modern American culture: an unapologetic celebration of the nation itself. &#8220;It&#8217;s so great to be part of something that is defending our history,&#8221; he said.
Among those attending the premiere was longtime Carson mentee and ally Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who described the event as representative of the &#8220;heartbeat of America.&#8221;
&#8220;Patriots — even young patriots, little children — families coming together, celebrating our great country together, celebrating our faith in God together,&#8221; Turner added.
The premiere also served as a launch point for Carson&#8217;s broader educational ambitions. Alongside the film, Carson released a new book, “Built on Faith,” a children’s book discussing America&#8217;s founders and the influence of religious belief in their lives.
According to Carson, “Star Spangled Adventures” is only the beginning. &#8220;There are a lot of creative ventures in the works,&#8221; he said. As America approaches its semiquincentennial celebration in 2026, Carson hopes those projects will help create a generation that understands not only the nation&#8217;s history but its responsibilities.
When asked what he hopes families discuss on the drive home after watching the film, Carson&#8217;s answer was simple. &#8220;How can we see more of this?&#8221; he said. &#8220;How can we get more involved?&#8221;
For Dr. Ben Carson, that conversation may ultimately be the point of all his efforts going forward; the movie itself is only one chapter in a much larger effort to convince America&#8217;s youngest citizens that their country&#8217;s story is worth knowing — and worth defending.

Ben Carson

Ben Carson Wants To Teach America’s Children To Love Their Country Again

America

Children

Congressional Republicans are exploring whether a budget reconciliation bill could be used to drive out &#8220;wokeness&#8221; in higher education and overhaul the accreditation system that determines whether colleges and universities can access billions of dollars in federal student aid. 
The effort was discussed on Thursday during a panel hosted by Defending Education. This conservative, grassroots organization argues that accrediting agencies have become vehicles for pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and other leftist priorities onto schools.
Accreditation is a little-understood but powerful process that determines whether colleges and universities can access billions of dollars in federal student aid. Defending Education argues that some accrediting agencies have abused their authority by becoming ideological enforcers pushing requirements unrelated to educational quality. 
The group pointed to the American Bar Association’s law school accreditation agency as one example. Defending Education said the ABA pushes anti-bias training mandates that universities must adopt to secure accreditation for their law schools.
Republicans are now discussing whether changes to the accreditation system could be included in a budget reconciliation package, which can pass the Senate with a simple majority and avoid a Democrat filibuster. 
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a leading advocate for accreditation reform, argued Thursday that the current system advances a left-wing agenda that undermines Western civilization. 
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) echoed that criticism, saying, “They use forces like this [accreditation] to jam their beliefs on us. There shouldn’t be left-captured monopolies that get to decide what we believe and what we do.”
The panel also featured current and former law students who argued that ideological pressure extends beyond accrediting agencies and into the classroom. 
Edward Goul, a second-year law student at the University of Pennsylvania, told the panel that only one right-leaning professor currently serves on the law school&#8217;s faculty. He added that many conservative students choose not to disclose their political views out of concern that doing so could hurt their chances of receiving recommendations for clerkships, law review positions, and other opportunities critical to their legal careers.
The other student, a recent University of Virginia law graduate who asked not to be identified, told The Daily Wire that some professors appear to factor students&#8217; political views into classroom interactions and grading. 
&nbsp;

Harvard University

Republicans See New Path To Challenge ‘Woke’ Universities

Reconciliation

Republicans

U.S.

For decades, the Appalachian region of America has been the subject of political promises, federal programs, philanthropic funding, and endless so-called solutions. Despite trillions of dollars in government spending and generations of outside intervention, the majority of Appalachian communities continue to struggle with poverty, addiction, outmigration, economic stagnation, and weak educational outcomes.
Appalachia has long been given “the wrong kind of attention,” according to Garrett Ballengee, president and CEO of the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy. Under Ballengee’s leadership, the Center for Appalachian Renewal is committed to creating a brighter future for people, not another generation of paternalistic programs or distant experts managing decline from afar.
Nowhere is that failure more obvious than in education. If Appalachia is going to experience meaningful renewal in the decades ahead, the region will need far more competition in education.
Public schools lack incentives to improve when families lack meaningful alternatives. Monopolies rarely produce excellence, innovation, or accountability — and public education in much of Appalachia has operated as a monopoly for generations.
Approximately 95% of Appalachian K-12 students remain in the public school district system, making the region home to one of the most concentrated education monopolies in the country. Just 5% of Appalachian students are enrolled in an educational option outside the traditional district system, whether in private schools, charter schools, microschools, homeschool co-ops, or classical schools.
That matters because education is not merely one policy issue among many. It is upstream of nearly everything else.
Strong education options help retain families in the community, attract investment, cultivate entrepreneurship, strengthen civic life, and restore hope that young people can build meaningful futures. Weak systems do the opposite. They contribute to the cycle Appalachia has struggled with for generations: declining opportunity, population loss, and the persistent belief that leaving the region is the only path to success.
The overwhelming majority of Appalachian families have had little to no meaningful choice when it comes to how or where their children are educated. Viable alternatives to the district public school have been almost nonexistent in these rural communities.
That is beginning to change.
Across Appalachia, states are embracing education freedom at a pace that would have seemed politically impossible just a few years ago. West Virginia passed the nation’s first universal education savings account program in 2021. Ohio and North Carolina followed in 2023, Alabama in 2024, and Tennessee in 2025.
This momentum matters. But policy reform alone will not transform Appalachia. Building educational options that meet the demand created by school choice policy is essential for transformation.
In rural Appalachia, launching new schools comes with enormous barriers: geographic isolation, limited startup capital, and a shortage of mentorship networks for education entrepreneurs.
That is precisely why the newly launched <a href="https://www.appalachianrenewal.org/">Center for Appalachian Renewal</a>, an initiative of the <a href="https://cardinalinstitute.com/">Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy</a>, is not only significant but also timely. Its mission is to “advance market-based solutions that strengthen education, opportunity, and civic life in Appalachian communities.”
Its flagship “Education Quarterback” initiative is designed to identify, mentor, and support education entrepreneurs across Appalachia. Modeled after the highly successful <a href="https://www.bluum.org/">BLUUM</a> in Idaho, the program will help cultivate microschools, classical schools, hybrid learning models, homeschool collaboratives, and other educational alternatives that can bring real competition and innovation to these communities.
This effort is not about importing outside solutions into Appalachia. Instead, it centers on empowering people in the region to build institutions that reflect the values, culture, and needs of their own communities.
That distinction matters because Appalachia has spent decades on the receiving end of top-down “solutions” imposed by outsiders who often misunderstand both the region’s challenges and its strengths.
For example, the Appalachian Regional Commission was established in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Since that time, astronomical amounts of money have been spent aimed at the revitalization of Appalachia. Yet many of those efforts fueled government dependency rather than self-sufficiency and bureaucracy rather than entrepreneurship.
There are already signs that Appalachia is standing at a genuine inflection point. Major private-sector investments are flowing into the region. For example, in West Virginia, Google is developing a multibillion-dollar data center, and Nucor is building a $4 billion steel facility. GE is pursuing multi-site energy expansion, including a collaborative effort to build a $1.2 billion natural gas-fired power plant.
For too long, Appalachia has been dependent on federal assistance and defined by narratives of decline, dependency, and helplessness. But a better path forward is possible — one rooted in educational freedom, entrepreneurship, local leadership, and a renewed culture of ownership and responsibility.
Strong families, communities, civic institutions, and education options — on top of economic development — will create a healthier, more vibrant, more self-sufficient Appalachian future.
***
<a href="https://www.discovery.org/p/ingraham/">Dr. Keri D. Ingraham</a> is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women.

Country school house

A Path Out Of The Education Woods In Appalachia

Appalachia

DW Opinion

K-12

<div>
This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
With more college degrees handed out than ever, the relative advantage of holding one has decreased. Add to that the left-wing lurch of most higher education institutions, and it&#8217;s no wonder it&#8217;s become common for conservatives to <a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dont-go-to-college/">argue</a> that college is no longer necessary. 
Yet the job market hasn&#8217;t adapted. A degree has become a blunt hiring filter that often screens out experienced, capable candidates. Virtually everyone in the application pool has one — except for me. That’s where my difficulty lies.
I had made the decision to drop out of school midway through college to start a business. I began traveling to companies to train Gen Z in leadership and interpersonal skills so that they could excel and lead in life. Working two jobs and running a business was hard, of course. But I would still make the same choice today.
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While 87% of younger Gen Z teens (ages 12–15) are especially likely to <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/509906/majority-gen-consider-college-education-important.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/509906/majority-gen-consider-college-education-important.aspx&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780575870682000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1yCRDC8TySsniaMpiHp1Rw">view</a> college as important — compared to slightly lower shares among older cohorts, ranging from 80% to 85% — this optimism sits in tension with the fact that 51% of Gen Z ultimately <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/news/college-degree-value-generational-divide" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/news/college-degree-value-generational-divide&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780575870682000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1heY5P6PHubctYOHT4Xlkn">say</a> their degree, once achieved, was a waste of money.
Yet now, I&#8217;m back in school. Why? Because, as I hope to transition into a career in public affairs and government relations, I am asked the same question, time and time again, before the interview awkwardly fizzles into “so, uh, we’re looking to hire candidates with at least a bachelor’s.”
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From getting turned down during the final round to being unable to get a foot in the door, I have seen firsthand how brutal the job market can be for someone with experience, yet no degree.
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<div>
A dance studio owner had invited me in as a guest teacher. Now, in the dance community, having a degree — even one in “dance” — means almost nothing. You still must audition. You still need to “make it” as a dancer, whether you have a piece of paper that says you can dance or not.
</div>
<div>
I am a retired contemporary and commercial dancer, having performed with Epik Dance Company, Belhaven Dance Ministry, as a backup dancer in music videos, and even in a Bollywood movie called &#8220;Love and Masala.&#8221;
</div>
<div>
For this studio owner, my time on stage, film, and professional work was not enough. She told me she would never hire anyone without a degree again.
</div>
<div>
I have been increasingly running into this dilemma. Hiring managers are quick to give the same response: “I won&#8217;t hire a candidate without a degree.” It’s a quick filter in the application portal. It makes the hiring process faster.
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<div>
But these hiring managers are missing out on the real gems. I know this because I have hired them.
</div>
<div>
As the owner of a training company helping Gen Z grow in leadership for the workplace, I have hired multiple roles, from marketing and social media to executive assistants. I was surprised to discover that my best employees all lacked degrees. Typically, they were ambitious and coachable — and had five to seven years of experience. And these gems were having their résumés passed over by other managers because they “lacked qualifications.” In other words, they lacked a degree. Lucky for me, I learned my hiring lesson early and had the chance to mentor fantastic staff.
</div>
<div>
But I am tired of getting locked out of a dream role — or any role — because I lack a piece of paper. So, now, I’m back in school, playing the qualifications game.
</div>
<div>
My second go-around at college has proven that experience would have been enough. There is not an assignment that I have not done before — only I have been paid, at real jobs and consulting gigs, to do it. Now, I am the one paying to do this work for a grade.
Ultimately, if we want the best workers, we must be willing to dig a bit. Sometimes it means ignoring the “perfect match” the AI bot dragged out of some LinkedIn algorithm. Don&#8217;t let the diamond hire that you have been searching for slip through in the process because a middle manager cuts out any résumé without a B.S. or B.A.
</div>
<div>
I challenge hiring managers to give the person without a degree an interview. She may just be the unicorn you have been looking for, and worst case, you gave her some interview experience. Try giving a few extra interviews to unlikely candidates with unique work experience. You may be surprised at what you find.
</div>
<div>
***
</div>
<div>
Taryn Enos is a student media fellow at the Network of Enlightened Women. She is the founder and owner of Bold Speakers Consulting and a communications major at Grand Canyon University.
</div>

GettyImages-521922244

The College Degree Scam Nobody Wants To Admit

College

Jobs

Upstream

Hundreds of professors across the University of California system are pleading with school regents to restore standardized admission tests, warning that students are arriving so underprepared that instructors are being forced to reteach middle-school mathematics.
The two-page letter, signed by more than 1,100 math and science professors, argues that students are entering college without the proper groundwork and training needed to succeed in rigorous STEM courses, according to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/university-california-sat-requirement-reinstate-c3e32712?mod=hp_lead_pos10">Wall Street Journal.</a>
“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics, and other quantitatively demanding fields,” the letter states. “UC has finite resources and can help only so many students.”
WATCH FROM TODAY&#8217;S EPISODE OF MORNING WIRE:
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The letter also noted that nearly one-third of students in a first-semester calculus course at UC Berkeley “displayed severe preparation deficits,” according to the Journal.
Faculty members pointed to several “warning signs,” including increased time spent teaching prerequisite material, a lack of readiness for advanced coursework, and &#8220;growing pressure to dilute quantitative rigor.&#8221;
“Left unaddressed, these trends will lead to declining graduation rates, longer time to degree, and reduced completion of STEM majors, with consequences for California’s highly skilled STEM workforce,” the letter warns.
The University of California, along with many other universities, axed its SAT and ACT requirement in 2020, joining a broader movement among colleges and universities away from standardized admissions testing. 
Supporters of the change argued that standardized tests were poor predictors of college success. The move also coincided with widespread disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic. 
But UC, in particular, went further than many institutions. In 2021, it adopted a &#8220;<a href="https://dailybruin.com/2020/11/06/uc-to-use-test-blind-admissions-for-fall-2021-following-court-decision">test blind</a>&#8221; admissions policy, meaning SAT and ACT scores would not be considered at all during the admissions process.
Following the letter from faculty, UC Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu said the university is examining its policies and requirements, according to the Journal.

Close up. mid-section of young Asian woman reading book and making notes at home, concentrates on her studies. Further education concept

The Anti-SAT Experiment Isn’t Going As Planned

University of California

A far-left activist network tied to teachers unions and left-wing advocacy groups has been distributing a detailed training manual encouraging K-12 students to organize disruptive political protests and school walkouts, according to documents obtained by Defending Education and provided exclusively to The Daily Wire.
The 36-page “Direct Action Training: School Walkouts” toolkit, <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/a-k-12-school-walkout-toolkit-encourages-rule-breaking-and-class-interruptions-to-achieve-social-justice-demands/">uncovered</a> by the watchdog organization, explicitly instructs students on how to organize demonstrations, disrupt school operations, avoid oversight from administrators, and pressure institutions through coordinated acts of “non-cooperation” and “civil disobedience.”
The packet was distributed through activist training webinars connected to the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, a coalition backed by major left-wing education and activist organizations including the National Education Association, Journey for Justice Alliance, Center for Popular Democracy, and Schott Foundation for Public Education.
The training materials themselves were produced by Alliance for Educational Justice, an activist group that has received financial support through leftist nonprofit networks connected to the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Tides Foundation, and other left-wing grantmaking organizations.
The document openly encourages students to engage in actions designed to disrupt schools and force administrators into political concessions. “Direct action is how everyday people use their collective power to force change when systems aren’t listening,” the packet states. It describes walkouts as a tactic intended to “interrupt business as usual and demand accountability.”
The guide specifically promotes tactics including “school walkouts,” “boycotts,” “strikes – No School, No Work, No Shopping,” and even “class takeover,” which it describes as interrupting classrooms for “student-led discussion, training, or teach-ins.”
In one section, the packet explains how students can transform “absence into power” by creating enough disruption that school officials are “forced to respond.”
“When large numbers of students leave together, classes cannot operate normally and school leaders are forced to respond,” the guide states. “Ignoring a walkout often brings greater attention from families, the media, and the wider community.”
The packet repeatedly frames schools as political battlegrounds and encourages students to view disruption as leverage.
It also includes instructions on recruitment, messaging strategy, protest organization, media engagement, and “walkout leader roles.” Another section titled “Out Reach Safety” advises students to use VPNs because “a VPN can make tracking harder,” while encouraging students to refuse questioning from school officials without a parent or lawyer present.
Though the guide insists direct action is “not about causing chaos,” many of the tactics outlined are explicitly designed to undermine normal school operations and pressure administrators through coordinated unrest.
Defending Education warned the materials reflect a broader trend of activist organizations using schools and students as vehicles for political organizing. “Activists have realized they can use students to advance political agendas, and too many schools either won’t push back or will quietly enable it,” Paul Runko, Defending Education’s senior director of strategic initiatives, said to The Daily Wire.
“Parents need to understand that students are increasingly being recruited as foot soldiers in the culture war, and they should have intentional conversations, especially with teens, about how to respond when friends, teachers, or outside groups encourage them to participate in protests or walkouts,” he added.
The materials also reveal how activist infrastructure aimed at adults increasingly filters down into K-12 environments through affiliated nonprofits, education coalitions, and youth organizing initiatives that outwardly present themselves as community advocacy groups.
The document argues that young people are uniquely positioned to pressure institutions because adults are constrained by jobs, caregiving responsibilities, or fear of arrest. Students, meanwhile, are encouraged to use their position inside schools to “step forward when systems refuse to listen.”
Defending Education’s findings come amid a growing left-wing youth activist class and worries from parents over the political activism increasingly embedded in some educational environments, particularly as outside organizations gain influence through partnerships, webinars, and activist training programs directed at students.

St. Paul, Minnesota student anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) demonstrations, January 2026

Action Backpacks And VPNs: Are Left-Wing Groups Training Your Kid To Be A Political Activist?

Leftism

Schools

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

Internet

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.

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One Creepy Word At A School Board Meeting Changed Everything

Police

Public Schools

Tennessee

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