The University of Southern California is backtracking on a policy intended to exclude men from using parts of an on-campus gym under a student-government-led program designed to make female and &#8220;non-binary&#8221; students feel more comfortable.
On April 6, the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment (SAGE) launched a &#8220;new inclusive workout space&#8221; where &#8220;women and non-binary students can exercise with a sense of ease,&#8221; <a href="https://dailytrojan.com/2026/04/07/lyon-gym/">the Daily Trojan reported</a>.
SAGE says it is &#8220;responsible for <a href="https://engage.usc.edu/sage/home/">advocating feminist issues</a> on campus&#8221; and describes itself as a programming assembly &#8220;committed to uplifting all voices oppressed by the patriarchy,&#8221; according to the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sageusc/">group&#8217;s Instagram page</a>.
The program, held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., is offered in partnership with the Lyon Recreation Center, an 80,000-square-foot facility serving as &#8220;the main hub for USC Recreational Sports department operations,&#8221; <a href="https://recsports.usc.edu/rec-facilities-page/main-facilities/lyon/">according to the university</a>.
The group is using the Robinson Room — a &#8220;<a href="https://recsports.usc.edu/rec-facilities-page/main-facilities/lyon/">studio-style area</a>&#8221; used for various workout activities, including dance, Pilates, and yoga — as a safe haven from &#8220;male-dominated fitness spaces.&#8221;
Jana Alnajjar, a USC sophomore and SAGE’s advocacy liaison, said the idea came from hearing women and &#8220;non-binary&#8221; students &#8220;experience a common sense of discomfort in the gym.&#8221;
“I’ve heard from multiple women and non-binary students’ perspectives who want to be involved within different workout spaces, but don’t really feel comfortable being at the gym,” Alnajjar told the Daily Trojan. “Whether that means they’re getting approached regularly or people look them up and down. Over time, that discomfort leads them to stop trying to go to the gym altogether.”
Alnajjar added that the approval process involved “a lot of back and forth” because the room is supposed to support women and &#8220;non-binary&#8221; student groups, but remain open to all under university policy.
“This program is sponsored by USC’s undergraduate student government and is open to all students consistent with university policy,” USC said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
On Wednesday, SAGE appeared to backtrack on the program&#8217;s intended exclusion of males, saying &#8220;inclusion is a foundational value of this initiative.&#8221;
&#8220;SAGE hosts a small workout space weekly to foster access and confidence in fitness settings, including but not limited to women and non-binary students,&#8221; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DW5gq3TFGPQ/?img_index=2">the group said in an Instagram post</a>. &#8220;We believe that every student deserves to feel comfortable and confident in fitness spaces, and we are proud to play a part in cultivating that environment at USC.&#8221;
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the Campus of the University of Southern California

College Students Try To Ban Men To Protect ‘Non-Binary’ Gym-Goers In The Name Of Inclusivity

Education

Social Issues

U.S.

University of Southern California

The day my five-year-old son came home from school proudly announcing he had learned to download apps on what he called &#8220;my iPad,&#8221; I felt two things: the instinct of a father sensing something was off, and the reflex of a physician recognizing a familiar problem. It wasn’t his excitement that gave me pause. It was the word &#8220;my.” After a few weeks of school, he was personally identifying with a device before he was developmentally ready to contextualize his relationship to it.
As an emergency physician, I evaluate interventions the same way every time, by weighing the evidence of benefit against the risk of harm. When the data is unclear, I fall back on medicine&#8217;s oldest principle — primum non nocere. First, do no harm. I never imagined I would be applying that framework to my son&#8217;s pre-K classroom.
The echoes of COVID remain familiar: an expert class prescribing an untested solution, dismissing the concerns of the people it serves. The pandemic increased reliance on technology in education but also exposed the priorities of America’s elites. When the public sought explanations, officials issued mandates. Conformity to dogma ruled the day, and any criticism was swiftly labeled misinformation. The cost was staggering. A generation’s trust in institutions was spent in just about two years. At the core of it all was a simple belief — that experts know best.
I am watching a similar phenomenon take place in our children’s classrooms. Every day our kids go to school, we are extending an act of trust — placing them in the school’s care, expecting that parents and teachers will work together in the children’s best interests. Increasingly, the educators’ posture has shifted to something more insular: we know best, and we’ll take it from here.
The deeper irony is that on this specific question, the evidence is not on the educators’ side.
In January, neuroscientist Jared Horvath testified before a Senate subcommittee about the impact of screen time and classroom technology on kids. And in his book, “The Digital Delusion,” he notes that the impact of classroom interventions is measured using a metric called &#8220;effect size.&#8221; The threshold for meaningful impact is +0.40. Teacher-led direct instruction averages approximately +0.56 — the gold standard. Broad educational technology interventions average around +0.29 — well below the impact threshold. For context, the negative effect of bullying is -0.28. OECD countries noted an almost two-letter-grade drop on standardized testing for students who used computers “very frequently.&#8221; The MIT-based Poverty Research Center, after examining 126 studies, found that programs expanding computer access &#8220;do not improve K-12 grades and test scores.&#8221;
Many schools claim that children need early digital exposure to succeed in the modern world. But this isn&#8217;t supported by evidence, nor does it pass the common-sense test. Digital skills can be acquired in minutes to hours, and they are not what predict deep learning or professional success.
What makes this particularly corrosive is what the apps are doing to learning itself. Early childhood is the most sensitive period for attention, executive function, and self-regulation — precisely the capacities most at risk. Research consistently shows stronger comprehension and retention on paper versus screens. Horvath notes that learning requires productive struggle. The friction of sitting with a hard problem, resisting distraction, and building toward mastery is not a flaw in education; it is the process. Apps are engineered to eliminate this friction. The result is what researchers call the &#8220;illusion of mastery.&#8221; Students feel they are learning, but the depth is not there.
COVID accelerated this without resolving it. The academic consequences were severe, and so were the mental health ones — anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal spiked across age groups and have not fully recovered. We poured energy into getting children back into classrooms, then handed them the same devices back.
Worse still, many educators don&#8217;t realize that much of the &#8220;evidence&#8221; backing these programs traces back to the for-profit education tech sector that created this ecosystem. These companies have cultivated academic voices to carry their message into schools, funding research through channels educators rarely scrutinize. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley&#8217;s founders have largely kept their own children off these devices. When Peter Thiel revealed as much at a recent summit, it elicited audible gasps. Educators who believe they are following the science are, in many cases, following a sales pitch.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro recently signed legislation mandating cursive handwriting in classrooms, explicitly to keep kids off tablets, while 10 states across the political spectrum are considering legislation to reduce screen time or restrict device programs in some way. This is no longer a fringe position.
As a father, I feel this differently than I do as a physician. Parents are watching in real time as young children develop a compulsive relationship with devices — fidgeting for the next stimulus, the next dopamine surge from apps designed to engage. Boys are particularly susceptible to these reward structures — the variable reinforcement, the next level, the next hit. The gaming addiction literature has documented it for years. We are now introducing that architecture to boys in pre-K through a school-issued device they are taught to think of as their own.
And yet the response from most schools has been silence, or worse, reassurance. Parents notice concerning changes in their children, review the data, bring their concerns to administrators, and are met with polished explanations that best practices are being followed. Parental concern is treated as a feature of the process, proof almost that the school is doing something bold.
Educators dismiss those concerns at their own peril. The trust parents extend to schools is not unconditional, and it is fraying. At a minimum, parents should have the right to opt their children out of individual device programs, and schools should provide information to parents on the potential harms. Regular efficacy assessments should accompany all device programs. No responsible physician would deny a patient the ability to decline an unproven intervention. Schools should extend a similar respect.
The larger obligation falls on the system itself. The education establishment should not be mandating device programs without a far stronger evidence base. When physicians, researchers, and parents all raise the same alarm, the appropriate response is curiosity or caution, not defensiveness. Before mandating a new intervention, demonstrate that the benefits outweigh the harms. If you can&#8217;t, don&#8217;t. Primum non nocere.
***
Dr. Benjamin Chacko is an Emergency Medicine Physician and the father of two sons.

Father Knows Best

Father Knows Best? Not When it Comes to Screens in the Classroom

K-12

Parents rights

Technology

Eissa Hashemi has never denounced his mother — a spokesperson for the Iranian regime&#8217;s propaganda machine — but still he&#8217;s living large in Los Angeles, lecturing American students in his field: psychology.
<a href="https://nypost.com/2026/04/06/us-news/son-of-irans-twisted-pr-chief-found-living-life-of-luxury-in-la-and-hes-teaching-superrich-california-kids/?utm_campaign=capost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">Hashemi</a>, 43, has been living in the United States since 2010 and is an adjunct associate professor at The Chicago School in Los Angeles, the New York Post reported — but has recently faced criticism and calls for deportation as critics say that he has never publicly condemned his mother&#8217;s role in the oppressive Iranian revolutionary government.
Hashemi is the son of former Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs <a href="https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/ex-spokeswoman-hostage-takers-says-us-misreads-iran">Masoumeh Ebtekar</a> — better known as &#8220;Screaming Mary&#8221; to Americans who were alive when militants attacked the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Ebtekar was a 19-year-old college student when she joined the revolutionaries in storming the embassy — and because she herself had been raised in Philadelphia, she quickly became their spokesperson when their embassy raid escalated to a hostage crisis that went on for more than a year.
She was the voice heard around the world after violent revolutionaries took 52 American hostages — and proceeded to hold them for 444 days — giving interviews in English and spinning the regime&#8217;s propaganda throughout. She often toured the embassy where the hostages were being held, pushing them to give more positive comments about their time in captivity.
She has, in the time since, claimed that the United States is to blame for diplomatic rifts between Washington and Tehran — and has defended her own role in the revolution.
Hashemi, for his part, is just one of a number of Iranians who were born into political prominence in the regime, but who have since chosen to live in the United States. He is also one of several children of the regime who have risen to prominent positions in academia, and have gone on to educate American children.
Several of those who have been connected to regime officials have already had their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/family-members-of-slain-iranian-general-arrested-u-s-legal-status-revoked">legal status</a> in the United States revoked — and a number have already begun petitioning for Hashemi to receive similar treatment. Several protests calling for just that took place in January outside The Chicago School and other facilities with which he has been associated.

Iranian Vice-President Masoumeh Ebtekar

His Mother Raised Him On Iran’s Regime Propaganda. Now He’s Teaching Your Kids.

His Mother Raised Him On Iran's Regime Propaganda. Now He's Teaching Your Kids.

Global Politics

Iran

Military

Politics

Students in New Mexico will learn more about the January 6 Capitol riot and climate change than the moon landing.
New Mexico high school <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/High-School-United-States-History.docx.pdf">history guidelines</a> contain over a dozen references to the January 6 riot while only mentioning the moon landing once. The guidelines, part of the New Mexico Instructional Scope for History, are largely focused on racial and gender grievances and encourage teachers to promote Democratic politicians and lament how the richest men in the United States today are “mostly white.&#8221;
“The freedom of those in America and Ukraine after the 2021 Capital [sic] Insurrection and Russian invasion of Ukraine are two events that reveal the rights and safety of women, immigrants, children, and the LGBTQ community are at risk,” an example discussion in the guidance reads. 
Teachers are also instructed to show footage from NBC showing “Americans armed with weapons and military-type gear storming the Capital, breaking glass, defacing sacred art, political statues and podiums on and in our Capital [sic] building in Washington, DC.”
The purpose of the footage is to “disprove some of the beliefs that it was not violent or a threat to our democracy.”
The repeated misspelling of &#8220;Capitol&#8221; in the January 6 section is one of several errors in the guidelines. In another section, teachers are encouraged to list Democratic politicians from racial and sexual minorities, including &#8220;VP [Kamala] Harris, Transportation Secretary [Pete] Buttigieg, Interior Secretary [Deb] Haaland and Supreme Court Justice Brown.&#8221;
The last example appears to be a reference to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Rhyen Staley, the director of research at Defending Education, said the documents were an example of politics being pushed in the classroom.
“These state level documents expose a troubling pattern by education activists of pushing leftwing political and social biases into K-12 classrooms as established ‘facts,'&#8221; Staley told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Students and families deserve an education that values a politically neutral approach to weighing different sides of issues, not political indoctrination.&#8221;
The <a href="https://web.ped.nm.gov/bureaus/curriculum-instruction/new-mexico-instructional-scope-nmis/">New Mexico Instructional Scope</a> is an “educator influenced tool designed to provide guidance and support to assure that all students in New Mexico have access to content at their grade level combined with the use of impactful instructional strategies.”
The history guidelines reveal a heavy focus on left-wing activism and grievance politics.
Teachers are suggested to ask students why the United States still struggles “with the idea of racial equality,” discuss the pros and cons of reparations, and assess “who is responsible for the socio-economic disparities in early U.S. immigration to today.”
In contrast, the moon landing and the space race are each only mentioned once
The guidance also suggests that states like Georgia and Florida have implemented laws that are similar to voting restrictions on black people during the Jim Crow era. Teachers are recommended to provide “Current suppression of voting rights” in examples of Georgia, Texas, Florida, and New Mexico.
“How does the current suppression of voting rights compare to the suppression of voting rights during and immediately following the Reconstruction Era?” a question for students said. 
Another suggested discussion is whether there are “more opportunities for minorities today in the business realm.”
“Absolutely there is more opportunity today than there was back then, but that doesn’t mean that things are totally equal. Even though there are lots of Black owned businesses, the richest men in the country are still mostly white,” a suggested student response to the question said. 
Other guidance included in the history materials is for students to be encouraged to “join a program already in existence and help spread their message to prevent global warming” or write to their representative about climate change. 
Students should be able to define LGBTQ (“Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, queer or questioning”) and PFLAG (“Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays”).
“How do historically underrepresented groups such as women of color, LGBTQ and Indigenous people offerse [SIC] diverse views of society,” teachers should ask students, according to the guidance. 
Similar politically focused guidance is found in materials for instruction on <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/High-School-World-History-NMIS.pdf">world history</a> and <a href="https://web.ped.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/High-School-Ethnic-Cultural-and-Identity.docx.pdf">ethnic studies</a>. 
In the guidance for world history, “equity” is defined as the principle “that all citizens have had different opportunities and experiences, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.”
The world history guidance also contains guidance recommending that students “create their own posters that show their actions on climate change” after watching a climate alarmist documentary from former Vice President Al Gore. 
The ethnic, cultural, and identity guidance discusses left-wing groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives Matter, and the Human Rights Campaign.  
“How do advocacy at the local, community, national and global levels work together to achieve change over time?” a supporting question asks. 
It also introduces students to the concept of “gender identity,” which it defines as ”identification with, or sense of belonging to, a particular group based on gender, such as cisgender, transgender, agender, bigender.”
New Mexico, a solidly blue state, has previously come <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-mexico-government-survey-asks-middle-and-high-school-students-if-they-are-two-spirit?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=New+Mexico+Government+Survey+Asks+Middle+And+High+School+Students+If+They+Are+‘Two-Spirit’">under scrutiny</a> for asking high school students whether they identify as “two-spirit” or transgender through its Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey.

Trump Supporters Hold “Stop The Steal” Rally In DC Amid Ratification Of Presidential Election

Students In Blue State Spend More Time Learning About January 6 Than The Moon Landing

Capitol Riot

History

January 6

New Mexico

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
We’ve seen the same headlines over and over: Gen Z isn’t <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/aug/comment-generation-z-love-crisis">dating</a>, or <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/05/17/gen-z-less-likely-get-drivers-license/73678202007/">driving</a>, or <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/13/lifestyle/gen-zs-breakup-with-alcohol-is-happening-much-earlier-than-past-generations/">drinking</a>, or <a href="https://www.silouhealth.com/blogs/blogs-silouhealth/the-friendship-recession-why-gen-z-is-lonelier-than-ever">making friends</a>, with record numbers of young people today <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/17/why-many-young-adults-in-the-us-are-still-living-with-their-parents.html">living with their parents</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/opinion/gen-z-work.html">refusing to build careers</a> well into adulthood. These statistics paint a grim picture of my generation, but beyond our specific cohort, they point to an overall culture of dependency that is antithetical to the free citizenry our democracy relies on — a culture that was built by the failure of our institutions, and especially our schools. 
As veteran teacher Paula Edwards (not her real name) told IW Features in a recent <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/the-hidden-crisis-in-new-mexicos-classrooms/">documentary</a>, “If we don’t have a literate society, we really don’t have a free society.” She recounted the abysmal classroom environment in the New Mexico public schools she has worked in, from deteriorating academic and behavioral standards to ideological indoctrination.
Edwards reached her breaking point and transitioned from teaching to coaching after a second-grade student who was not potty-trained allegedly began smearing feces on his peers when he was angry and wanted to skip his lessons. In this single anecdote alone we can identify several failures: of the state not to assess the child’s home environment, of the school to allow a child who was not potty-trained to be in a general class, and of the school not to remove him from the classroom, give him the environment he actually needs, and protect other children from being traumatized by his behaviors. It’s not the child’s responsibility to train himself in basic functions; it’s the duty of adults, who either failed him or, in the case of teachers like Edwards, were not allowed to give him the help he needed.
This is perhaps an extreme (albeit not rare) case, yet such bad outcomes as this arise precisely because of an educational philosophy that has prevailed in schools for decades, even in less difficult situations than this student’s. Generations of students have been coddled to their own detriment, being given passing grades they do not deserve and free rein to act out and hurt themselves and others in the name of “compassion.” 
Of course, there is no compassion at all in enabling students’ worst behaviors. The behavioral anarchy that has come to dominate far too many schools around the country and make teaching an impossible profession has its origins in Obama-era policies that essentially considered any form of discipline as a potential form of discrimination. While those were revoked federally during the first Trump administration, many states still have unviable policies that make disciplining students impossible and that encourage the sort of conduct that has led to educators like Edwards fleeing the teaching profession.
The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports system, which was formally enacted by New Mexico in the last decade, after being introduced by the federal government in the 1990s, forces teachers and administrators to ignore negative behavior and reward positive behavior through prizes and tokens, which amount to “bribery,” as Edwards puts it. These gamified incentives inevitably disappear in the adult world, and yet the responsibilities of adult life remain. So then what? Students who have never acquired the discipline to succeed in school are naturally going to struggle with adult life, rendered incompetent and unable to participate fully in society as adults.
Sometimes, this type of dependency is not just passively but actively encouraged by the school system. In a particularly horrifying anecdote, Edwards told IW Features how the Bureau of Indian Education schools teach Native American children how to fill out welfare applications. Instead of teaching them to read with evidence-based methods and enabling students to lift themselves out of poverty when they grow up, Edwards said, these schools teach students a different lesson: “Be dependent for the rest of your life.”
It doesn’t have to be this way, and it shouldn’t. We have the status quo we have because we choose to tolerate it. We spend billions of dollars on education as a country as it stands, and there is nothing stopping us from redirecting that money from failed progressive endeavors to student behavior reforms and evidence-based instructional methods that actually work. As Edwards advocated, “Get your indoctrination out of the classroom and get us back to the basics. School is for getting our kids to read and write and do math.”
***
Neeraja Deshpande is an Independent Women policy analyst and senior IW Features contributor.

Young student feeling disappointment, sitting alone by lockers.

Teachers Blow The Lid On What Is Happening In Schools And Why Gen Z Is Struggling

Generation Z

Schools

Upstream

Training camp hasn’t started yet for the National Football League, but teachers&#8217; unions and educational leaders are training hard for something else. In fact, they haven’t stopped training since 2020 to close schools quicker than a wide receiver running a 40.
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The latest example comes from Pittsburgh. The City of Champions is benching students while it hosts the NFL Draft April 23-25, closing schools for three days of remote learning to accommodate the event, Pittsburgh Public Schools announced this week. The city was picked to host the draft almost two years ago, which seems like plenty of time to create a backup plan, but here we are. Green Bay anticipated a closure by starting the school year early, while Detroit never closed its doors despite record crowds of 775,000.
“Our priority is maintaining continuity of learning while recognizing the extraordinary circumstances the city will experience during the NFL Draft,” <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48259609/pittsburgh-schools-switch-remote-learning-nfl-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48259609/pittsburgh-schools-switch-remote-learning-nfl-draft&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2HdD_lxlO-OpT2EQZcz1dQ">Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Wayne Walters said in a news release</a>. “Transitioning to asynchronous learning allows us to support students academically while helping families navigate the logistical challenges expected across the region.”
&#8220;Asynchronous learning,&#8221; if you’re rusty on the language of pandemic excuse-making, is a term for not learning. Students will be sent home with assignments, but won’t meet online or in person during the time they are to complete them. “Continuity of learning” is another term that means the opposite of its implication, an Orwellian term if ever there was one. Perhaps Walters means the same continuity of learning that left Pittsburgh students a half year behind grade level in reading and a <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1vw3M2n3wBWrp7Y6zQM6Ys">full grade level behind in math, a whopping five years after the pandemic</a>? The same continuity that necessitated a COVID Compensatory Services program to make up for more than <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/education/2026-01-06/pittsburgh-public-schools-learning-loss-rock-climbing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wesa.fm/education/2026-01-06/pittsburgh-public-schools-learning-loss-rock-climbing&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw21CqtTPB_OPh5INHo-j4Ws">600,000 hours of missed therapy for special education students</a>?
The continuity of learning that we now know, left “<a href="https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1vw3M2n3wBWrp7Y6zQM6Ys">lower-income districts and students of color hit hardest?”</a>
Not everyone needed several years of studies to know this would happen. Common sense suggested closing schools for a year and a half would put kids behind, with those already facing economic and academic challenges the least able to fill the gaps. But now that everyone knows, it’s inexcusable to close schools except under the most dire conditions. The NFL Draft does not count.
Pittsburgh Public Schools spokespeople told news outlets they’ve had <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/20/media/pittsburgh-public-schools-moves-to-remote-learning-ahead-of-nfl-draft-extraordinary-circumstances/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2026/03/20/media/pittsburgh-public-schools-moves-to-remote-learning-ahead-of-nfl-draft-extraordinary-circumstances/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0knPvpgr762xwb55L_3Jtb">“mixed&#8221;</a> feedback from parents, but are protecting against transportation and congestion issues, with hundreds of thousands of people coming to town for the draft.
But Pittsburgh denizen and reporter Salena Zito noted on X, “There is one Pittsburgh Public Schools school located directly in the downtown core: ONE. All other schools are miles away from where the draft will be.”
In the country’s bluest localities, educators looked back at the mess they made in 2020 and decided they should reserve the right to make it again in the future whenever they felt like it. This keeps happening all over the country, where students and parents pay the price for these hair-trigger school closures.
Pittsburgh isn’t the only school system heaping on these unrecoverable days, which only compounds losses from the pandemic. Northern Virginia and Maryland schools closed for more than a week due to 6-8 inches of snow in February. Public schools closed again across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in March for a severe storm with possible tornadoes that never materialized.
In San Francisco, a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-teachers-strike-ec574f8ac7ef0e0041e9f136e9f99140" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-teachers-strike-ec574f8ac7ef0e0041e9f136e9f99140&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ItypmFJFF81bEu-iiVWE_">teachers&#8217; union strike closed schools for 50,000 students for a day</a>, while another <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2sqwrzoLn-D26nrW6f2pHn">work stoppage</a><a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2sqwrzoLn-D26nrW6f2pHn"> looms in Los Angeles this month</a>. Minneapolis’ public schools closed for part of a week during <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/12/ice-operations-prompt-changes-at-minnesota-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/12/ice-operations-prompt-changes-at-minnesota-schools&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mIWwcAc-JUEsLeysR_JLM">ICE operations in the city in January and offered students a remote learning option for a full month, claiming “safety concerns.”</a> There have been widespread politically motivated walkouts in districts across the country that have interrupted learning, backed by teachers, administrators, and unions.
If you squint, you can see a theme — low risk tolerance encourages closings out of an abundance of caution, while COVID-era remote learning is seen as an easy, effective stopgap measure despite all the evidence to the contrary. In other words, a bunch of people don’t really want to do their jobs and are happy to take any opportunity to stop. It doesn’t help that they were rewarded handsomely with COVID bailout money for doing extensive damage the first time around.
Before the pandemic, public schools weren’t exactly reliable for actual learning, but at least they opened their doors every day. Little did parents know how much they&#8217;d miss that bare-minimum effort once it was gone. During the pandemic, school districts that stayed open, even through adversity, generally experienced less learning loss and are now better at staying open. But in blue metro areas where elected political leadership and unions align, schools that practiced being closed are now very comfortable closing.
In Pittsburgh, this philosophy understandably affects student attendance, yet another broken habit of the pandemic years that has not yet been repaired. <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/education/2025-12-02/pittsburgh-public-schools-scores-absenteeism-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wesa.fm/education/2025-12-02/pittsburgh-public-schools-scores-absenteeism-report&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZU7G3oGECMr8_BEPpFPjt">A 2025 report by PPS found that chronic absenteeism is at 34%</a>, which RAND Corporation categorizes as <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-34.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-34.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw19B6f_0gRYmfQXIze9T6gt">“extreme,”</a> and is moving in the wrong direction.
It’s no surprise that when a school district views school as optional, some parents and students start to agree.
When the NFL comes to town, they&#8217;re going to be sacked for yet another loss.
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Remote Learning/NFL Draft

Teachers’ Unions Use the NFL Draft to Keep Students Home

Remote Learning

school

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute&#8217;s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, Manhattan Institute Fellow Carolyn Gorman urges conservative education reformers to tackle school-based mental health programs. As Gorman explains, these initiatives have done little to improve students&#8217; mental health, but have contributed to falling outcomes — and cost taxpayers a pretty penny. — Tim Rice
***
American public education is at a crossroads.
Conservative education reformers have made real gains in recent years, on school choice — now universal in <a href="https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/school-choice-about-religious-liberty-not-just-better-test-scores">18 states</a> — <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/divided-court-sides-with-parents-in-dispute-over-california-policies-on-transgender-students/">parental rights</a>, <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/dismantle-department-of-education-trump-elon-musk">ideology</a> and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/linda-mcmahon-my-vision-eliminating-department-education">bureaucracy</a>. As a result, we&#8217;re barreling towards what the American Enterprise Institute&#8217;s Robert Pondiscio <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-last-days-of-public-school/">predicts</a> will be an “unprecedented crack-up” of public education.
If the old education model is to enter its last days — if, as Pondiscio says, “we’ve hit and passed ‘peak public school’&#8221; — conservative reformers need to set their sights on their next goal. And that goal should be fighting school-based mental health treatment — another woke, wasteful, ineffective idea that’s reduced accountability in schools.
These programs date back to the early 20th century, when progressive <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2408392/">reformers</a> urged schools to promote mental health, train teachers to recognize signs of distress, and locate health clinics in schools. If schools could identify problems early and deliver treatment widely, reformers promised, mental illnesses could be prevented; academic and behavioral problems <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lois-Flaherty/publication/226535892_History_of_School-Based_Mental_Health_Services_in_the_United_States/links/5703061708aedbac126f4241/History-of-School-Based-Mental-Health-Services-in-the-United-States.pdf">might improve</a>, too. 
In the ensuing century, periodic <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-mental-health-crisis-that-wasnt/">proclamations</a> of <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/mentalhealthcommission/reports/FinalReport/FullReport-1.htm">looming</a> mental health <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20troubling%20increases%20in%20the%20prevalence%20of%20school%20violence%20and%20youth%20emotional%20distress%20have%20prompted%20a%20sense%20of%20urgency%20among%20policymakers%2C%20leading%20to%20the%20bipartisan%20action%20of%20committing%20billions%20of%20dollars%20annually%20in%20federal%20funding%20to%20bolster%20these%20programs.">crises</a>, tragedies like <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/193271">school shootings</a>, and expensive, bipartisan <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=In%20education%20policy,being%20in%20schools.">spending efforts</a> have caused school mental health programs to explode. Today, nearly all public schools — <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/learn/press-release/over-half-public-schools-report-staffing-and-funding-limit-their-efforts-effectively-provide-mental#:~:text=All%20data%20released%20today%20can,/spp/results.asp.&amp;text=Nearly%20all%20public%20schools%20provide,%2D22%20%5B25%20percent%5D).">97 percent</a> — offer some form of <a href="https://www.kff.org/mental-health/the-landscape-of-school-based-mental-health-services/">mental health services</a>, like counseling and talk therapy, universal screening, wellness programming, referrals, or telehealth. The number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/school-and-career-counselors.htm">school counselors</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes193034.htm">school psychologists</a> is more than four times the number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes193033.htm">clinical psychologists</a> and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes291223.htm">psychiatrists</a> in a given community.
Over <a href="https://effectiveschoolsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mental-Health-Funding_Trends_FINAL_10_3_24.pdf">$130 billion</a> in federal and state funding has gone to school mental health in the past decade or so alone. Medicaid pays <a href="https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/about/offices/list/osers/docs/medicaid-funding-for-school-based-services-03-08-2024.pdf">$4 to 6 billion</a> annually for school districts to provide physical, mental, and behavioral health services, and states <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/sbs-guide-medicaid-services-administrative-claiming-ud.pdf#page=9">can pay</a> higher Medicaid rates for services in schools than in community healthcare settings.
None of this has produced results. Decades of evaluations show school-based <a href="https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/Gorman-Mental-Health-First-Aid.pdf">mental health awareness training</a>, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2682225/">mental health screening</a>, universal and targeted <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31734106/">prevention programs</a>, and even <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/1054139X9500236L">school-based health centers</a> have not improved outcomes relative to the absence of these services.
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Aggregate youth mental health outcomes have declined as school-based mental health services have expanded. Between 2016 and 2023, the prevalence of adolescent-diagnosed mental or behavioral health conditions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK608531/#:~:text=Between%202016%20and,problems%20was%20stable.">increased</a> by 35%. In 2016, 4.1% of youth <a href="https://www.childhealthdata.org/browse/survey/archive2021/results?q=4992&amp;r=1">reportedly</a> had ADD or ADHD and received treatment for it. That rate has grown nearly three times as high. At least some of this has been documented as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ritalin-generation-1473630453">overdiagnosis</a> <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=Federal%20guidance%20in,in%20decades%20prior.">driven by schools</a>. The youngest students in a given grade are disproportionately flagged by teachers and school staff as potentially having ADHD, then get diagnosed and medicated.
But school-based mental health has not simply had a poor return on investment. It also seriously undermines accountability for all parties. By confusing roles and responsibilities across the education and mental health systems, these programs give everyone involved — parents and teachers, students and school administrators — an excuse to point the finger elsewhere when grades, behavior, or student safety falls short of goals.  
Schools are not meant to provide mental health services. They&#8217;re meant to educate kids. Some die-hard proponents will debate that, suggesting schools are well-positioned to address mental health because it&#8217;s where kids spend most of their time, but that&#8217;s a weak argument: adults spend most of their time at work, but no one expects offices to offer psychotherapy or prescription refills.
Just as workplaces are meant for working, class time is meant for learning. Yet students are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/schoolcounseling/comments/18cmp90/students_are_constantly_being_pulled_out_of_my/">routinely</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1gdsoa1/behavioral_health_pulling_students_out_of_class/">pulled</a> from instruction for counseling or “emotional support.” When you consider that many school therapists think they can boost students&#8217; mental health by talking about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pits.22606">racism</a> and <a href="https://www.portlandmh.com/decolonizing-mental-healthcare-and-mental-health-leadership-a-reflection-on-the-work-of-pavna-k-sodhi-edd/#:~:text=Colonialism%20has%20left,and%20social%20marginalization.">colonialist oppression,</a> it&#8217;s no wonder these efforts are failing while reading and math scores <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/09/nx-s1-5526918/nations-report-card-scores-reading-math-science-education-cuts">plummet.</a>
The best way for schools to help students&#8217; mental health is to simply be schools and be safe. Education has protective effects against poor mental health. ​Disorderly classrooms and violent hallways cause distress. Schools should clearly communicate and fairly enforce school discipline policies so that students know what behavior is expected and what happens when expectations aren&#8217;t met. Disruptive or violent students then learn consequences, and other students who&#8217;d otherwise be harmed know they&#8217;re protected.
When public schools aren’t doing what works, we know better than ever that there are alternatives to simply doubling down. 
***
Carolyn D. Gorman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Sad teenage boy sitting by male counselor discussing in school office

It’s Time For Schools To Get Out Of The Mental Health Business

Medicaid

Mental Health

Private Schools

Public Schools

A University of Pennsylvania professor who was sanctioned by a court for acting in “bad faith” is set to teach a course on “misinformation” next year.
Michael Mann, a prominent climate activist and director of Penn’s Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, announced that he will again co-teach a course on climate change communication alongside Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The course, previously offered at the University of Pennsylvania, focuses in part on combating what Mann describes as a “surplus of misinformation” surrounding climate change.
“The problem isn’t so much a deficit of information; it’s a surplus of misinformation,” Mann said at a journalism conference, arguing that outright climate denial is fading and being replaced by what he calls “doomism, division, deflection, and delaying action.”
Mann recently confirmed the course’s return on a university podcast, describing it as a “real pleasure” to collaborate across Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences and the Annenberg School for Communication.
But Mann’s role as an authority on misinformation should draw scrutiny given his own legal history. A District of Columbia judge previously sanctioned Mann and his legal team, finding “by clear and convincing evidence” that they had acted in bad faith by presenting erroneous evidence and making false representations related to damages claims.
“Here, the Court finds… that Dr. Mann… acted in bad faith when they presented erroneous evidence and made false representations to the jury and the Court,” the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yixcqfv4h1idp1xt5elo7/2025.03.12-Order-Granting-Def-s-Sanctions-Mots.pdf?rlkey=yqactvu9h9bpwlyp6q2taaj7h&amp;st=g53sry23&amp;dl=0">ruling stated</a>. The court ordered Mann to pay more than $28,000 in legal fees. The controversy adds to a broader pattern of inflammatory rhetoric and political activism from Mann, who has repeatedly targeted conservatives in public statements and on social media.
Mann has compared prominent figures such as Peter Thiel, Charles Koch, and Rupert Murdoch to the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, and previously wrote that the Republican Party should be “destroyed.” He deleted the posts, but they were saved in screenshots.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Michael Mann has been trafficking in violence-justifying (wink wink) Tweets for a long time
He is celebrated and rewarded for it in the climate community
His latest won&#8217;t change that <a href="https://t.co/YMpnmxAdWX">pic.twitter.com/YMpnmxAdWX</a>
— The Honest Broker (@RogerPielkeJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerPielkeJr/status/1966493707345019074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As reported by the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/upenn-provost-resigns-after-boosting-social-media-post-likening-charlie-kirk-to-hitler-youth/">Washington Free Beacon</a>, Mann faced backlash for amplifying a social media post referring to conservative activist Charlie Kirk as “Hitler Youth,” a controversy that preceded his resignation as vice provost at Penn. He remains on faculty and continues to lead his research center.
The resignation came after Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) <a href="https://x.com/SenMcCormickPA/status/1966307689023287332?s=20">called on the university</a> to take “immediate, decisive action.”
Mann has also drawn criticism for comments interpreted as invoking political violence, including a post referencing “second amendment territory” in relation to President Donald Trump, he has since deleted the post, but it was <a href="https://archive.is/dSu5A">digitally archived</a> to verify.
The course’s co-instructor, Jamieson, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which has itself <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-officials-demand-trump-admin-suspend-funding-of-science-org-over-climate-activism">faced scrutiny</a> over its handling of climate-related materials. Critics have pointed to the academy’s refusal to remove a controversial climate chapter from its judicial reference manual, even after the Federal Judicial Center declined to include it, citing concerns about bias.
Mann has also <a href="https://x.com/MichaelEMann/status/2034046926208045535?s=20">recently praised</a> the late biologist Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 book &#8220;The Population Bomb&#8221; famously predicted mass starvation and societal collapse due to overpopulation — predictions that failed to materialize. Despite that track record, Mann continues to position himself as a leading voice on climate communication and misinformation.
The announcement of the course raises broader questions about credibility, academic standards, and whether individuals with documented histories of misleading claims should be tasked with defining “misinformation” for the next generation of students.

Image 3

What’s Being Taught Behind Ivy League Doors? Inside Controversial ‘Misinformation’ Course

Climate Change

Misinformation

University of Pennsylvania

While the Iranian regime continues to attack the United States — either directly or through proxy terrorist organizations — some of the regime&#8217;s leaders have sent their own children to the United States, and a number have made themselves at home at American universities.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/18/world-news/children-of-iran-regime-leaders-teaching-at-elite-us-universities/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">shared a list</a> of several prominent Iranian leaders who have children teaching at universities in the United States — and although the report noted that none of those employed in the United States have been linked to any nefarious activity, allowing people with such close ties to regime leadership to teach American students could eventually present a risk.
<a href="https://www.fdd.org/team/janatan-sayeh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Janatan Sayeh</a>, an Iran analyst at Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, explained: &#8220;I would think that there would be a security risk as Iranian academics have been critical in forming public opinion on the left in the US, essentially deceiving liberals into thinking that the regime is more progressive, when it’s still advancing the same hardline agenda.&#8221;
Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, for example, initially came to the United States for cancer treatment. A medical doctor who worked at Emory University in Atlanta until January, she is also the daughter of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iranian-intelligence-chief-eliminated-in-overnight-israeli-strike">Ali Larijani</a> — an Iranian leader who was killed in an airstrike on Tuesday.
Lawdan Bazargan, with the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, noted the irony of Ardeshir-Larijani&#8217;s presence in the United States — especially given who her father was. &#8220;The daughter of Ali Larijani came to the United States for cancer treatment, the very country her family’s system condemns, while millions of Iranians are denied access to basic health care and opportunity.&#8221;
Larijani&#8217;s employment at Emory University was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/emory-university-dismisses-daughter-senior-iranian-official-ali-larijani-campus-demonstrations">terminated</a> in January, amid protests calling for her to be fired, deported, or both. Her dismissal came just weeks after her father was sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department &#8220;for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the Supreme Leader of Iran&#8221; and because he &#8220;has publicly called for Iranian security forces to use force to repress peaceful protesters.&#8221;
Leila Khatami, the daughter of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, teaches math at Schenectady&#8217;s Union College. Her ties to the regime run even deeper, as her aunt was the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who claimed the title of Supreme Leader from 1979 until he died in 1989.
Khatami&#8217;s photo and bio were removed from Union&#8217;s faculty website after the United States and Israel began their joint campaign against the Iranian regime. The page listing her as a professor of mathematics shows only her <a href="https://www.union.edu/mathematics/faculty-staff/leila-khatami">name and title</a>.
According to the Post&#8217;s report, thousands of children of Iranian elites are currently living in the United States.

The Iranian Delegation Attends The 129th Assembly Of The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

Their Parents Run The Iranian Regime. They’re Teaching Your Kids At American Universities.

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Last week, my home state of Michigan witnessed something truly terrifying: a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-respond-to-reports-of-active-shooter-as-michigan-synagogue-goes-up-in-smoke">terrorist attack</a> at a house of worship. The attacker drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a synagogue in West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit, just a few hours outside of my district.
Thankfully, on-site security personnel quickly intervened — stopping the terrorist and preventing any injury to the innocent children or staff inside. I am grateful to these guardians for responding quickly to safeguard those innocent lives, and I pray for the recovery of those injured in stopping this despicable attack.
This attack, however, isn’t an isolated incident. It is part of a broader and deeply troubling rise in antisemitism that has spread across our country since the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.
Nowhere is that rise more evident than on our college campuses.
Students have been whipped into an activist frenzy targeting Israel and the Jewish people.
Rather than stamping out the antisemitic fervor, faculty are fanning the flames. Many campus leaders seem completely unwilling to do anything about it.
<div id="attachment_1062451" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1062451" class="size-large wp-image-1062451" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Pro-Palestinian protesters, some wearing cap and gown, hold signs and chant at a rally in front of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 28, 2024. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2154554442.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images</div>
On campuses across the nation — regardless of size or location — student groups are organizing to harass and intimidate Jewish students. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are the ringleaders, often with the backing of similar faculty organizations.
At Columbia University, antisemitic demonstrators stormed a library, disrupted students, and chanted slogans like “from the river to the sea.” Eden Yadegar, my guest to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress last year, described it as “disrupting one of the most basic functions of the university.”
All too often, this chaos leads to violence. The House Committee on Education and Workforce — of which I am the <a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/">chairman</a> — heard from Michael Kaminsky, a student at DePaul University and a first-generation American who was assaulted by masked attackers for his efforts to promote dialogue about Israel and the Jewish faith. He was left with a fractured wrist, and his friend was knocked unconscious.
This is not what college should be. Students should be focused on learning and growing — not fearing harassment or assault because of their identities.
These actions are not happening in a vacuum. They are being encouraged — sometimes openly — by faculty.
At Haverford College, Tarik Aougab — a member of Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) — labeled pro-Israel students as “racist genocidaires” while praising the October 7 attacks as “a historic moment.”
At the University of California, Berkeley, a professor posted that he “could have been one of those who broke the siege.”
At MIT, former linguistics professor Michel DeGraff accused a student of having a Zionist “mind infection.”
<div id="attachment_1062465" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1062465" class="size-large wp-image-1062465" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-864x576.jpg" alt="Michel DeGraff a former professor of linguistics and now faculty at large of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) attends a protest at city hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 9, 2024. The protest calls for the city to intervene and take action against MIT for its role in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and for MIT to loose its non profit status. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2205276310.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images</div>
This kind of rhetoric has consequences.
Let’s be clear: for many Jewish Americans, Israel is central to their identity. When students are targeted under the guise of “anti-Zionism,” the line between activism and antisemitism is not just crossed — it’s erased.
And yet, too many university leaders have failed to meet this moment.
Time and again, university presidents have come before this Committee and refused to take responsibility. They hedge, they equivocate, and they fail to enforce even their own rules.
The result is what we see today: antisemitism that is spreading, intensifying, and, in some cases, turning violent.
My Committee has released a report documenting just how serious this problem has become.
The findings are clear: weak leadership, radical faculty, and emboldened student groups have created an environment where antisemitism festers — and Jewish students are paying the price.
This cannot continue.
* * *
Tim Walberg represents Michigan’s 5th Congressional District and is serving his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Protesters Gather Outside Pro-Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil’s Court Conference In New York

The Profs Aren’t Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

The Profs Aren't Alright: How Radical Faculty Fuel The Rise Of Campus Antisemitism

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U.S. House of Representatives

According to a new law, all public and private schools in Pennsylvania will be required to add cursive handwriting lessons into their curriculum beginning next month.
The bill was signed into law by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) last month and will take effect on April 12. It also had bipartisan support and passed the House 195‑8 and the Senate 42‑5 before being signed by the governor, according to <a href="https://www.fox29.com/news/pennsylvania-schools-will-be-required-teach-cursive-again-starting-april">Fox 29 Philadelphia.</a>
PA Senator and bill sponsor Wayne Langerholic (R) said in a statement that &#8220;by reintegrating cursive into the curriculum…we are investing in our students’ cognitive development, strengthening their legal preparedness and preserving their connection to historical literacy.&#8221;
&#8220;Cursive is more than handwriting. It’s a bridge,&#8221; Rep. Dane Watro (R), a cosponsor of the bill, said in a statement. &#8220;It connects us to our history, strengthens learning and deepens our understanding of the world. By teaching cursive, we’re equipping students with skills that sharpen the mind and safeguard our shared heritage.&#8221;
There’s been a big debate over cursive writing instruction ever since the Common Core Standards for public school education, which were adopted in 2010, did not include a cursive handwriting requirement. Those standards stressed printed writing and keyboard skills to be used for writing instead. 
One recent <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11943480/">study</a> found that cursive helps children with brain development. 
“The Neuroscience Behind Writing” found that “cursive writing involves greater activation of the motor cortex and cerebellum, as it requires fine motor coordination and smooth transitions between letters.” The report went on to note that, …this fluidity enhances memory retention and cognitive engagement, as the writer must anticipate the next letter in a continuous motion.”
Per the website <a href="https://mycursive.com/states-that-require-cursive-writing/#:~:text=Arizona,introduced%20as%20recently%20as%202022.)">MyCursive</a>, almost half of states still require or encourage cursive instruction in the classroom. That number has been steadily increasing over the years. 
New Jersey just updated their cursive writing requirements earlier this year as Governor Phil Murphy (D ) signed a cursive mandate into law just before leaving office in January. The new standards will go into effect next school year for students.
“We owe it to our students to give them a well-rounded education that ensures they have the tools to fully understand our rich history and become competent leaders,” Murphy said in a statement at the time, per the <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/20/us-news/nj-flips-script-mandates-teaching-cursive-writing-in-schools-starting-next-fall/">New York Post</a>.

cursive handwriting

Cursive Makes A Comeback In Pennsylvania Schools

Cursive Handwriting Instruction Will Be Required In Pennsylvania Schools

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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When Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged travelers to return to more respectful attire, he was met with vicious backlash. People called his PSA racist, classist, and prudish despite him asking for what would have been considered the bare minimum just decades ago. Similarly, when the Tampa International Airport banned pajamas, outraged fliers vowed to never visit Tampa again. These measures aren’t just a push for aesthetic decorum but are active efforts to help mitigate the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fear-of-flying-faith-salie-on-secretary-duffy-and-the-pajama-resistance/">400%</a> increase of “in-flight outbursts” Duffy cited.
People can cling to their right to pajamas all they want, but the way people dress is one of the best indicators of social respect. As a recent college graduate, I&#8217;ve seen firsthand how dressing well can transform an academic experience.
When I was four, the greatest dread in my life was getting ready for school in the morning. I attended a classical Christian academy, whose strict dress code applied even to the preschool students. The boys were expected to wear crisp white shirts and black trousers, while we girls wore red tartan dresses. Over the years, I grew accustomed to wearing a uniform. They were old-fashioned, but they ensured a standard of neatness and modesty throughout the student body. Most of the students complained about wanting to wear more casual clothing, but complaints were quickly dismissed as we redirected our attention on learning Latin or reading great books. 
My first day at a public high school was shocking for several reasons. I was stunned to see kids vaping, cursing, and shoving one another around. After years attending private schools, it intrigued my rebellious teenage attitude. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the way people were dressed: Some boys wore pajama pants and crude t-shirts, some girls donned crop tops and mini shorts that wouldn’t be appropriate at any age, and a majority wore nothing but sweatpants and sweatshirts. The student body’s appearance fit the school system’s low expectations. 
After four years of public high school, I thought that a Christian college would have a higher standard for personal grooming. The day before my classes began, I picked out a cute dress to wear. I stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone was wearing athletic shirts, sweatpants, and sweatshirts. The students walked around the hallways with headphones on and their eyes glazed over. During class periods, they fiddled with their laptops, didn’t take notes, and often kept at least one of their AirPods in. Their clothing matched their attitude. The students were late to class, rarely finished assignments on time, and hardly ever engaged in thoughtful conversations. Even in a Christian, collegiate setting, there was a total lack of respect for social order. 
I quickly realized that I needed to find an institution where intellectual growth was the actual priority. Transferring schools was my only hope. When I toured Hillsdale College, I felt like I stepped back in time. Every corner of the campus looked like a Norman Rockwell painting brought to life. Professors sat underneath statues in three-piece suits. The young men surrounding them dressed the same as they smoked pipes and talked philosophy. Young women wearing sundresses would set up picnic blankets in the sun to read Homer. Even the athletes and artists had time to change out of soiled clothes and into something fresh and neat for seminars. There is no official dress code, but the young people at Hillsdale were anxious to learn. Their passion was reflected in their appearance. 
Our culture often tries to disconnect people from their physical bodies. This is why movements like transgenderism have been able to take hold of the culture: the belief that your body and your personhood will not necessarily align. However, our bodies and our personal grooming habits are often good representations of our souls. Although there can be exceptions, the way we look can be a reliable measure of how we feel about both ourselves and the world around us. 
Dressing for comfort is convenient. In the age of social media, DoorDash, and Netflix, convenience often becomes our priority. We want things fast and easy; we want to throw on a hoodie and joggers and avoid making eye contact with anyone at the risk of engaging in small talk. This is not the behavior of a healthy society, but of a utilitarian regime. Frank Sinatra, who had a strict standard of rules for style, used to instruct people, “If black tie is optional, wear it.”
Dressing well requires both time and intention. It is something that we don’t do for ourselves, but out of respect for those around us. It is a way to express our gratitude for the social order. In return, good attire gives its wearers esteem and confidence. When students wore suits and skirts to class, as opposed to athleisure, their demeanor changed. They walked, talked, and thought confidently. They had deeper relationships with their fellow students, their professors, and even the custodial staff. They were not simply trying to get a degree but were deeply invested in growing into fully fleshed-out individuals.
Researchers often refer to this as &#8220;enclothed cognition,&#8221; which shows how one’s clothing directly affects their psychological processes. In a <a href="https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/introducing-enclothed-cognition-how-what-we-wear-affects-how-we-think">test</a>, researchers split 58 science students into two groups. One of the groups performed a series of tests while wearing white lab coats, which are typically associated with intelligence and status. The other group was allowed to wear their own clothes. The group wearing lab coats did significantly better, making “half as many errors.&#8221;
We can see the effects of poor dressing in all areas of society, from businesses to churches to public parks. The way we dress corresponds to the way we behave. If we want to restore this country’s virtues, there needs to be a polite group effort that begins among Gen Z. Encouraging official or unofficial dress codes in schools may help heal the damage of social slovenliness. To love America is to dress the part. It’s time we teach kids that both are important.
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Brooke Brandtjen is a writer and journalist from Wisconsin who focuses primarily on culture, politics, and religion. She is a senior contributor at New Guard Press, a publication she joined while attending Hillsdale College.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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The Old-School Rule That Might Fix More Than Just How Kids Dress

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