Editorial

Once again, Michigan schools are having trouble finding enough certified teachers, so they are filling more classrooms with instructors who lack the required credentials. But some schools are worsening the state of emergency by hiring more teachers to serve fewer students. According to Bridge Magazine, data from earlier in the school year suggests Michigan public schools will surpass last year’s use of more than 2,500 long-term substitutes, classroom fill-ins with some college education who have not met state certification … [Read more...] about Filling classroom vacancies requires better solutions

One of the not-so-small gifts of living in a representative democracy is that you can’t accomplish things alone. Whether you’re trying to get a stop sign put up on a dangerous corner or to change U.S. policy on greenhouse gas emissions, you have to reach out to others. And learning how to persuade, motivate, and involve them — learning the skills of active citizenship, in other words — makes this a stronger, more resilient country. So I want to make a case for building and using those skills by tackling the issues right in front … [Read more...] about We make progress when citizens tackle the small stuff

If the impeachment effort isn’t taking the nation by storm, the Democrats have an answer — blame it on Latin. The use of a Latin term, quid pro quo, is now thought to be a damper on the impeachment cause because it sounds complex and technical. Latin is one of the great legacies of the Roman Empire, influencing languages across Europe and giving us scientific, medical and legal terms that heretofore had been thought perfectly fitting. That was before Democrats felt they needed a more emotive phrase to characterize President Donald … [Read more...] about Democrats shouldn’t blame Latin

It’s not fair to call Michael Bloomberg just a superrich dilettante. He is, after all, a former mayor of New York City, so he does have some experience as a political officeholder. It is fair to describe Bloomberg as a superrich guy who obviously was looking for something to do, so he decided, “I think I’ll dabble in presidential politics.” ”Let’s see. What am I, a Republican or a Democrat? This time around I’ll be a Democrat, because that other rich guy is claiming to be a Republican. He’s nowhere near as wealthy as I am. That … [Read more...] about Another Bloomberg Dalliance

Don’t apologize for covering your campus. Being a student journalist is one of the toughest reporting gigs there is. You have to cover your peers, your professors and your institution under the ever-watchful eye of hypersensitive administrators and the unrelenting criticism of fellow students. So we begin with a sense of empathy for the editors of Northwestern University’s campus paper, The Daily. It’s there, at a newspaper we’re sad to say, that the latest chapter in American universities’ increasing aversion to free speech … [Read more...] about Northwestern’s student paper just demonstrated what is going wrong on American college campuses

California is staying true to its reputation as the land of innovation — it is making blackouts, heretofore the signature of impoverished and war-torn lands, a routine feature of 21st-century American life. More than 2 million people are going without power in Northern and Central California, in the latest and biggest of the intentional blackouts that are, astonishingly, California’s best answer to the risk of runaway wildfires. Power — and all the goods it makes possible — is synonymous with modern civilization. It shouldn’t be … [Read more...] about California can’t keep the lights on

Let’s give credit where it’s due: As commander in chief, President Donald Trump can claim success for the military operation that took out Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the long-elusive founder of ISIS, who, according to the White House and military sources, blew himself up setting off a vest of explosives that also took the lives of three of his children. This was the president, making his nationally televised announcement: “Last night the United States brought the world’s No. 1 terrorist leader to justice. ... He was a sick and depraved … [Read more...] about A deadly game

Facebook has become a prime outlet for presidential campaign messaging, with President Trump and his Democratic rivals collectively spending more than $1 million every week on targeted ads, according to published reports. So it was disturbing, to say the least, when Facebook altered its rules recently to exempt politicians and political parties from its ban on false advertising. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the change amounted to a standing invitation for politicians to lie on Facebook — something it doesn’t allow any … [Read more...] about Facebook hands its microphone to lying politicians, Twitter takes it away

The Ukraine story hasn’t been good for President Donald Trump, and there’s only one way out — to get impeached, and the sooner, the better. Trump obviously hates the idea of being impeached. He thinks it’s unfair, and is raging against the process with every political and legal argument his team can muster and every insult and countercharge he can make on Twitter. But he doesn’t have any choice in the matter. Impeachment is baked in the cake. There’s no way that Democrats, having opened an impeachment inquiry (although without a … [Read more...] about Trump should want a rapid impeachment