Applications now open: Mini-Grants on Free Market Economics

The Mini-Grants on Free Market Economics: Research & Teaching program continues for the upcoming 2020 academic year and the application is now live. This grant program is intended to enhance the effectiveness in the research and teaching of market economics for faculty at colleges, universities, and seminaries in the United States and Canada. Continue Reading...

Benjamin Franklin’s advice on the Chicago schools strike

Their last remaining dispute in the Chicago schools strike could be resolved if both sides understood a basic economic concept taught by one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Although the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union announced a tentative agreement Wednesday evening, the Second City’s 300,000-plus students still began their eleventh day outside the classroom Thursday, because the CTU added a new demand Wednesday night. Continue Reading...

Updated: 5 reasons the Chicago teachers’ strike is immoral

The Chicago Public School system’s 361,314 registered students are starting their tenth day at home this morning, as their teachers union strikes for its fourteenth cumulative day. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have publicly supported the 32,000 teachers and school staff (represented by the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU, respectively) on the picket line – but there are five reasons people of faith should not join them. Continue Reading...

On being wrapped up in books

Last night I gave an address at The Grand Castle in Grandville, Michigan on the occasioning of its library opening. I spoke on the importance of books and libraries. As the Librarian and a Research Associate at the Acton Institute it is a topic of professional interest but is also an abiding private passion. Continue Reading...

Joe Biden: Youth idol?

Today at Spectator USA I write about Joe Biden’s forgotten status as a fount of youthful genius in “Joe Biden: victim of the cult of youth.” Biden won his first Senate election at the 29, the same age as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and spent the next two decades being extolled for his age and sophistication – before spending the last decade ridiculed for his age and mediocrity. Continue Reading...

New ‘Religion & Liberty’ focuses on the student loan crisis

The newest issue of Religion & Liberty has been uploaded. You can view it here. This issue of Religion & Liberty focuses on higher education in all its fulness. Two statistics throw the college tuition crisis into stark relief: Since 1978 – the year the federal government offered subsidized loans to all students – the cost of college tuition has risen by 1,375 percent. Continue Reading...