Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

April 04, 2013

Public Education, Cheating Education

America’s children are in serious trouble when it comes to public education in low-income communities. All over America, more and more schools would rather cheat on standardized testing than suffer the consequences of the truth that many of their students are seriously struggling. Continue Reading...
April 03, 2013

Florida’s New Jim Crow Education System

Martin Luther King, Jr. has to be turning over in his grave. Just when you think America may be on the path to no longer judging people on the basis of skin color, we run into nonsense like the decision last fall by the Florida Department of Education, to institute race-based education standards. Continue Reading...
March 28, 2013

Diaspora-Driven Development

The African diaspora—nearly 140 million Africans live abroad—is such a major source of foreign income that it now outstrips foreign aid sent by Western donors. The money these expatriates send back home is collectively worth far more than the development donations sent by Western financial institutions, says Adams Bodomo: The exact amount of these remittances is unknown because not all of it is sent through official banking channels. Continue Reading...
March 27, 2013

Richard Proenneke: A Modern-Day Robinson Crusoe

In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Not Quite Alone in the Wilderness,” I examine the intergenerational infrastructure of innovation and civilization through the lens of Richard “Dick” Proenneke, whose efforts to build a cabin in the Alaskan wild, alone and by hand, are recorded in the popular documentary, often featured on PBS. Continue Reading...
March 26, 2013

Texas-Size Educational Choice

Over 100,000 students in Texas are on the charter school wait list—and with the number of charter schools capped at 215, they have a long wait ahead of them. But state senator Dan Patrick—a self-described “education evangelist”—is attempting to implement a radical educational reform. Continue Reading...
March 21, 2013

The Legacy of Racism and Surrogate Decision-Making

In 1989, Erol Ricketts, a researcher with the Rockefeller Foundation, found that between 1890 and 1950, blacks had higher marriage rates than whites, according to the U.S. Census. The report, titled “The Origin of Black Female-Headed Families,” published in the Spring/Summer issue of Focus(32-37), provides an overview that highlights an important question. Continue Reading...