Articles by Jonathan Butcher

EducationCommentary

Looking Back: Reclaiming Educational Excellence

Jonathan Butcher | September 08, 2020

This article is an excerpt from the “2020 Mandate for Leadership: A Clear Vision for the Next Administration.” It looks back at policy decisions made… Read More

EducationCommentary

Some Schools Don’t Want You to Know What They Are Teaching Your Kids. That’s a Problem.

Jonathan Butcher | September 08, 2020

Six months into the pandemic, some traditions will still not be upset by a virus. As approximately half of K-12 schools are only offering online… Read More

SocietyCommentary

Restore the Teaching of American Exceptionalism in the Classroom

Jonathan Butcher | August 28, 2020

If this summer’s riots and civil unrest have demonstrated anything, it is that a substantial number of young Americans have been taught to believe their… Read More

SocietyCommentary

Creator of New York Times’ 1619 Project Changes Tune to Insist It’s Not History

Jonathan Butcher | August 13, 2020

When The New York Times Magazine published the 1619 Project last year, supporters hailed this retelling of America’s founding as a “woke” counternarrative meant to… Read More

EducationCommentary

South Carolina Gives Parents Confidence About School This Fall

Jonathan Butcher | July 20, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in months of uncertainty for families with children in K-12 schools, but South Carolina officials on Monday made one thing… Read More

EducationCommentary

Reopening Schools Doesn’t Require National Consensus

Jonathan Butcher | July 15, 2020

Parents looking for a national consensus on whether schools should open in the fall won’t find one. But that’s OK. We don’t need one. As soon as… Read More

SocietyAnalysis

1619 Project Stokes Racial Division, but Offers No Real Solutions

Jonathan Butcher | July 10, 2020

Controversy makes news and newspapers sell news—or sometimes just controversy. With racial tensions already running high, a recent essay in The New York Times Magazine further stoked… Read More

Health CareCommentary

We Can Do Better Than a Parking Lot for That Temporary Hospital

Jonathan Butcher | March 31, 2020

Coming soon to a parking lot near you—a hospital. Federal and state officials are rushing to create temporary medical centers to help patients during the… Read More

SocietyCommentary

The New York Times Begins Correcting the Historical Record on ‘1619 Project’

Jonathan Butcher | March 15, 2020

“I have been thinking about this and reading obsessively for 25 years about all the inequalities in American life that can be traced back to… Read More

EducationCommentary

Unserious Objections to Bolstering Free Speech on Campus

Jonathan Butcher | March 02, 2020

Wisconsin lawmakers are taking the issue of free speech on campus seriously again—and, inexplicably, that has some people upset. Legislators recently advanced a proposal based… Read More

EducationCommentary

A Mistake Imperils the Privacy of Parents Who Back School Choice

Jonathan Butcher | January 30, 2020

Christy Cook hasn’t been singled out or harassed for the choices she makes for her son’s education. She’d like to keep it that way. Yet… Read More

EducationCommentary

For Taxpayers, College Football Remains a Guilty Pleasure at Christmastime

Jonathan Butcher | December 23, 2019

With Christmastime comes college football’s bowl season, with games all day, nearly every day. Starting last Friday with Buffalo against Charlotte in the Bahamas (1,235… Read More

EducationCommentary

Father of Parkland Victim on What Could Have Stopped the Tragedy

Jonathan Butcher | September 18, 2019

“This incident that occurred, this outrageous tragedy that we have had to deal with, we really had no signs, no warning, no tips,” announced Broward… Read More

EducationCommentary

Memo to Teachers Unions: Charter Schools Clearly Benefit Students

Jonathan Butcher | September 09, 2019

When Morgan Waldrop started high school, academics weren’t much of a priority. “It wasn’t even a goal of mine to be at the top of my class,” Waldrop says…. Read More

EducationCommentary

If California Relies on Obama School Discipline Policy, It Will Put Students at Risk

Jonathan Butcher | September 06, 2019

California legislators seek to expand a law that limits a teacher’s ability to keep order in the classroom. Surveys find opposition to such loosened policies,… Read More

EducationCommentary

Civil Rights Panel Wants to Bring Back Obama’s Race-Based School Discipline Policies. Bad Idea.

Jonathan Butcher | July 26, 2019

Washington late last year reversed a policy that was micromanaging the way teachers and principals kept order in classrooms. Now, a federal commission wants to… Read More

SocietyCommentary

College Kowtows to Students Saying ‘Free Speech Harms’

Jonathan Butcher | July 19, 2019

It became known as “The Bloody Morning Scout.” In 1755, Ephraim Williams Jr. led colonial forces and some 200 Mohawk allies into battle against French… Read More

EducationCommentary

Treasury Department Just Fixed a Situation That Threatened School Choice

Jonathan Butcher | June 14, 2019

Lawmakers intended with the 2017 tax cuts not only to promote economic growth and job creation and to allow families to keep more of their… Read More

EducationCommentary

Alabama’s Stand for Free Speech Sets an Example for the Nation

Jonathan Butcher | June 12, 2019

State mottos should be built to last, and Alabama’s lawmakers just applied theirs—Audemus jura nostra defendere or “We dare defend our rights”—to one of the… Read More

EducationCommentary

What Happens When Everyone Gets a ‘Free’ Lunch? Money Problems

Jonathan Butcher | June 10, 2019

A yogurt company, Chobani, has picked up the tab for unpaid school lunches in a Rhode Island school district. That’s a relief to the school… Read More

EducationCommentary

This Arizona Policy Change Is Robbing Navajo Kids of School Opportunity

Jonathan Butcher | May 21, 2019

Three thousand and one hundred feet. That’s the distance between Hilltop Christian School in New Mexico and the Arizona border—but for students in the Navajo… Read More

EducationCommentary

Arizona Case Shows the Difference Between Campus Free Speech and Harassment

Jonathan Butcher | April 23, 2019

Three Arizona students may soon learn a valuable lesson: There’s a difference between exercising your free speech on campus and blocking someone else’s attempt to… Read More

SocietyCommentary

National School Lunch Program Has Morphed Into Massive, Wasteful Entitlement Program

Jonathan Butcher | April 09, 2019

The National School Lunch Program has changed dramatically since it began in 1946. What started as a grant program to help poor students and those… Read More

EducationCommentary

How Teachers Unions Are Holding Children With Special Needs Hostage

Jonathan Butcher | March 10, 2019

Teacher unions are now using strikes as a form of extortion. For the second time this year, a state’s teachers union and its members have… Read More

EducationCommentary

This K-12 Innovation Would Help Families in South Carolina Customize Learning

Jonathan Butcher | February 13, 2019

Cindie Smith is not one to shy away from a challenge. Having already raised two biological children, she adopted four children with special needs and… Read More

EducationCommentary

Obama’s School Discipline Guidance Could Be Doomed. Here’s Why That’s Great News.

Jonathan Butcher | December 18, 2018

This year started with a reminder that we cannot take the safety of our children for granted, and Washington has ended the year by taking… Read More

EducationCommentary

Education Savings Accounts Remain a Choice for Arizona Parents

Jonathan Butcher | November 07, 2018

Leading up to Tuesday’s election, Arizona’s teachers union and its allies were more bombastic than strategic. But despite the campaign against families’ ability to choose… Read More

EducationCommentary

School Discipline Policy Belongs at the Local Level, Not Washington

Jonathan Butcher | August 31, 2018

Teacher unions and progressive special-interest groups cried foul earlier this year when the White House suggested that federal directives on school safety could be rescinded…. Read More

EducationCommentary

Houston Has a School Spending Problem, and ‘Free’ Lunches Won’t Fix It

Jonathan Butcher | August 21, 2018

Houston schools will offer free meals to all students this year, but there’s no guarantee that will help more families who are still recovering from… Read More

EducationCommentary

Betsy DeVos Should Get Feds Out of School Discipline Policy, Withdraw Obama-Era Guidance

Jonathan Butcher | July 18, 2018

Sometimes in a compromise, both sides walk away unhappy. That’s exactly what would happen if the Trump administration accepts a compromise measure on school discipline… Read More