Manno for Forbes: Prudence Is A Gateway Virtue For K-12 Education

“We need to offer the coming generations an education in morals as rigorous as their technical and career education,” writes political and cultural commentator David Brooks in The Atlantic. What might be the foundation for the main elements of this rigorous education in morals?

As I thought about this question, I kept returning to two of my parents go to maxims, directed to me—and my siblings—on a regular basis. They offered me a springboard to answer this question.

The first maxim was, “Use your common sense.” The second maxim, meant to reinforce the first, was one of the worst things they could say about someone: “That person doesn’t have any common sense.”

As a young person, I was attracted to the simplicity of these maxims, though not always sure how to apply them as I navigated my way around Collinwood, our Italian-American neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. They have been with me for over 70 years, shaping my perspective on life.

Read more in Forbes.

Manno for The 74: Survey Finds Teens Worldwide Are Lost in the Transition After High School

Teenagers around the world are adrift as they near high school graduation. They are deeply interested in future careers, but their expectations are outdated, and they have little awareness of their actual professional options.

That’s the message of a new reportThe State of Global Teenage Career Preparation, by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The report surveys approximately 690,000 15- and 16-year-old students from more than 80 countries, including the United States. Here are five key insights from the report:

  • Roughly 4 out of 10 students are unclear about their career expectations, double the number from about a decade ago.
  • Almost half (49%) agree (35%) or strongly agree (14%) that school has done little to prepare them for adult life.
  • There’s a gender gap in students’ aspirations to work in sectors like information technology and health care. For example, around 11% of boys report that they will work in information technology at age 30, compared with 1.5% of girls.
  • Job preferences focus on a few, well-known professions, such as teaching, psychology and sports. For example, around half of girls and 44% of boys report that they expect to work in one of just 10 jobs, with little change in career preferences since 2000.
  • The majority of young people don’t get connected to workforce professionals who can help them understand the opportunities available to them. Only 35% report attending a job fair, and just 45% visited a workplace.

Read more in The 74.

Manno for Forbes: Civic Education As We Look To Our Nation’s 250th Anniversary

More than seven out of 10 U.S. adults give a grade of C or worse to K-12 public schools’ efforts to prepare students “to be good citizens.” History and civics 8th-grade test scores are at an all-time low. On the other hand, there is strong support and narrowing political differences between Democrats and Republicans on the importance of civic education, especially students learning civics and history.

In 2026 we will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary commemorating the signing the Declaration of Independence. As we prepare for this event, we should acknowledge both the worrisome and good news and continue to advance efforts that increase students’ knowledge of civics and history.

Troubling News

There are worrisome signs that patriotism, civic knowledge, and civic education are declining. A Gallup poll in 2023 found that 39% of U.S. adults were extremely proud to be an American, compared to 55% in 2001 when the question was first asked. This was essentially unchanged from the 38% record low in 2022. When combining those extremely or very proud, the number dropped from a high of 90% in 2003 to 67% in 2023. There also is a divide on patriotism between younger and older Americans. While 50% of adults aged 55 and older said they are extremely proud to be American, 40% of those aged 35 to 54 and 18% of 18- to 34-year-olds said the same.

Keep reading in Forbes.

Osborne for The 74: Red States’ School Vouchers Mark Biggest Shift in U.S. Education in a Century

Do Americans want an education system in which the quality of children’s schools depends largely on their family’s wealth?

Not likely. Yet in Republican-dominated states, that’s exactly what the future holds. This is arguably the most profound change in American education since the development of universal public education over a century ago.

Over the past five years, 14 states have passed laws creating universal vouchers, often known as Education Savings Accounts — public money families can use to pay private school tuition. All are Republican states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, TennesseeTexas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Two more, Oklahoma and Idaho, have passed refundable tax credits available to all families.

Every family in those states is eligible, or will be within a few years, for somewhere between West Virginia’s $4,600 and Texas’s $10,500 a year per student. Counting programs limited to low-income students, more than half of all K-12 students in the U.S. now qualify for some form of voucher.

Read more in The 74. 

Manno for Forbes: Are Micro-Credentials Democratizing K-12 Credentialing?

A quiet shift is underway in K-12 education that is democratizing the types of credentials awarded to students and educators. Increasingly, K-12 is using micro-credentials to verify and document what students and educators know and can do when assessed on particular learning outcomes.

The effect is potentially profound. Journalist Sara Weissman says that young people’s use of micro-credentials is creating “The micro-credential generation, a fast-growing number of traditionally college-age students [who] are bypassing degrees to pursue cheaper and faster alternative credentials.”

What follows examines the emerging use of micro-credentials in K-12 student learning and teacher professional development, the challenges involved in implementing this approach, and the lessons learned along the way.

Keep reading in Forbes.

Kahlenberg in The Assembly: One Critic of Race-Based Admissions Says Colleges Can Still Improve Diversity

Richard Kahlenberg has been enthralled with the multiracial, working-class coalitions envisioned by Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin since he was an undergraduate student at Harvard University. Decades later, Kahlenberg says those ideals led him to an unexpected alliance with conservatives in their fight to end race-based affirmative action.

Kahlenberg, a policy scholar who is currently director of housing policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, was an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) in its lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ultimately, the Supreme Court two years ago struck down race-based affirmative action programs in most college admissions.

In his new book, Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, Kahlenberg explains why he aligned himself with the group.

Read the full Q&A in The Assembly.

Kahlenberg in The New York Times: What Happens if ‘Harvard Is Not Harvard’?

“Trump has pulled off something I thought I’d never see, which is he made Harvard look sympathetic,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a Harvard critic who supports the idea of giving admissions preferences to students with lower family incomes. […]

Mr. Kahlenberg said his “big fear” was that Harvard might scale back on social mobility efforts and seek to admit more students whose families could pay full freight, nearly $87,000 a year for undergraduates, including room and board.

Read more in The New York Times.

Weinstein Jr. for Forbes: More Colleges Freeze Hiring And Suspend Salary Increases

Colleges and universities continue to look for ways to cut spending because of the Trump Administration’s policies towards higher education.

One June 2nd, Johns Hopkins University announced a set of policies to prepare for a possible decline in revenue. They join a list of schools including Brown University, Duke University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Washington, and the University of California system, that have temporarily paused hiring and vow to hold off on capital spending.

Hopkins has already seen $850 million in grant cuts resulting from the culling of USAID and other program terminations, plus the school has a large number of international students (many who pay full tuition) who may be dissuaded from studying in the U.S. due to the Administration’s more restrictive visa policies.

Keep reading in Forbes.

Manno for Fusion Magazine: A Plan for Prudence

The words “common sense” are central in today’s political lexicon. President Trump’s Inaugural Address called for a “revolution of common sense.” Michael Baharaeen, columnist and chief political analyst for the center-left Liberal Patriot, asked, “Is a common sense faction of Democrats rising?”  

Rival claims of common sense reminded me that my parents’ go-to maxim was “Use your common sense.” They directed it at me (and my siblings) when I was old enough to raise questions with them about doing something on my own. On the other hand, “That person doesn’t have any common sense” was the worst thing they could say about another person.

These maxims weren’t particular to my family. Growing up, I heard them repeated by adults to their children throughout our Italian American neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. For my part, I found the simplicity of the advice appealing, though I was not always sure how to apply it.

As is often the case with simple truisms, it’s taken me years to understand the complexity and insight behind such timeless maxims. Only recently did I realize that my parents’ guidance was grounded in the virtue of prudence, which I’d learned about during my Catholic school education. This motivated me to re-educate myself on the meaning of this essential and overlooked virtue.

In today’s fast-paced, often chaotic environment, the need for prudence—a virtue that combines foresight, wisdom, and discretion—has never been more critical. Properly understood, “use your common sense” might be a rallying cry for our time.

Keep reading in Fusion Magazine.

Kahlenberg on Reasonably Happy with Paul Ollinger: Has Affirmative Action FAILED?

 

Has affirmative action failed in America?? In this eye-opening conversation, Richard Kahlenberg—author of Class Matters and a longtime education and housing policy scholar—explains why race-based affirmative action has failed America’s working class and what can be done to fix it. A self-described “liberal maverick,” Kahlenberg dives into his controversial role in the Supreme Court case against Harvard, arguing that socioeconomic-based admissions would promote both racial equity and fairness without alienating the working-class voters Democrats are rapidly losing. From Harvard’s legacy advantages and billionaire endowments to MLK’s and RFK’s forgotten views on class over race, this episode challenges elite institutions, political orthodoxy, and the future of education in America.

Check out all of Richard’s books and appearances: https://www.richardkahlenberg.org/

Watch the full video.

Kahlenberg in CBS News: Colleges are slightly less diverse as admissions officers seek ways to adapt post-affirmative action

Richard Kahlenberg, director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, said that if schools were to consider socioeconomic status instead of race, they could still increase diversity on campus. Kahlenberg testified on behalf of Students for Fair Admissions in support of the ruling ending affirmative action.

With data obtained through the legal process, he and an economist ran dozens of admissions simulations and found that considering socioeconomic status and ending preferential admissions for legacy students could increase diversity at Harvard and the University of North Carolina while maintaining academic caliber.

“If there were some universities that did not see declines in racial diversity, as we know there were some, then it’s incumbent upon those institutions that saw larger drops to learn what happened,” Kahlenberg said.

He added that universities and colleges have argued that this method would be far more expensive, as it would increase the amount of financial aid the schools have to provide.

“It’s not that race-neutral alternatives are ineffective, it’s that they cost more money,” he said.

Read more in CBS News. 

Manno for Forbes: Microschools Go Macro And Provide More Learning Choices For Families

“Microschools aren’t so micro anymore,” writes Linda Jacobson in The 74. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of these K-12 learning models. They became a refuge for families facing school closures and challenges with remote learning. Their expansion is another important development in America’s K-12 education choice landscape.

What Are Microschools?

Microschools are often described as today’s version of the one-room schoolhouse. They typically consist of small, mixed-age student groups. They operate in traditional school buildings, homes, churches, and commercial spaces. They emphasize customized curricula, experiential learning, and a focus on mastery of content over standardized testing.

They take different organizational forms, including learning centers that follow a state’s homeschooling rules, private schools that charge tuition, a single charter school or a member of a charter network, or a traditional public school. Their learning calendars vary from being open year-round to part-time to following a typical academic year.

Read more in Forbes.

PPI Statement: Supreme Court Decision is a Victory for Public Education

Washington, D.C. — Today, Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), issued the following statement in response to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision about religious charter schools: 

“Yesterday’s Supreme Court deadlock is a welcome outcome that upholds the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision: Charter schools cannot be religious institutions. This result preserves the integrity of the public school choice movement and reaffirms a foundational American principle — that the government should not fund religious proselytizing. Upholding this principle has helped the United States avoid the sectarian strife that has marred the politics of many other nations. 

“Charter schools are showing the way forward because they offer a powerful formula: autonomy for schools, accountability for results, and parental choice among diverse educational models tailored to the unique learning styles of children. Yesterday’s decision ensures that this innovative public school model remains focused on serving all students, not advancing religious doctrine.”

Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce, ft. Hans Meeder

On this episode of Radically Pragmatic, PPI’s Senior Advisor and Director of the What Works Lab, Bruno Manno is joined by Hans Meeder, Principal Consultant of Blue Crab Talent Strategy and Senior Fellow for Education and Workforce Innovation at YouScience

The two discuss Meeder’s new book, “Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce: How to help every young person navigate their personal career path.” He explores how today’s youth can develop the critical Career Navigation Skills necessary to thrive in an evolving workforce shaped by AI, robotics, and automation.. By fostering these abilities, the book aims to help schools and communities create pathways for student success and long-term workforce readiness.

Meeder’s book can be ordered here.

Listen to the full episode.

Kahlenberg for American Affairs: Renewing the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party has lost its way. A party whose very purpose has been to fight for working families has forfeited their trust and confidence. The losses are most obvious among white working-class voters. In 1960, John F. Kennedy won white working-class (noncollege) voters but lost white college graduates by two to one. In 2024, Kamala Harris lost white working-class voters by over two to one (67 percent to 31 percent) while winning white college graduates solidly

The self-flattering story Democrats have told themselves is that rising white racism explains the defection of white working-class voters. But that simple story was always undercut by data showing white racism has declined, not increased, in recent decades. And the fable was further undermined in the 2024 election by the defection of many Hispanic, Asian, and black working-class voters as well. The Democratic advantage among nonwhite working-class voters has declined sharply by 37 points since 2012. In 2024, the only net increase for Democrats compared to 2020 was among whites.

The party has sunk so low that it cannot beat the man who infamously inspired his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol, sat by while they created mayhem, and would, once back in office, pardon the attackers. Republicans have had a higher identification rate among voters than Democrats for the last three years, something that hasn’t been true for almost a century. Only 29 percent of Americans view the Democrats favorably according to CNN, the lowest rate since CNN began asking the question more than thirty years ago.

What went wrong for the Democrats, and what can be done about it? There are many answers to the first question, but fundamentally, much of it boils down to this: at a time when the life prospects of Americans are increasingly shaped by economic class, not skin color or gender, Democrats have moved in the opposite direction and time and time again prioritized racial and gender identity. Restoring the primacy of working-class priorities, on issues of culture as well as economics, provides the central path forward for a Democratic Party that wants to build a durable majority and restore its identity as the party of working people.

Read more in American Affairs.