How Public Dollars Go to Private Schools
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.Today, Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who is Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing. Jane Mayer has a new report, published last night, detailing how Trump supporters intimidated potential witnesses and suppressed an F.B.I. background check in the run-up to his hearing. Also in today’s edition, the conservative attack on secular schools, and:Urban fires in a combustible ageKnowing when a system has failedDoes one emotion rule us all?Illustration by Ben WisemanHow Religious Schools Became a Billion-Dollar Drain on Public EducationA nationwide movement has funnelled taxpayer money to private institutions, eroding the separation between church and state.Beginning in the mid-nineteen-nineties, Ohio began offering vouchers to Cleveland students as an alternative to struggling public schools. In this week’s issue, Alec MacGillis explores how what began as a civil-rights cause has, in the last few decades, ballooned into a huge and expensive program—which, along with similar initiatives in other states, is “threatening to become a nationwide money grab.” MacGillis reveals that, in Ohio, “the benefits extend to more than a hundred and fifty thousand students across the state, costing taxpayers nearly a billion dollars, the vast majority of which goes to the Catholic and evangelical institutions that dominate the private-school landscape there.”In startling new reporting, MacGillis uncovers private correspondence shared among conservative voucher advocates, which reveals a coördinated strategy to extend programs intended for the needy to “far richer families,” with aims that go well beyond education. As one activist puts it, about the movement’s ethos and wider goals, “Government does a lousy job of substituting for religion.” Read or listen to the story »Joshua RothmanIllustration by Josie NortonHow Do You Know When a System Has Failed?“It’s trivially easy for most people to name a slew of broken systems, financial, technological, governmental, and otherwise,” Joshua Rothman writes. Health care, education, capitalism—the list goes on. But what constitutes systemic failure may look different to different people; even when we agree that something is broken, it’s challenging to reach a consensus on how to fix it. Read the column »Open Questions, a column about what it means to be human, publishes every Tuesday.More Top StoriesThe Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense SecretaryPete Hegseth’s Secret HistoryThe New Combustible AgeDoes One Emotion Rule All Our Ethical Judgments?Daily Cartoon“For the love of God, it doesn’t really matter—I just want to move on to Round Two, where we address the problem and try to stop it from happening again.”Cartoon by Brendan LoperCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s moderately challenging puzzle. A clue: 2015 Ottessa Moshfegh novel with a 2023 film adaptation. Six letters.Shouts & Murmurs: I’m a Hundred and Thirty Years Old—Here’s What I Wish I’d Known When I Was a Hundred and TenP.S. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, announced today that her cancer is in remission. Last March, as rumors mounted about her health, whereabouts, and even her Photoshop skills, Middleton made a public announcement that she was undergoing chemotherapy. Anthony Lane, remarking on the moment of frenzy from the public, wrote, “Logically, the only cure for such lunacy was to show the Princess of Wales alive and well, or as well as she can hope to be, given her ordeal.”
Today, Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who is Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing. Jane Mayer has a new report, published last night, detailing how Trump supporters intimidated potential witnesses and suppressed an F.B.I. background check in the run-up to his hearing. Also in today’s edition, the conservative attack on secular schools, and:
How Religious Schools Became a Billion-Dollar Drain on Public Education
A nationwide movement has funnelled taxpayer money to private institutions, eroding the separation between church and state.
Beginning in the mid-nineteen-nineties, Ohio began offering vouchers to Cleveland students as an alternative to struggling public schools. In this week’s issue, Alec MacGillis explores how what began as a civil-rights cause has, in the last few decades, ballooned into a huge and expensive program—which, along with similar initiatives in other states, is “threatening to become a nationwide money grab.” MacGillis reveals that, in Ohio, “the benefits extend to more than a hundred and fifty thousand students across the state, costing taxpayers nearly a billion dollars, the vast majority of which goes to the Catholic and evangelical institutions that dominate the private-school landscape there.”
In startling new reporting, MacGillis uncovers private correspondence shared among conservative voucher advocates, which reveals a coördinated strategy to extend programs intended for the needy to “far richer families,” with aims that go well beyond education. As one activist puts it, about the movement’s ethos and wider goals, “Government does a lousy job of substituting for religion.” Read or listen to the story »
Joshua Rothman
How Do You Know When a System Has Failed?
“It’s trivially easy for most people to name a slew of broken systems, financial, technological, governmental, and otherwise,” Joshua Rothman writes. Health care, education, capitalism—the list goes on. But what constitutes systemic failure may look different to different people; even when we agree that something is broken, it’s challenging to reach a consensus on how to fix it. Read the column »
Open Questions, a column about what it means to be human, publishes every Tuesday.
- The Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary
- Pete Hegseth’s Secret History
- The New Combustible Age
- Does One Emotion Rule All Our Ethical Judgments?
Daily Cartoon
- Play today’s moderately challenging puzzle. A clue: 2015 Ottessa Moshfegh novel with a 2023 film adaptation. Six letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: I’m a Hundred and Thirty Years Old—Here’s What I Wish I’d Known When I Was a Hundred and Ten
P.S. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, announced today that her cancer is in remission. Last March, as rumors mounted about her health, whereabouts, and even her Photoshop skills, Middleton made a public announcement that she was undergoing chemotherapy. Anthony Lane, remarking on the moment of frenzy from the public, wrote, “Logically, the only cure for such lunacy was to show the Princess of Wales alive and well, or as well as she can hope to be, given her ordeal.”
