An easy lesson plan to teach kids about fake news

Around Halloween, a brief wave of hysteria overcame the students at my middle school: fear of killer clowns. Remember when that rumor briefly took over the internet? My kids could not stop talking about it. The fifth-graders were convinced that clowns had murdered people in a nearby town; the sixth- and seventh-graders were more skeptical, but some still believed it. I had to spend a lot of time patiently explaining to my class that it was all a hoax.

Milton Friedman admitted that the voucher program would lead to racial segregation – and he was fine with it

With school-choice evangelist Betsy DeVos sworn in as the new Education Secretary on the narrowest of margins, the government will likely soon make a push for voucher programs (despite the fact that three of the latest studies on voucher programs in Louisiana, Indiana and Ohio have all shown abysmal results, even the one financed by the conservative Walton Family Foundation.)

In the midst of all this debate over choice and charters and vouchers, it’s fascinating to go back to the idea that started it all: a brief essay called “The Role of Government in Education,” written by economist Milton Friedman in 1955.

The essay is a well-argued summary of the school choice philosophy, comprehensive and concise. What shocked me, though, was not the main argument but a lengthy footnote in which Friedman struggles with the uncomfortable racial implications of his idea – and, ultimately, accepts them.