Bees and ‘Bots: Homeschoolers Once Again Win Big

This year, homeschooled students have again won academic recognition all out of proportion to their numbers. On May 25, the National Geographic Bee — a competition involving five million United States students — was won by 13-year-old homeschooler Nathan Cornelius. Nathan, from Cottonwood, Minnesota, says his interests include photography, piano, and classical guitar, but “I

Government Schools Producing Legions of the Ignorant

Evidence continues mounting that government schools are failing in their most fundamental responsibilities. One of the latest examples comes from New York City, where an incredible 81% of eighth-graders flunked the state’s basic social studies exam last year. Even worse, the scores have gone down every year since the testing began in 2001. In 2001-02

Government Preparedness and Response

“This is now the focus of this administration.” declared the president today during a press conference on hurricane Katrina and natural disasters in general. “We will root out all of these evils—hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, avalanches, tornadoes—we must not allow them to cause devastation unhindered. We will fight this war on natural disaster, and we

Federal Government Loses $25 billion

“Oops! Sorry, we misplaced $25 billion of your dollars.” So says the federal government. (Well, except for the “sorry” part.) As federal budget expert Brian Riedl of the conservative Heritage Foundation reports: “[T]he federal government cannot account for $25 billion it spent in 2003. That’s billion with a “b.” Federal auditors know that $25 billion