Today’s “knuckleheads” are nothing compared to yesterday’s heroes. That was the message from Bill Cosby at a recent gala event in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education . “These people marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education,” said Cosby, referring to those who fought a half
The traditional family has for many centuries and in most countries been the core unit of society. It has been the foundation and even the ultimate purpose in many people’s lives. It has provided a stable framework to bring children into the world, to raise them, to teach them manners and how to become productive and happy human beings. It has
Amid much acrimony, Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, secured an affirmative verdict last month in the House of Commons on his plans to reform the provision of undergraduate university education in England (Scotland and Wales are exempt). The higher education bill, which still faces committee scrutiny and further votes in both the House of
Colleges offer their students a taste of reality by simulating the political atmosphere of society with the presence of student government associations (SGAs). The election process alone succeeds in mimicking the cutthroat environment of campaign promises, schmoozing constituencies, and mindless pride. Rather than encouraging students to be
I must have been in my third or fourth semester of political science and law at Marburg University in 1947 when I first heard about Professor Ludwig von Mises. I did not hear about him in my lectures but was made aware of him in my conversations with fellow students. They highly recommended his book Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (The
An article in the April 5 issue of Time reminds us how deeply ingrained collectivist habits of thought are in this country. The piece deals with the Chicago school board’s decision to stop holding back (or “flunking” as it used to be called) so many students. The article begins like this: Eight years ago, Chicago moved to end social promotion of
For most people working in private industry, the everyday life of working on a college campus would seem like some sort of alternative Kafkaesque universe. The backstabbing, betrayals, and bureaucratic baloney are so commonplace that scandal and waste are barely newsworthy items. And when it comes higher education follies, the Community College of
Anyone who has spent any time on college campuses knows that most college faculty members are left-leaning and likely vote Democrat, if not Green or Socialist. So when a study recently found 91 percent of the UNLV faculty is liberal, it was not exactly earth-shattering news. Although the study’s finding — that UNLV is slightly more liberal than
A common view promoted by advocates of “free” or public education is that a system primarily based on fees would cause many children to forego an education. Subsequently, literacy rates would decline, and America would slide down a slippery slope toward low economic growth and stagnation. Whether education is part and parcel to economic growth is
In 1837, Horace Mann became the first secretary of the State Board of Education for Massachusetts. According to most accounts, this event marks the beginning of the common school era. Mann led the fight to institute common schools, and his influence extended from New England to America as a whole. There were several reasons reformers such as
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.