It’s no secret that American public schools are in dire need of improvement. In the past decade, the vast majority of public schools have seen declines in student test scores across core subjects which have only accelerated since the pandemic despite a massive increase in school budgets per student in the 21st century, as well as in employee headcounts. But a closer analysis of these trends hints that it’s not how much funding or hiring that determines student success, but rather who gets hired at the taxpayer’s expense. And with a stagnant public school student population, why are more staff…

Each election cycle, there are fears that third party candidates will “spoil” one of the major candidates’ victories due to the dominance of plurality voting. As a result, many localities in Democratic states use ranked choice voting (RCV), and several Republican-dominated Southern states have used runoff elections for decades. These systems can mitigate spoiler effects, but they fail to fully satisfy Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA). Many states have banned RCV due to the expensive process of counting its complex ballots, which also applies to cardinal voting systems. Even if voting machines were perfect and timely, Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem states…

Respect for our veterans is not just waving our flag or saluting them. Tens of thousands of veterans are homeless, and health conditions resulting from their deployments are a major cause of their status. These include PTSD, depression, and limb loss, which send many down spirals of drug or substance abuse and hinder their ability to find employment. And with healthcare costs at all-time highs, a significant portion of veterans struggle to afford treatment or are even denied care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  But taking care of our veterans is too expensive on taxpayers, what is not? The…

An Increasingly Digital World Results in Fewer Payments Involving Cash; Wikimedia Commons With an increasingly digital and globalized financial system, countries around the world are preparing for the implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Only a few central banks have implemented them so far, but many more—including the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and Bank of England—are actively researching and developing them. Although the vast majority of currency in circulation is already stored in databases rather than physical bank vaults or wallets, this digital financial network is far from centralized. Commercial banks individually manage their databases and payment networks,…

Despite its incredible efficiency and low cost per watt of output, it has only taken three disasters to cripple public support for nuclear energy. However, a closer look at these catastrophes suggests that they were exceptions, not the pattern, of the stability and safety of nuclear power plants. The accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 only involved a reactor failure, and excess radiation was contained by the plant’s sound structure. The Fukushima Plant’s destruction was the result of its construction on a geologically active zone. In both situations, virtually no deaths resulted from leaked radiation.  Most infamously,…

During Trump’s second presidency, Republican Representative Thomas Massie has frequently come under fire from members of his own party, despite being one of the most conservative members of congress. Although Massie holds a similar view with most of his Republican colleagues on abortion, gun control, and illegal immigration, his stance on other issues have caused President Trump to endorse his challenger in the upcoming Kentucky primary election. Massie’s “no” vote on the Big Beautiful Bill, his efforts to release the Epstein files, and non-interventionist stance on foreign policy issues have been the main reasons for attacks on him by fellow…

This past week in Britain’s local elections, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has made huge gains in previous strongholds of the Labour and Conservative parties. Running on a right-wing populist agenda, Farage has made reducing immigration a focus of his party’s campaign. Ten years ago, he also emphasized immigration issues in his successful campaign for Brexit. But politically, even by his own goals, this was not a success in resolving the issue.Before 2021, British membership of the EU allowed citizens of any other member country to live and work in the UK without restrictions. The effects of this were especially…

Slightly over a year ago, Canadians went to the polls to elect their Members of Parliament. In a major turnaround from the expected result for years, the Liberal Party retained its grip on Ottawa under the leadership of Prime Minister Mark Carney. A large part of the Liberal Party’s rebound was due to Canadians’ dislike of Republican President Trump, and his perceived ideological similarities with Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. Many Canadians feared Trump’s desire to make Canada the 51st state, trusting Carney instead to bring prosperity to an independent Canada instead.For the past decade, however, the Liberal Canadian government,…

A recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship on the MV Hondius has generated global concern and alerts from health authorities. The hantavirus has already resulted in multiple deaths, and required quarantines of the remaining passengers. Not coincidentally, interest in a treatment for the disease has spiked, as have the prices of Moderna’s stock. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Moderna, along with Pfizer and AstraZeneca rapidly developed vaccines using mRNA technology, the first of their kind in history. And these vaccines were widely distributed and used around the world, marketed as “safe and effective” by numerous health authorities. But an investigation into…

110 years ago marked the beginning of a new political era for the Irish. Centuries of oppressive rule by British overlords included the prohibition of expressions of Irish culture, discrimination against its Catholic population, and worst of all, intentional mass starvation during the 1840s. Although it is known as the Irish Potato Famine, the reality is that while the potatoes died in large quantities, British landlords confiscated virtually all of Ireland’s supply of other foods, such as beef, cheese, and fish. They made exorbitant profits off selling them back in Great Britain, whose wealth contrasted with the extreme poverty that…