President Obama on Friday announced what he termed an “accommodation” of religious employers: the mandate to provide abortifacient drugs, sterilization and contraception would remain in place — but insurers will be required to provide them for “free.” The decision has been called everything from a compromise to capitulation — but in truth the president didn’t retreat one inch.

AEI's director of education policy Frederick Hess responds to the Department of Education's announcement of the second round of Race to the Top winners.

Twenty-five top college students will travel to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C. this June to participate in the 2012 American Enterprise Summer Institute. 

The disheartening close of its prized program is bad news for the Obama administration and probably signals rough seas ahead for its education agenda in 2011.

Disparities in the scoring of Race to the Top finalists raise red flags about the objectivity of the process, and that scoring may have been affected by political influences.

Steven Brill’s Class Warfare is an immensely readable take on a slice of the “school reform” movement and an intriguing look at some key individuals in that effort. But, as is shown by its treatment of philanthropy, the book is perhaps more revealing for what its author omits—and how its blinkered view can mislead readers on big questions.

Race to the Top is fundamentally about two things: creating political cover for state education reformers to innovate and helping states construct the administrative capacity to implement these innovations effectively.

Obama's 2011 Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility plan grants certain states waivers from No Child Left Behind accountability requirements if they agree to a series of preset conditions, but the waiver plan poses several notable risks.