Michael Petrilli

1 month ago | forbes.com | Michael Petrilli

Choosing high school courses can feel high-stakes—and for good reason. According to a survey from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, nearly 87% of colleges believe curriculum strength to be of “moderate” or “considerable” importance for admissions decisions, compared to 56% for the infamous college essay and just 30% for SAT and ACT scores. The course selection pressure may be especially intense when it comes to advanced math.

1 month ago | the74million.org | Michael Petrilli

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter This essay originally appeared on the Fordham Institute’s Flypaper blog. The last two weeks of April featured a rare doubleheader at the Supreme Court, as the justices took up two cases dealing with the intersection of religious liberty and public education.

Mar 14, 2025 | educationnext.org | Michael Petrilli

Trump administration officials announced on Tuesday evening that it is laying off 1,300 employees at the U.S. Department of Education. This is on top of nearly 600 people who had already taken early retirement or buyouts, as well as another 60 probationary employees who had already been fired. This would bring the Department’s headcount down from about 4,100 to about 2,200, a whopping reduction.

Feb 2, 2025 | forbes.com | Michael Petrilli

Eli Hager and his colleagues at ProPublica have published some eyebrow-raising articles lately about Arizona’s universal education savings account (ESA) program. Most recently, Hager dug into its testing and accountability requirements—or lack thereof. When it comes to the public’s ability—and that of policymakers—to know whether Arizona’s program, or the schools and other vendors that it’s funding, are effective, there’s zilch, nada, nothing. Yet Arizona turns out to be something of an outlier.

Jan 29, 2025 | educationnext.org | Michael Petrilli

The Supreme Court agreed last Friday afternoon to hear a landmark religious charter schools case out of Oklahoma, and it’s a much bigger deal than you might imagine. Many of the headlines refer to whether states “can” or “may” allow religious charter schools. But that’s not the question at all; not a single state has enacted legislation allowing religious charter schools (and the Court does not like to deal in hypotheticals).