Corey Smith: When Indoctrination Masquerades as Education

New Hampshire Republicans recently pushed a bill through the state House to prohibit public schools from teaching curricula such as critical race theory, LGBTQ, and gender ideology. The bill, titled the CHARLIE Act (Countering Hate and Revolutionary Leftist Indoctrination in Education), is named after the late conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk. It was partly inspired by the discovery of race-based training materials in handouts and in recommended reading found in three NH cities, including Manchester, the largest city north of Boston. The measure has predictably caused arguments between both parties in the Granite State.

Corey Smith: How American Values on Free Speech Became the Gold Standard

The legal giants who paved the way.

Thanks to the Constitution and dozens of Supreme Court cases, we live in a country where you can say almost anything you want – within reason. American free speech means you can tell a crowd of globalists that only stupid people buy windmills or protest peacefully against government actions while shouting four-letter words at federal agents. But, like many things in life, circumstances matter. “The question in every case,” said Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. when delivering the court’s opinion in Schenck v. United States (1919), “is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantiative evils that congress has a right to prevent.” Other cases would follow and challenge this theory.

Corey Smith: China and Qatar Give Billions to US Universities – What Do They Get?

When authoritarian governments have access to American campuses.

Five hundred and twenty-seven colleges and universities have accepted foreign gifts and contracts for a total of $62.4 billion – that we know about. China has given more than $4 billion to US universities, and it’s only the fourth highest on a list displayed on the Department of Education’s new online portal. It shows how much money American universities have received from foreign gifts and contracts, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to ensure these institutions are transparent about funds from outside the country. Getting universities to disclose information, however, is the easy part.

Corey Smith: Is It Time to Rethink the Role of Teachers?

Maybe a bloated bureaucracy and ideological practices aren’t helping.

For a long time, many people have blamed public school teachers for the decline in student learning. They’re on the front lines, so it makes sense. Surely not all educators are at fault, and even the ones who are part of the problem can’t be fully to blame when they have so little authority.

Corey Smith: The Arctic of the Deal: Greenland Redux

Despite the objections of Danish and Greenlandic officials, Vice President JD Vance flew to Greenland Friday morning with his wife and a few delegates to Pituffik Space Base. He was the first sitting VP to visit the base, giving the trip a historic undertone while displaying how serious the Trump administration is about bolstering America’s presence in the Arctic. Though Vance’s speech seemed to carry a message slightly different from the president’s remarks about the island over the last few months, the goal was the same: national and international security. Sounds great, but is Trump serious about using force to take control of an ally’s territory?

Corey Smith: World Leaders Try to Appease Trump

President Donald Trump welcomed two world leaders to the White House this week. On Tuesday, he met with the king of Jordan to discuss the future of Gaza and the president’s proposal to relocate Palestinians to the Arab country. The king was in a tough position and appeared to play it safe during the joint press briefing. On Thursday, the commander-in-chief met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to talk about tariffs and strengthening relations between the two countries. The meetings were quite different from each other – as far as the public knows – yet still had the same air of tension.

Corey Smith: Is Remote Work Damaging People’s Social Skills?

A survey says yes – but there’s more to the story.

A recent survey of 1,000 people with fully remote jobs suggests that one in four people who work from home believe their social abilities have declined since switching to remote full-time. Now, these claims are self-identified, and the percentage of people reporting a decline is only 25%, 23% of whom have noticed only “somewhat” of a difference. Is this a big deal?