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The Right Has an Opportunity to Rethink Education in America

T he casual observer can be forgiven if it looks like both the left and the right are doing their best to lose the debate over the future of American education.

On the left, public officials and self-righteous advocates practically fall over themselves working to subsidize and supersize bloated bureaucracies, hollowed-out urban school systems, and campus craziness. They’ve mutely watched teacher strikes shutter schools and insisted that “true history” requires the U.S. to be depicted as a cesspool of racism and villainy .

Meanwhile, on the right, bleating outrage impresarios have done their best to undercut the easy-to-make case for educational choice by weaving it into angry tirades against well-liked local schools. They’ve taken Taylor Swift, a strait-laced pop star beloved by middle school and high school girls, and imagined her as part of some bizarre Biden Administration PSYOP. Heck, they’ve even decided to try to “ take down ” Martin Luther King, Jr., a Civil Rights icon honored for his legacy of justice, equality, and nonviolence.

What gives?

The left has a problem. Democrats have long benefited from alliances with teacher unions, campus radicals, and the bureaucrats who run the college cartel. This played well with a public that tended to  like  its teachers, schools, and colleges. But  pandemic school closures ,  plunging trust in colleges , and  open antisemitism  have upended the status quo.

This has created an extraordinary opportunity for the right—free of ties with unions, public bureaucracies, and academe—to defend shared values, empower students and families, and rethink outdated arrangements. The right is uniquely positioned to lead on education because it’s not hindered by the left’s entanglements, and is thus much freer to rethink the way that early childhood, K-12, and higher education are organized and delivered.

The right also needs to demonstrate that it cares as much (or more) about the kitchen table issues that affect American families as the culture war issues that animate social media. Affordability, access, rigor, convenience, appropriateness, are the things that parents care about, and the right needs something to offer them.

The question is whether the right will choose to meet the moment at a time when too many public officials seem more interested in social media exposure than solving problems.

We’re optimists. We think the right can rise to the challenge.

It starts with a commitment to principle, shared values, and real world solutions. This is easier than it sounds. After all, the public  sides  with conservatives on hot-button disputes around race, gender, and American history by lopsided margins. Americans broadly  agree  that students should learn both the good and bad about American history,  reject  race-based college admissions,  believe  that student-athletes should play on teams that match their biological sex, and  don’t think  teachers should be discussing gender in K–3 classrooms.

And, while some thoughtful conservatives recoil from accusations of wading into “culture wars,” it’s vital for to talk forthrightly about shared values. Wall Street Journal-NORC  polling , for instance, reports that, when asked to identify values important to them, 94 percent of Americans identified hard work, 90 percent said tolerance for others, 80 percent said community involvement, 73 percent said patriotism, 65 percent said belief in God, and 65 percent said having children. Schools should valorize hard work, teach tolerance, connect students to their community, promote patriotism, and be open minded towards faith and family.

At the same time, of course, educational outcomes matter mightily, for students and the nation . A commitment to rigor, excellence, and merit is a value that conservatives should unabashedly champion. And talk about an easy sell! More than 80 percent of Americans say standardized tests like the SAT should matter for college admissions . Meanwhile, California’s Democratic officials recently approved new math standards that would end advanced math in elementary and middle school and Oregon’s have abolished the requirement that high school graduates be literate and numerate. The right should both point out the absurdity of such policies and carry the banner for high expectations, advanced instruction, gifted programs, and the importance of earned success.

When it comes to kitchen table issues, conservatives can do much more to support parents. That means putting an end to chaotic classrooms. It means using the tax code to provide more financial assistance. It means making it easier and more appealing for employers to offer on-site daycare facilities. It means creating flexible-use spending accounts for both early childhood and K–12 students to support a wide range of educational options. It means pushing colleges to cut bloat and find ways to offer less costly credentials. This means offering meaningful career and technical options so that a college degree feels like a choice rather than a requirement, making it easier for new postsecondary options to emerge, and requiring colleges to have skin in the game when students take out loans (putting the schools on the hook if their students aren’t repaying taxpayers).

Then there’s the need to address the right’s frosty relationship with educators. It’s remarkable, if you think about it, that conservatives—who energetically support cops and have a natural antipathy for bureaucrats and red tape—have so much trouble connecting with teachers. Like police, teachers are  well-liked  local public servants frustrated by bureaucracy and paperwork. It should be easy to embrace discipline policies that keep teachers safe and classrooms manageable, downsize bloated bureaucracy and shift those dollars into classrooms, and tend to parental responsibilities as well as parental rights.  

There’s an enormous opportunity for the right to lead on education today. The question is whether we’re ready to rise to the challenge.

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Articles on right to education

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Florida’s new education laws carry less impact than in past years

• Jeffrey S. Solochek Times staff

With little of the attention he’s given to other legislation this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday quietly signed two bills touted for removing “onerous” bureaucracy and red tape from public education.

The measures (SB 7002 and 7004) ended some reporting requirements for school districts but didn’t go as far as some advocates had hoped. Provisions to scale back high-stakes testing, for example, were stripped from the bills before they landed on the governor’s desk.

Still, the intent of the proposals — to ease state regulations on schools — filtered through to the other education-related initiatives that also made their way through the session.

“I would say overall the spirit of deregulation … really shaped the tone and tenor of K-12 education policy — what passed and didn’t pass this legislative session,” lobbyist Megan Fay of Capital City Consulting told the Pinellas County School Board recently.

Compared to the previous five legislative sessions, she said, “the number of bills we’ve had that impact K-12 education, I’d say this is probably an all-time low, and the number of new mandates is certainly, I’d say other than school safety … is almost at zero.”

DeSantis on Tuesday signed the school safety bill ( HB 1473 ), aimed at increasing protections from intruders, among other things. The measure gained attention for its requirement that all school doors, gates and entries must be locked whenever they are not staffed.

That provision riled many school leaders, who raised concerns about the logistics of making it happen, especially when outside organizations use campuses for nonschool activities. Lawmakers added language exempting those times when buildings are used by others.

Another bill adding a new mandate (SB 1264) requires schools to teach the history of communism . DeSantis signed that legislation with great fanfare in April.

Outside of those two items, the session’s impact on school districts was “very light,” said Danielle Thomas, the lead lobbyist for the Florida School Boards Association.

As an example, she noted that a bill allowing religious chaplains to provide counseling in public schools is voluntary. School boards “can choose not to do anything about that,” Thomas said, adding that, so far, only Miami-Dade County school officials have indicated they would act on it.

Other new bills, however, are having some impact on schools.

One measure the governor signed in April (HB 1285) is winning praise from school officials for limitations it placed on school book challenges by nonparents, Thomas said.

A measure on teacher training (HB 1291), which DeSantis approved a week ago, forbids preparation programs from including “identity politics” in their lessons. Another bill ( HB 1361 ) that DeSantis signed Thursday provides grants and assistance to schools as they seek appropriate uses of artificial intelligence.

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That law has the potential to transform public education in Florida, said Citrus County School Board chairperson Thomas Kennedy, the immediate past president of the Florida School Boards Association. It also provides more opportunities for prekindergarten students to get scholarships for early literacy and math programs.

School choice got another boost as DeSantis signed legislation Thursday (HB 1403) expanding eligibility for state vouchers and education savings accounts. The new law also set revised deadlines for getting voucher money to families and schools after complaints about delayed payments in the fall .

The bill originally contained restrictions on how families can use the money, but lawmakers removed those after homeschool families balked.

DeSantis also signed legislation (SB 7032) Thursday creating a new program for high school dropouts to earn a diploma and workforce credentials .

The key education-related legislation that still awaits the governor’s action is the budget. District officials have said they are holding off on many spending decisions for the coming year while vetoes remain a possibility.

Meanwhile, several are looking ahead to the next session, with hopes that the deregulation mentality holds.

“We’re being told it’s not a one and done,” said Thomas, the school boards lobbyist. She expressed hope that the provisions to scale back testing will return in 2025.

Jeffrey S. Solochek is an education reporter covering K-12 education policy and schools. Reach him at [email protected].

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What's the best state for you », separate is unequal: looking back on brown v. board of education.

The Supreme Court handed down the landmark civil rights decision 70 years ago, but many consider its promise still unfulfilled.

Brown v. Board in Pictures

Thomas J. O'Halloran for USN&WR

Black students walk to Clinton High School in Tennessee in 1956 amid threats of violence that culminated in the school’s bombing two years later.

Seventy years ago this month, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in America's public schools is unconstitutional.

The heart of the case rested on the argument that separate school systems for Black students and white students were inherently unequal, and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place,” Chief Justice Earl Warren said, delivering the court’s landmark decision in 1954. “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Warren K. Leffler for USN&WR

U.S. Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice Earl Warren (seated center), pose for a 1958 portrait in Washington, D.C.

While the opinion led to a slow but steady march toward the desegregation of K-12 schools, its implementation has faced significant roadblocks, leading many education policy researchers and civil rights activists to conclude that the promise of Brown v. Board is largely unfilled.

Indeed, recent data shows that students in the nation’s large school districts have become much more isolated racially and economically in recent years, with Black and Latino students the most highly segregated . Though U.S. schools were 45% white in 2021, Black students, on average, attended schools that were 76% nonwhite, and Latino students went to schools that were 75% nonwhite.

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices even seem to be reconsidering some of Brown’s legacy. When the high court considered the use of race in college admissions last year – ultimately ruling to end the use of affirmative action in higher education – justices voiced divergent interpretations of the landmark civil rights decision.

Still, the court's ruling marked a historic moment in American civil rights. It was followed by heated protests and hurled vitriol, but also bravery on the part of the many Black students who accomplished their own landmark moments just by showing up for school.

The following photographs provide a historic glimpse at the tumultuous times that followed the decision, through the lenses of U.S. News & World Report photographers.

School children stand in line at the Barnard School in Washington, D.C., in May of 1955.

The National Guard monitors Tennessee’s recently desegregated Clinton High School in 1956.

Students attend class at an integrated Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., in 1957.

A Little Rock student watches a lesson on television while schools are closed in 1958 to avoid integration in Arkansas.

John T. Bledsoe for USN&WR

Students arrive at the newly desegregated Van Buren High School in Arkansas in September 1958.

A near-empty hallway at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In August of 1958, Gov. Orval Faubus shut down all four of Little Rock's public schools to protest integration.

Black students, guarded by police, wait to register for classes at Warren County High School in Front Royal, Virginia, in 1959.

Demonstrators protest against school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.

A young boy watches protesters march against school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.

Marion S. Trikosko for USN&WR

U.S. Air Force veteran James Meredith, center, who enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1962, is accompanied to class by U.S. Marshals amid protests. Meredith, the first African-American to graduate from Ole Miss, later survived being shot by a sniper on a civil rights march.

THOMAS J. O'HALLORAN FOR USN&WR

Black school children enter the Mary E. Branch School in Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1963.

Vivian Malone Jones arrives at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama, to register for classes in 1963. Jones became the university's first Black graduate in 1965.

Black and white school children ride a school bus in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1973.

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A Night to Remember at the Opera, Complete With a Phantom

About 130 children took part in a sleepover at Rome’s opera house, part of a campaign to make up for a lack of music education by making the theater and the art form more familiar and accessible.

Children attending a rehearsal at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Credit...

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By Elisabetta Povoledo

Photographs by Alessandro Penso

Reporting from Rome

• May 13, 2024

In the pitch-dark auditorium of Rome’s Teatro Costanzi, a high-pitched lament floated from the top galleries. Dozens of flashlights snapped on, their beams crisscrossing crazily, seeking the source of the sound.

The shafts of light homed in on a spectral figure — a slim, dark-haired woman dressed in white, moving at a funereal pace and plaintively singing. In the audience, 130-odd children, ages 8 to 10, let loose squeals, some gasps, and one “it’s not real.” Several called out “Emma, Emma.”

The children had just been told that the Costanzi, the capital’s opera house, had a resident phantom. No, not that one. This was said to be the spirit of Emma Carelli, an Italian soprano who managed the theater a century ago, and loved it so much that she was loath to leave it, even in death.

“The theater is a place where strange things happen, where what is impossible becomes possible,” Francesco Giambrone, the Costanzi’s general manager, told the children Saturday afternoon when they arrived to participate in a get-to-know-the-theater-sleepover.

Music education ranks as a low priority in Italy, the country that invented opera and gave the world some of its greatest composers. Many experts, including Mr. Giambrone, say their country has rested on its considerable laurels rather than cultivate a musical culture that encourages students to learn about their illustrious heritage.

With little backing from schools or lawmakers, arts organizations like the Costanzi have concluded that it is up to them to reach out to the young.

Mr. Giambrone sought to dispel opera's stuffy image by abandoning the genre’s strict dress code. That change, like the sleepover, is part of his effort to make opera, often seen as an elitist, highbrow and abstruse art form for the initiated, more familiar and accessible, especially to children.

“We believe that the theater should be for everyone, and that it should make people feel at home,” Mr. Giambrone said in an interview. Hence the decision to welcome youngsters to eat, sleep and play there. “Once a theater is a home, it is no longer something distant, something a bit austere to fear, or somewhere you feel inadequate,” he said.

“There’s a lot of talk about Made in Italy, but real shortsightedness when it comes to our musical patrimony, which is envied throughout the world,” said Maestro Antonio Caroccia, who teaches music history at the Santa Cecilia conservatory in Rome. He said that “politicians are deaf to it.”

“Italy is far behind” many other countries, said Barbara Minghetti, of Opera Education , which creates programs for children. “This I can guarantee.”

When he was in Italy’s Parliament, Michele Nitti, a musician and former lawmaker with the 5 Star Movement, proposed a law adding musical education to school curricula. His bill never made it to a parliamentary vote.

He said that not even Giuseppe Verdi, the 19th century composer who also served in Parliament, was able, in his time, to get his fellow lawmakers to support music education in schools.

Mr. Nitti was also unsuccessful in getting lawmakers to declare opera singing a national treasure. He did support the country’s successful bid to have the practice of opera singing in Italy put on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity after switching to the Democratic Party.

“Oh well,” he said.

Rather than letting its opera culture wither, Mr. Giambrone said, “Italy should be teaching other countries how it’s done.”

At the Teatro Costanzi, more than half of the children at the sleepover belonged to scout troops from Rome’s outlying neighborhoods. They were accompanied by coolheaded scout leaders who — impressively — commanded silence just by raising a finger.

Most of the children had never visited the theater before. “Come to think of it, I haven’t been there either,” said Gianpaolo Ricciarelli, one of the parents who dropped off his son.

Another father, Armando Cereoli, said, “Between video games, cellphones and Netflix, there’s tough competition to get kids interested in beautiful things.”

Some of the children came from disadvantaged neighborhoods, so the visit was “a chance to free their minds and to dream,” said Sara Greci, a scout leader and Red Cross worker who brought four girls from a home for abused women and their children.

The opera house runs several outreach programs for the homeless or people who live in Rome’s most far-flung neighborhoods, a way to open the theater to the city and broaden its reach, said Andrea Bonadio, who was hired by the theater to work on such programs.

Nunzia Nigro, the theater’s director for marketing and education, said that several of the children who had participated in the theater’s educational programs over the past 25 years were loyal patrons today. “We’re beginning to reap some of those efforts, and have a younger public,” she said.

Ms. Nigro helped organize the sleepover, tailoring it for 8- to 10-year-olds — old enough to sleep away from home but not old enough to have hormones kick in, she said. As it was, two boys felt homesick enough to get their moms to pick them up.

On Saturday, the children watched part of a rehearsal for an upcoming performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony — “the conductor uses a wand to direct music, not so different from Harry Potter’s but more important,” Ms. Nigro said. They learned how the staff cleaned the world’s biggest chandelier in a historic building, and they got to know the ins and outs of the theater via a treasure hunt (read general mayhem) that had them scrambling up and down stairs, flitting in and out of stalls like a multicharacter French farce.

Emma the phantom — Valentina Gargano , a soprano in the opera’s young artists program — made an encore, exacting a promise from the children that they would tell their friends about “this magic place” and come back when they grew up.

One girl had been so convinced that Ms. Gargano was a real ghost that the organizers made sure they met when the soprano was in street clothes.

After being serenaded with music, including Brahms’ classic lullaby, the children settled down (or tried to) in a patchwork of sleeping bags on an artificial green lawn used in a previous production of Madama Butterfly. Above them loomed oversize photos of some of the stars who performed at the Costanzi, like Maria Callas, Herbert von Karajan and Rudolf Nureyev.

After breakfast on Sunday, the children took part in workshops at which they designed colorful paper ballet costumes, learned basic ballet positions, sang as part of a choir (some more enthusiastically than others) and played an opera-themed version of snakes and ladders. The game was designed and overseen by Giordano Punturo, the opera’s stage manager, done up in a tuxedo and colorful top hat.

He didn’t know about the kids, he said, “but I had the time of my life.”

After a group singalong and photo, it was almost time to head home.

“Did you have fun?” Mr. Giambrone asked the kids. “Yes!!” they cheered. “Did you sleep well?” he asked, to a more mixed response. Several “No “s were notably heard. Come back soon, he said.

After hugging his parents who had come to pick him up, Andrea Quadrini, almost 11, couldn’t wait to tell them that his team had won at snakes and ladders, and that the treasure hunt had been especially fun.

“Wow,” he said. “I saw an opera theater for the first time.”

Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo

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These California college students live in RVs to afford the rising costs of education

By Sarah Svoboda

May 17, 2024 / 7:19 PM EDT / CBS News

Nestled on the Northern California coast among forests of towering redwood trees is Cal Poly Humboldt, one of 23 campuses in the California State University system, the largest public university network in the U.S. 

The campus is home to a number of students whose struggle to afford both the increasing cost of a college education and California's high cost of housing has led to living in their vehicles. 

"I don't feel homeless, but I am legally homeless," said Brad Butterfield, a journalism student at Cal Poly Humboldt who told CBS News he is among dozens of students who live in an RV or other vehicle.

One in 10 students within the CSU system have experienced homelessness, according to a 2020 report from UCLA.

Butterfield and several other students parked on campus until school officials enforced the prohibition of overnight camping in November 2023.

"This is becoming a norm for students to be able to afford college," Butterfield said. "It's much cheaper, and it's the only way I'd be able to go to school. If it wasn't for this, I wouldn't be here."

In September, the CSU system voted to raise tuition, which will amount to a 34% rise over five years. For the 2024-2025 school year, annual tuition for in-state undergraduate students will be $6,084 , which does not include expenses such as housing. 

Some of the Cal Poly Humboldt students who previously parked overnight on campus say they're now struggling to find off-campus parking for their RVs. In Arcata, California, where the university is located, there is a 72-hour parking limit on city streets.

"The only thing we are ever asking for is somewhere to park, so I have somewhere to sleep," said Maddy Montiel, a recent graduate of Cal Poly Humboldt with a degree in environmental science and management who lives in an RV she's affectionately named "Pearl." 

Montiel and Butterfield, who are dating, park their vehicles together for added security.

"What has become the most difficult thing is just finding a place to exist," Butterfield said, noting that numerous parking tickets "come with the territory of living in a vehicle."

Hours after Montiel and Butterfield relocated their RVs to curb space in front of an empty lot, a police officer again warned Montiel of the city's three-day parking limit.

"It gets pretty tiring, having to move all the time," Montiel said.

"Being told to leave, but not being told where to go or why you have to leave — it's just, 'We don't want you here' … when you are told that by the university and now by the city, too, I mean you can brush it off, but at the end of the day that sucks," Butterfield said.

Cal Poly Humboldt cited the "health and safety of the campus community" for their parking enforcement in a statement, saying that "university parking lots are not intended for overnight camping and are not equipped with the sanitation and other facilities that are necessary to support RVs or other vehicles overnight."

Cal Poly Humboldt biology student Carrie, who asked not to provide her last name, lives out of a 20-year-old school bus she refurbished.

"You have to worry about things like… how much power you have, running water, like, where you're going to shower," she said. "But really the biggest stressor has been, where am I going to be safe for the night?"

Carrie called the student housing situation a "humanitarian crisis" amid the rising cost of tuition. 

In an effort to provide some relief, two Democratic California legislators introduced AB 1818 , a bill that would establish pilot programs at community colleges and schools within the CSU system to allow students who use vehicles as housing to park overnight on campuses with a valid parking permit.

"The status quo is not acceptable," said bill co-author Assemblymember Corey Jackson in a statement to CBS News. "Solving the homelessness crisis is a state priority, and our colleges and universities, as key state institutions, must actively contribute to solving it."

Jackson's colleague and bill co-author Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, told CBS News: "While this bill is not the solution to the housing crisis, it provides a crucial safety net for students facing housing insecurity, ensuring they are supported, not penalized, as they work towards stable housing."

The bill moves to California's Assembly Floor for a vote next week.

The students who spoke to CBS News said their choice to live in vehicles shows just how much they value getting an education. 

"I know some folks might say, 'Well, you know, you picked this lifestyle,'" Carrie said. "I think it shows that we're resilient and creative, and we want to be here because we've chosen to be here and this is how much we want to be here."

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International students risk immigration status to engage in Gaza protests

Reliant on visas to remain in the US, foreign students face heightened consequences for involvement in campus protests.

New York, New York – Israel’s war on Gaza is personal for Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.

A 29-year-old Palestinian refugee raised in Syria, Khalil wanted to get involved in the on-campus activism against the war, but he was nervous.

Keep reading

Columbia university leaders face scrutiny over anti-semitism on campus, in the us south, pro-palestinians face crackdown on campus and in streets, columbia university students respond to threats of suspension.

Khalil faced a dilemma common to international students: He was in the United States on an F-1 student visa. His ability to stay in the country hinged on his continued enrolment as a full-time student.

But participating in a protest – including the encampment that cropped up on Columbia’s lawn last month – meant risking suspension and other punishments that could endanger his enrolment status.

“Since the beginning, I decided to stay out of the public eye and away from media attention or high-risk activities,” Khalil said. “I considered the encampment to be ‘high risk’.”

He instead opted to be a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student group pushing school administrators to sever ties with Israel and groups engaged in abuses against Palestinians.

“I’m one of the lucky ones who are able to advocate for the rights of Palestinians, the folks who are getting killed back in Palestine,” Khalil said, calling his advocacy work “literally the bare minimum I could do”.

Khalil explained he worked closely with the university to make sure that his activities would not get him in trouble. Based on his conversations with school leaders, he felt it was unlikely that he would face punishment.

Still, on April 30, Khalil received an email from Columbia administrators saying he had been suspended, citing his alleged participation in the encampment.

“I was shocked,” Khalil said. “It was ridiculous that they would suspend the negotiator.”

Legal jeopardy

However, a day later – before Khalil could even appeal the decision – the university sent him an email saying his suspension was dropped.

“After reviewing our records and reviewing evidence with Columbia University Public Safety, it has been determined to rescind your interim suspension,” the short, three-sentence email said.

Khalil said he even received a call from the Columbia University president’s office, apologising for the mistake.

But legal experts and civil rights advocates warn that even temporary suspensions could have severe consequences for students who depend on educational visas to stay in the country.

Naz Ahmad, co-founder of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility project at CUNY School of Law, told Al Jazeera that when a student-visa holder is no longer enrolled full time, the university is obliged to report the student to the Department of Homeland Security within 21 days.

That department oversees immigration services for the US government. Students must then make plans to leave or risk eventual deportation proceedings.

“If they don’t leave right away, they would begin to accrue unlawful presence,” Ahmad said. “And that can affect their ability to apply again in the future for other benefits.”

Ann Block, a senior staff lawyer at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told Al Jazeera that most schools have a designated official to monitor the status of international students.

“They generally are international student advisers, and they’re the ones that help people get into the school, get their visas to come to the school from abroad initially and normally help advise them,” Block explained.

Even outside of an academic context, non-citizens face the possibility of heightened consequences should they choose to protest.

While non-citizens enjoy many of the same civil rights as US citizens – including the right to free speech – experts said that laws like the Patriot Act may limit how those protections apply.

Passed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the Patriot Act includes broad language that could be used to interpret protests as “terrorist” activity, according to civil rights lawyer and New York University professor Elizabeth OuYang.

And the law empowers the government to restrict immigration to anyone engaged in such activity, she added.

“Section 411 of the Patriot Act bars entry to non-citizens who have used their ‘position of prominence with any within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity’,” OuYang said.

“And what constitutes terrorist activity? And that’s where the secretary of state of the United States has broad discretion to interpret that.”

Avoiding the front lines

The high level of scrutiny towards the campus protests has amplified fears that such consequences could be invoked.

Criticism of Israel, after all, is a sensitive subject in the US, the country’s longtime ally.

While a study released in May indicated that 97 percent of US campus protests were peaceful, politicians on both sides of the aisle have continued to raise fears of violence and anti-Semitic hate .

Just last week, Republican Representative Andy Ogles introduced a bill called the Study Abroad Act that would take away student visas “for rioting or unlawful protests, and for other purposes”.

He cited the recent wave of university protests as a motivation for sponsoring the legislation and compared the demonstrators to terrorists.

“Many elite American universities have damaged their hard-earned reputations by opening their doors to impressionable terrorist sympathisers,” Ogles told The Daily Caller, a right-wing site.

Some international students who spoke to Al Jazeera said the charged political atmosphere has forced them to avoid the protests altogether.

“We cannot take the risk as international students to even be caught at the scene at all,” said one student journalist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Another student added that he does not even feel comfortable reporting live on the protests for UCLA Radio , the student-run station where he works.

Other students explained that they have pursued peripheral roles in the protests, offering supplies and services instead of manning encampments and clashing with police.

An undocumented student at Columbia University, originally from Mexico, said she joined a supplies “platoon” to help distribute materials and move tents. She asked to be identified only by her first initial, A.

“None of it means no risk,” she said. “I feel I could find my way out. But I’m not necessarily going to put myself in front of a cop.”

On April 29, student organisers at Columbia even warned their classmates over megaphones to leave the encampment if they were attending school on a visa, for fear of suspensions. A, the undocumented student, said her parents also encouraged her not to participate in the protest.

“It just is so hard to be a bystander when it would be going against my convictions,” she explained. “I cannot watch children die.”

A chilling effect

One Columbia student from South Africa, who asked for anonymity out of concern for her immigration status, said it was, in fact, the US tradition of campus activism that attracted her to the school.

“I came here knowing that there were protests against apartheid South Africa. There were protests in ‘68 about Vietnam, about Harlem,” she said.

But after facing disciplinary warnings for her activism this year, she explained she had to scale back.

“The combination of xenophobia and extreme surveillance make how I decide to participate in this movement different from if I were a citizen,” she said.

The police crackdowns on campus protests have also had a chilling effect, several international students told Al Jazeera.

Estimates put the number of campus protesters arrested over the last month north of 2,000. Just this Thursday, 47 people at the University of California, Irvine, were taken into custody, according to campus officials.

Olya, a Columbia undergraduate from Thailand, was among those who participated in the encampment at her school in its early days. She provided Al Jazeera with her first name only, also citing immigration concerns.

But when school administrators set a deadline for the protesters to disband or else face suspension, Olya decided she had reached her limit.

“That was when I stopped going to the encampment more frequently because it made me realize that you really don’t know what admin’s gonna do,” Olya said.

“I think that my fears of possibly getting arrested sort of overshadows my interest in advocacy and activism in general. Especially in this country.”

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3 No-Brainer Stocks to Buy With $50 Right Now

May 19, 2024 — 05:15 am EDT

Written by Jennifer Saibil for The Motley Fool  ->

It doesn't take a ton of money to start investing. True, the more you start with, the more you can gain. But don't let a lack of copious funds deter you; two of the most important keys to successful investing are consistency and time, so the sooner you begin, the better.

If you have even $50 available for investment today, consider Carnival (NYSE: CCL) , Toast (NYSE: TOST) , and Revolve Group (NYSE: RVLV) -- three amazing stocks you can get at low price tags right now.

1. Carnival: The cruise industry leader

Carnival is the world's leading cruise company, with nearly $23 billion in annual sales, but it has gone through several years of drama, and it's trading at a price-to-sales ratio of only 0.8 -- and a share price of around $14.50.

It's the kind of established company that normally doesn't come with a lot of risk, but it had to take on billions in debt to stay afloat in the early phases of the pandemic, when it endured an extended period with no cruises and no revenue. That left it with a heavy debt load . The company doesn't have much leeway for mistakes, and it already made a huge rebound, so investors aren't giving it a high valuation.

However, at its current dirt-cheap multiple, it looks undervalued. Revenue continues to increase past rebound levels, and demand for cruises remains incredibly strong.

In its fiscal 2024 first quarter (which ended Feb. 29), total customer deposits reached a Q1 record of $7 billion, and the company is booking more trips out on a longer curve at elevated prices. Management is also taking deliberate, efficient actions to address the debt situation, such as paying off some of its highest-interest-rate debt and increasing its credit facilities.

This stock isn't risk-free, but Carnival is a longtime industry leader that made it through its worst-ever operating environment. It looks excellent opportunity for risk-tolerant investors.

2. Toast: Disrupting the restaurant industry

Toast is making waves with its restaurant management platform, which makes it easier and more cost effective to run a restaurant. It markets software-as-a-service (SaaS) packages and hardware that automate and unify restaurant operations, and clients continue to adopt its services at a fast pace.

Annualized recurring revenue, which it uses as its main top-line metric, increased 32% year over year in the first quarter. It also added 6,000 new locations in the quarter, bringing its total to 112,000 -- a 32% increase year over year.

It's getting closer to profitability at scale. Gross profit increased 43% year over year, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) flipped from a $17 million loss in the prior-year period to $57 million in Q1. As it onboards new customers, the company has a path toward GAAP profitability, and management expects to reach breakeven on GAAP operating income by the end of the year.

Toast has a huge opportunity to capture market share. It has 13% of U.S. restaurants on its platform and is just getting started internationally. The restaurant market itself is constantly growing, providing Toast with organic growth opportunities.

But it's more than that. More restaurants are seeing the benefits and opportunities that come with digital capabilities, and Toast can help them use data to achieve more. For example, Toast can help owners identify trends as they're happening so restaurants can quickly pivot menu and delivery options to meet demand.

Toast is the future of the restaurant industry, and it's trading at only $27 per share.

3. Revolve: The future of fashion

Another big industry disruptor right now is Revolve. It still lags behind many fashion behemoths in terms of total sales, but it was growing much faster before inflation surged in 2021 and 2022, and it represents fashion's trajectory.

Revolve sells women's clothing, shoes, and accessories, and it uses big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to manage inventory and operate its fully digital operation. The company has started its own, more affordable collection with designs based on its huge trove of data and machine learning. As an on-line business, Revolve changes its merchandise much faster than the traditional fashion retailers, and it can make more accurate predictions about the likely demand for specific items. That allows Revolve to make a higher percentage of its sales at full price and engage in less promotional pricing.

Revolve is still feeling the impact of inflation on consumer discretionary spending; its sales declined 3% year over year in the first quarter. However, due to its efficient inventory management, gross profit increased by 2%. Net income fell 23%, but earnings per share (EPS) of $0.15 beat the Wall Street consensus expectation of $0.08.

The company's order metrics give a more complete picture. The number of active customers increased 5% year over year, total orders placed fell 2%, and total order value increased 4%. This is a healthy, growing company with tons of potential that's experiencing near-term macroeconomic pressure. Shares are priced at around $23 each, and they should eventually surge.

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Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Revolve Group and Toast. The Motley Fool recommends Carnival Corp. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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What you need to know about the right to education

Why is it important to have the right to education formally enshrined in law and other instruments   .

Around 244 million children and youth are deprived of education worldwide as a result of social, economic and cultural factors. 98 million of whom are in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest out-of-school population. Yet only 70 per cent of the world’s countries legally guarantee 9 years or more of compulsory education. And an estimated 771 million young people and adults lack basic literacy skills, of which two thirds are women

Education is an empowering right in itself and one of the most powerful tools by which economically and socially marginalized children and adults can lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully in society. To unleash the full transformational power of education and meet international markers of progress such as those of the Sustainable Development Agenda, everyone must have access to it. Binding countries to certain standards by way of law is one way of ensuring access to quality education is widened. Legal guarantees and protection of the right to education are not time-bound (unlike policies and plans). They also ensure that  judicial mechanisms  (such as courts and tribunals) can determine whether human rights obligations are respected, impose sanctions for violations and transgressions, and ensure that appropriate action is taken.

What are the key legal documents and instruments?  

Education as a fundamental human right is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and many other international human rights instruments . UNESCO’s foremost standard-setting instrument is the Convention against discrimination in education  which dates from 1960 and has so far been ratified by 107 States. It is the first international instrument which covers the right to education extensively and has a binding force in international law. The Convention also acts as a cornerstone of the Education 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 4 for education adopted by the international community. SDG 4 is rights-based and seeks to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to education as fundamental to achieving sustainable development.  

How does UNESCO work to ensure the right to education?  

Through its programme on the right to education, UNESCO develops, monitors and promotes education norms and standards in relation to the right to education to advance the aims of the Education 2030 Agenda. It provides guidance, technical advice and assistance  to Member States in reviewing or developing their own legal and policy frameworks, and builds capacities, partnerships and awareness on key challenges especially in light of the  evolving education context .  

It also supports and monitors States in their application of legal instruments, conventions and recommendations through periodic consultations , its online Observatory on the right to education and the interactive tool, Her Atlas, which shows where in the world and to what extent women and girls have their educational rights protected by law. As part of the monitoring, UNESCO also works closely with the UN system and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.   

In addition, it advocates for and promotes the right to education through communication actions  as well as research and studies on specific components of this right such as on pre-primary education, higher education , and digital learning .  

UNESCO mobilises, develops and fosters global partnerships to raise awareness on key issues such as the right to education of climate-displaced persons , non-state actors in education  and the right to education of vulnerable groups .  

Who does UNESCO partner with to ensure the right to education?

UNESCO has the lead role and responsibility in the field of the right to education in the United Nations system and cooperates with the following United Nations human rights bodies in monitoring the implementation of treaties and conventions relating to that right:

• Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
• UN Human Rights Committees
• Universal Periodic Review
• UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
• International Labour Organization

UNESCO also acknowledges the importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOS), associations and the intellectual community in international cooperation and has built a network with organizations in its fields of competence including:

• The Right to Education Initiative  promotes mobilization and accountability on the right to education and builds bridges between human rights, development and education.
• The International Organization for the Right to Education and Freedom of Education, OIDEL  - a non-profit NGO promoting and creating novel educational models and policies and financing options for schools.  

More on UNESCO's partners for the right to education .

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