#ReformNationBook has been the #1 new release on Amazon in three categories: Criminology, Criminal Law, and Public Policy on Amazon. Launch is next week!

Nicole Hannah-Jones demonstrates that parents often choose schools at odds with what's best for their kids. So did my parents. New at @reason reason.com/2026/10/01/like-n…

My latest for @ReasonFdn with @HannaDersh. Now's the time for New York to expand its good time and merit time statutes--but with some common-sense caution. reason.org/commentary/new-yo…

A week later, I'm still thinking about NHJ's article on NYC schools. It was courageous but a huge missed opportunity to call for real reform. She blames school choice, inequality, segregation, the wealthy and herself. But she seems reluctant to criticize the actors and policies implicated by the failures she documents, perhaps because those conclusions would be uncomfortable for many of her ideological allies. - She describes absentee teachers, poor instruction, unresponsive administrators, and students who graduate without mastering the material. But she never calls for greater accountability at the district, school, principal, and teacher levels. - She documents teachers failing to fulfill basic responsibilities but doesn't explore whether tenure and other employment protections allow chronic teacher absenteeism and poor performance to persist. - She laments the concentration of disadvantaged students but doesn't consider whether NYCPS should consolidate under-enrolled schools, thus allowing more resources towards instruction and increasing socioeconomic diversity. - She describes her daughter earning As in honors classes despite substantial gaps in her knowledge. Yet she doesn't consider the value of standardized testing as a check on grade inflation and identifying learning gaps before they compound. - She describes how experienced teachers choose to work in better schools but doesn't salute the districts that have had “reform superintendents” like DC, Dallas, Denver, and Houston that have used cash bonuses to incentivize the best teachers to work in the most disadvantaged schools. - She notes that eliminating homework harmed her daughter, but doesn't examine how the movement against homework is largely driven by equity advocates who argue that it can turn unequal home circumstances into unequal academic outcomes. - She condemns school choice yet uses it to secure a better school fit for her daughter, without noting it’s the only realistic escape valve for families who can’t move or afford private school. - She describes the “impossible balancing act” of teaching students at vastly different levels but doesn't explore how academic tracking can help students at both ends of the academic spectrum. - She describes disruptive students who harm the classroom environment but doesn’t ask for stronger disciplinary actions to protect other students. - She documents a school that lowered academic expectations in pursuit of equity but doesn't acknowledge how doing so perpetuates the very achievement gaps those policies seek to eliminate. Hannah-Jones’ story was powerful. She supplied the evidence for a broad examination of why schools are failing disadvantaged students. It could have been the strongest call in a generation for urban school district reform. Segregation and poverty are real obstacles. But they cannot become explanations that absolve everyone else of responsibility. We can’t wait to solve all societal issues before demanding higher performing schools.

It’s high time NYS caught up to the many states offering generous incentives to incarcerated ppl for good behavior & program participation! HB 1085 presents an opportunity for just that. Learn more from @ColleenEren & @HannaDersh via @Reasonfdn: bit.ly/NYHB1085

Bureau of Prisons launches First Step Act office spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/aus…

There are likely many majors in which a 3-year degree can deliver >95% of the value for 75% of the time and cost. It's one of the most promising experiments to improve the value proposition of college. The most vocal critic: the American Association of University Professors.

People are under-pricing the possibility of a black-swan-esque event where significant chunks of higher ed collapse suddenly. At some point parents will decide they will not pay $100-400k combined for their kids to cheat their way through college. I expect a bang, not a whimper.

'"We don't ban alcohol because some people use it unwisely or develop alcohol use disorder," @dr4liberty notes. "Autonomous adults should remain free to make choices others consider unwise so long as they don't violate the rights of others."' Via @reason reason.com/2026/08/27/strong…

Profiles in courage, all.

Academia is a profession that only works if it is grounded in high trust. (Nobody goes around manually checking every single citation in everyone else's work.) But if you erode that trust by relaxing expectations & standards, then academia as a *profession* is itself undermined.

Virtually nobody seems to care enough about the intellectual enterprise to say that fabrication, fraud, and plagiarism harm it to a degree that justifies punishment. That it is good to have standards for thinking and writing, and that enforcing those standards is good, not evil.

100%. if you don't use it as a research assistant (whose work you check against the real sources it provides) you're working with one hand behind your back but there's a massive red line when it comes to the writing part.

i DO NOT want an AI summary of my Google search. i DO NOT want an AI summary of my friend’s text message. i DO NOT want an AI summary of the email I’m about to read. I can read. PLEASE just let me.

Harvard laid off its writing center director. Faculty and lower-level admins who believe the "AI is a tool" schtick are standing in their own graves with a shovel. This is not about "embracing the future" it's about replacing people with cheap clankers. thecrimson.com/article/2026/…

Do we know for sure that COVID leaked from a lab? No. But we do know that many powerful people thought it was possible, and then engaged in an effort to make Americans feel crazy for merely asking about it. That matters, because the truth matters.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval rating is 32-38% in Israel. He represents the people of Israel about as much as Trump represents us in America. Don’t hold what he’s doing to Gaza against Israel or the Jewish people. That’s like holding Americans responsible for Trump bombing schoolgirls in Iran or Trump raping women.

My column: Mamdani’s Netanyahu Stunt Was a Waste of His Talent and Our Time nytimes.com/2026/07/28/opini…

Update on the press release from yesterday (ohchr.org/en/press-releases/…). Iranian authorities carried out the public execution of two more of the Alikhani Square defendants at dawn in Isfahan. A scaffold was erected in the square. Families were summoned for what they feared would be final visits. Through the night the area was under heavy security, with reports of confrontations between security forces and people gathered nearby. Accounts from inside the country describe those who kept watch near the square through the night — a deeply moving act, standing together so that no one would face death alone. For many Iranians, execution has become the one constant in their life, something the State authorities have made routine. (Read this story “I stayed awake for them” - iranintl.com/en/202607283664) Public executions constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. They serve justice to no one: not the accused, denied a fair trial; not the four security personnel whose deaths remain unexamined in any open court; not a society made to watch. They are designed to instil fear and to consolidate State authority through the spectacle of death, exposing the public, including children, to serious psychological harm. Four of the 12 young men have now been executed arbitrarily. Eight remain, but I have received reports that Shervin Bagherian Jebeli and three others have had a final meeting with their families, indicating they may be executed as early as tomorrow. I renew my call: halt all executions. Establish a moratorium, pending abolition.

Press release I led on the use of the death penalty in Iran and its imposition on protesters, joined by other UN experts. ohchr.org/en/press-releases/… UN experts today condemned the imposition of death sentences on 12 young men for their involvement in the January 2026 protests, and called for an immediate halt to executions. “Sentencing 12 people to death in one hearing, in a closed courtroom and without clarity as to each defendant’s individual responsibility violates established fair trial standards,” the experts said. The young men, aged between late teens and early twenties, were reportedly arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, in some cases being subjected to enforced disappearance, ill-treated and accused of involvement in the killing of four security force members, as well as arson and vandalism during the 8 January 2026 protests in Shahid Alikhani Square in Isfahan, based on broadcast confessions. The charges against them remain unclear, as the Revolutionary Court hearings are closed and judgments are not published. On 19 July 2026, two of the men were executed, sparking fears for the remaining 10. Among those facing imminent execution is Shervin Bagherian Jebeli, who turned 18 just days before his arrest. Within a week, and before any trial, State television aired a video of him confessing to violence against security officers during interrogation. He appeared unaware of the meaning of his capital charge – moharebeh (enmity against God) – which raises concerns as to whether he had access to legal counsel of his own choosing at the time of the broadcast. The experts warned that Jebeli’s case illustrates a disturbing pattern of prosecutions imposing death sentences after proceedings that appear to fall short of fair trial standards. “Confessions obtained under coercion must never be admitted as evidence, and broadcasting them before trial violates the presumption of innocence,” the experts said. In 2026, at least 24 individuals have already been executed in connection with the January protests. Many were young people exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and participation in public life, including protesters from the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom movement’. “As national laws currently stand, it is impossible to take part in any protest critical of the State without risking reprisals and persecution. This cycle will only be broken when civic space opens up and freedom of peaceful assembly and expression is guaranteed,” the experts said. “The rationale appears clear: instil fear across society, deter future demonstrations, and silence dissent. Yet repression only breeds further dissent.” They noted that despite the risks, Iranians continue to demand change. Prisoners are protesting peacefully through the ongoing “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign and the sit-in strike in Ghezelhesar prison. The experts urged Iranian authorities to heed these calls, and establish a moratorium on executions, pending abolition. “The moratorium should be used to ensure full compliance with international human rights law, including fair trial guarantees and restricting the death penalty to the most serious crimes.” “Executions only add to the violence and grief Iranians have endured,” they said. The experts are in contact with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on these issues.

As I’ve aged, I’ve come to doubt my relationship with ambition. But it’s also scary to observe an entire generation giving up on this ideal. In the US, we need to believe that we live in a meritocracy. That belief motivates us to keep going, to keep striving, to take our knocks on the chin in stride and try again. It is unquestionable to me that a degree of this delusion is necessary and good. Just as I’ve deconstructed my religious views but still think that church is a healthy and needed structure for most people, I’ve deconstructed politically but recognize our myths and beliefs are still needed to keep this machine in motion.