Liv Hagye

Liv Hagye is a writer who explores the political and cultural challenges facing modern women, especially mothers

Sunday

Liv Hagye

The Christian school revival

In Texas, empty church classrooms might just become new schools. On September 1, the state enacted the most expansive school voucher program in America. It will allow eligible families to receive up to $10,900 annually per student to be spent on private school tuition, or up to $2,000 to be spent on homeschooling. Students with disabilities could receive up to $30,000. The number of states with school voucher schemes is unclear, but governors across the country must decide whether to join President Trump’s new federal private-school choice program - the first national scheme, approved by Congress in July. In a recent study, economists Douglas N.

Donald Trump

Saturday

Liv Hagye

Why America’s schools are failing

It seems that every few years America rediscovers that its children can’t read. In 2024, only 30-31 percent of eighth graders were deemed proficient in reading, and our numbers in history and math are even worse. Since 2020, no state has reported improvement across subject areas.It’s tempting to blame “the pandemic” for these declines, but in reality, Covid only accelerated trends that were already underway. For decades before 2020, US students were struggling to reach proficiency, and the truth is that the problem isn’t today’s culture-war skirmishes over pronouns, politics and school closures. It’s the more mundane question of how children are taught to read, to count and to remember.Let’s take phonics, for example.

Schools

Friday

Liv Hagye

The new eugenics dilemma

What comes to mind when you think about the maximum amount of love a parent can have for their child?For me, I think of Dick Hoyt pushing his son Rick, who had cerebral palsy, in a wheelchair through the Ironman World Championship course. I think of the parents of Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs, raising Nick with confidence, and cheering him on as he became an international motivational speaker. I think of the mother of a child with Down Syndrome, choosing each day to recognize the absolute gift of their child. I think of the parent at the dinner table comforting a child upset by a ‘C’ on their report card.Noor Siddiqui, founder of Orchid Biosciences, sees things differently.

Eugenics