What we think is true can have the same effect on us as what is true. We have known this forever. But today, in our post-truth culture, we are becoming less concerned with discovering what is true and more focused on what we feel is true. Public opinion today is shaped more by emotion and personal beliefs than facts. The impact of this post-truth era is profound.

It is a sad truth that the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world and the one that spends more on education than any other, continues to see a decline in academic performance. Schools in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. now spend $30,000 and more per student. Only in a government-controlled system could spending rapidly increase while performance continually decreases.

There are 1.85 million public school students in grades K to 12 in Illinois. Of those, 1.2 million of them, 65 percent, cannot read at grade level, and 1.4 million, 76 percent, do not have math skills at grade level. Did you know that?

Which side are you on? Do you know? There are only two. From the moment you get up in the morning until you go to sleep at night, you take one side or the other.

Most schools are actively indoctrinating our children with falsehoods about all kinds of things. These falsehoods range from sexuality to racism to economics to our nation’s founding, even to math and science and medicine and the environment.

The Mosaic law is one giant picture book. Turn to almost any page and you'll find imagery teaching you about God. You'll find specifications for the priesthood illustrating Christ's mediation and showing how holy God is. You'll find records of the Israelites' many blunders into sin that show us just how serious our own blunders are.

Teacher union lobbyists and government employees work against every school choice bill and scholarship program they can; they reject the need for parental control over their children’s education. In doing so, they flatly dismiss the ability of parents to educate their own children or even to make viable decisions on their behalf.

Earlier this week, Governor Pritzker and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited an after-school program at Fairview Elementary School in Springfield. This was just one stop on Cardona’s five-state midwestern bus tour to promote the Biden Administration’s new “Raise the Bar: Lead the World” education agenda.

Propaganda has rather negative connotations. Because it is generally used in pursuit of an agenda, truth may be irrelevant or even an obstacle. Whether you agree with the terminology, it is considered propaganda when a country prepares its citizens and military for war. Because it is not generally acceptable to want to kill another person, the military mostly trains its soldiers to hate the enemy.

Did you know a lot of people on the left now deny wokeism exists? They are saying that it can’t be defined and just means whatever you want it to mean. Therefore, they say, wokeism is merely another conservative mantra for whatever policy one disagrees with. Politicians in Illinois have been saying that a lot these days in order to pass (you guessed it) woke legislation.

According to Plato the two most important questions for society is who will teach the children and what is taught to them. That was true 2,500 years ago and it is still true today. Sadly, today there simply is no agreement on who teaches the children and nothing but confusion and wildly different positions on what should be taught. Therein lies the greatest threat to children in our modern age.

A little while back, we addressed the topic of "ableist language." Yes, "ableist" is now a word—enshrined in academia at the highest level. Stanford's Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI) considers it offensive to use the term "stand-up meeting" to refer to a brief rendezvous, because people in wheelchairs are unable to physically stand, and therefore the term demeans them. Instead, we ought to use the substitute, "quick meeting."

After receiving complaints from donors and bad press, the Salvation Army has removed the guide, “Let’s Talk About Race.” The removal of the guide is a step in the right direction, and we should applaud the charity for its willingness...

The Salvation Army, best known for the red kettles and bell ringers during the Christmas season, recently released disturbing statements regarding racism. These statements included several social justice and Critical Race Theory (CRT) buzzwords. As a result, numerous donors have pulled their financial support from the charity.

In America today, when it comes to the question of Critical Race Theory (CRT), we are like ships – really, like battleships – passing each other in the night. One side shouts, “We’ve got to get CRT out of our schools! It is hurting our children!” The other side responds, “CRT is not being taught in our children’s schools! This is just a racist dog whistle!” Is there any way to bridge the divide?