Fast Takes: Healing the wounds of 9/11, the surge in home schooling and more

The 9/11 “terrorists targeted New York City because it has long been a symbol of the freedoms they hated,” observes Michael R.Bloomberg at USA Today — and “New York a quarter century later” shows “how profoundly they failed.” From the start, City Hall “believed that Lower Manhattan’s recovery depended not on rebuilding what had been lost,” but on creating something entirely new: “a 24/7 community.” Today’s rebuilt Lower Manhattan is “a place where people of all backgrounds and beliefs live, work,” and connect, “exercising the freedoms the terrorists could not destroy.” Lower Manhattan “stands as a testament to the strength and resilience” of both the city’s spirit and our nation’s character.“Homeschooling, microschools, and other alternatives to school-based programs” were “booming” long before the “historic growth” that “publicly funded school choice is experiencing,” notes Ray Domanico at City Journal.

“Parents choosing these options” have “lost faith in the traditional school model” and “rejected the concept of a self-contained school,” preferring to “customize education to their children’s individual needs.” This “allows parents to match the pace of learning to their child’s abilities.” The “confluence” of school choice, AI and work-from-home policies “is irreversibly changing the relationship between families and schools,” as “parents now have the tools to design an educational program that suits their children.” The historical, “standardized program of traditional schools and districts is losing its grip on American families.”Young college-educated voters “dance and cheer” for socialism, but “quickly sour on it” when faced with the specifics, note Mark Penn & Andrew Stein in The Wall Street Journal.A recent Harvard Caps/Harris poll finds that “77% of registered voters under 25 believe their paycheck should be based on the ‘merit and value of thei...