Education
July 9, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Star Tribune took a look at the Ottley era at SPA in Eva Herscowitz’s page-one story “Claims of retaliation, suppression and secrecy fuel turmoil at St. Paul Academy.” Luis Ottley is the head of school at St. Paul Academy. In the school year just passed, the enrollment contract introduced a provision empowering Ottley to dismiss students based on the conduct of parents. Herscowitz briefly summarized her story in the
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June 27, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From the New York Post, Minnesota school board member under fire after saying dogs should urinate on ‘White corpses’ in cemeteries. Lovely. Such a good example for our yutes. The Post reports, A Minnesota school board member is facing backlash after suggesting that dogs should be allowed to relieve themselves in Christian cemeteries, writing in a social media post that people should “leave indigenous land sacred and piss on the
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June 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker
The Southern Poverty Law Center has long been known as a far-left hate group, and now that it is under indictment for mail fraud and has been exposed as perhaps the largest funder of racist organizations in the U.S., one might expect its influence to wane. But left-wing organizations, like the teachers’ unions that control most public schools, won’t give up their allegiance to the SPLC without a fight. Thus
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June 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The reign of Luis Ottley as St. Paul Academy head of school is at least of local interest. St. Paul Academy is a large and venerable institution. On the other side of the river, Blake and Breck have not suffered anything like the humiliation that Ottley has delivered to SPA in response to parents who have had the temerity to criticize him. He has wielded his authority to dismiss the
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June 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
This past February, near the end of Operation Metro Surge, a parental member of the St. Paul Academy “community” leaked a school email to Liz Collin of Alpha News. From Assistant Principal for Student Life Stacy Tepp (she/her/hers), the email specified the venue’s “ICE protocol” for the Winter Dance. Tepp’s message announced: “If ICE is present, adults will help ensure that everyone is in the building safely and doors are
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June 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson
St. Paul Academy parent Matt Bauer declined an interveiew with Star Tribune reporter Eva Herscowitz in connection with her page-one-story on the troubled reign of Luis Ottley as head of school, but his experience is at the heart of it. Ottley threatened Bauer’s children with dismissal on the eve of his older son’s high school graduation and matriculation at the Naval Academy. He actually dismissed Bauer’s younger son from enrollment
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June 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Star Tribune reporter Eva Herscowitz worked on the page-one story published on Sunday over a period of weeks. Focused on controversies that have roiled St. Paul Academy during the tenure of head of school, Herscowitz interviewed 11 parents and students for the story. She also reviewed documentary materials related to the controversies. Most of the parents and students — those who have found Ottley to be at fault in the
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June 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I’m an alumnus, a parent of two alumnae, and a former teacher at St. Paul Academy in St. Paul. I’ve known just about every head of school going back to Ed Reid with the exception of Luis Ottley. Ottley is the current head of school. Ottley has now presided over a series of incidents that reflect his poor judgment, his thin skin, and his tyrannical inclinations. Ottley must rank as
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June 17, 2026 — John Hinderaker
It’s bad enough that our public schools are terrible. It’s worse that their curricula, in some states, are actively anti-American. In Minnesota, where I live, our legislature has mandated a change from teaching factual content to instilling left-wing activism. This is done in the guise of “Ethnic Studies” instruction. My organization campaigned hard against the legislative Ethnic Studies mandate and has since campaigned to repeal it. Nevertheless, it is going
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June 1, 2026 — John Hinderaker
In the bleak days circa 2020, many universities abandoned admissions test requirements in the name of “equity.” They believed that certain races are inherently unable to compete, and therefore it was only fair to do away with tests as entrance requirements. The result has been a comprehensive disaster in higher education, made worse by the fact that, owing to grade inflation, there is no way other than the SAT and
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May 10, 2026 — John Hinderaker
It is no secret that red states are trouncing blue states by every metric, including the most important one: where people want to live. Everyone knows about Florida and Texas, but other red states are thriving, too, and they are doing it by applying conservative principles. Mississippi is a good example. Long downtrodden and the poorest state in the U.S. since the Civil War, Mississippi is coming back strong. It
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May 5, 2026 — John Hinderaker
This, via InstaPundit, is appalling: That much of our elite hates the country, for farcially false reasons taught to them by ~traitors ("The Comanche riders were PEACEFUL, before we told them of war!!!") Is a very serious problem. No punch line. This has to be changed entirely. https://t.co/JQdlUlfSSL — Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) May 4, 2026 It is no surprise that those who trust our education establishment are the most ignorant.
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March 31, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From the New York Post, Texas student, 15, may have been struggling with ‘academics’ when he pulled gun on teacher: police. The Post reports, Investigators believe the 15-year-old who shot a teacher at a prestigious Texas high school, before turning the gun on himself, may have been “experiencing academic difficulties.” The Comal County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the unnamed teen used a .357 revolver — to shoot an unidentified female
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March 15, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I ask readers to forgive me for repeating this personal note on the Ides of March. It is meant to pay tribute to my high school alma mater, my high school teachers — Latin teachers Lyman Hawbaker (who also taught ancient history) and Dave Sims in particular — and to my classmates. In the course of our high school years we were required to study Latin and dip our toes
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March 10, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Another sign of the sad decline of higher education: Professors are calling out the alarming rise in students diagnosed as “disabled” at elite universities to get special accommodations in class and on exams. One in five students at Brown and Harvard are now registered as having some form of disability, according to an analysis by The Atlantic — but professors suspect some of them are bogus. Do ya think? I
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March 8, 2026 — John Hinderaker
If you think America’s public schools are terrible, you are right. If you think they lean to the left in their instruction, you are also right. But the truth is much worse. Guided in large part by radically left-wing teachers’ unions, our schools are in some cases openly rejecting the teaching of “content”–the word used in my state, Minnesota–in favor of requiring activism. Check out this American Experiment video on
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February 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson
St. Paul Academy is my high school alma mater and it hurts to see what has become of it. When the school conveyed the message that students need protection from ICE at the Winter Dance, a parent forwarded the message to Alpha News. Alpha reporter Liz Collin posted it on X. It has drawn more than 140,000 views and widespread criticism. I asked school officials what it was all about.
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