HeyJaredAldeman On Education
Chad Aldeman writes about school finance, teacher labor markets, and school quality.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 15
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- Sep 25, 2026
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- Aug 7, 2026
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I Used to Think Private Schools Shouldn’t Exist (opens the original)
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Back when I was a righteous teenager, I didn’t think private schools should exist. I thought that if all kids had to go to public schools everyone would work to make them better. At the time, I would have agreed with Hamilton Nolan’s arguments in his recent piece “Private Schools Are Bad for Society.” He writes: If a parent is trapped in a burning building, their primary goal will be to get their child out safely. But if you are the architect of a building tasked with fire safety, your
Why Do Kids Have So Many Days Off? (opens the original)
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Here in Fairfax County, we’ve already had a 4-day weekend for Labor Day and a day off for Yom Kippur. Next month we take off for Indigenous Peoples' Day, and then in November we get a four-day weekend for Election Day / end of Quarter 1 plus three days off for Thanksgiving. Over the course of the year, I count 26 “discretionary” days off, not including seven federal holidays such as Labor Day and Columbus Day. And that doesn’t include unplanned snow days or early dismissals. If you’ve been no
Parents Should Not Feel Guilty for Choosing a Good School (opens the original)
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If you haven’t already, I suggest you read Nikole Hannah-Jones’ long NY Times essay looking back on her school choice decisions in NYC. Hannah-Jones chose a school for her daughter in significant part because of the school’s racial demographics. Years later, both she and her daughter are wrestling with the consequences of that decision.The essay is long, complicated, and blowing up the education world. Rather than relitigate the whole thing, I wanted to highlight a few reactions that stood out t
The More We Personalize Education, the More We Need Common Tests (opens the original)
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Earlier this week, I criticized New York’s decision to stop requiring high school students to pass the state’s Regents exams to graduate. But their vision is close to something I could get behind. They just need to remove three words. Here’s how I would edit the state’s vision statement:“Rather than perpetuating antiquated systems based on compliance and seat time, New York will move to a competency-based system that allows studen
Fish Can’t Climb Trees, But New York Students Can Learn Math (opens the original)
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New York decided this week that high school students will no longer need to pass its statewide Regents exams beginning with the class of 2028. Instead of one common standard for all students statewide, schools and districts will be in charge of creating their own. According to the State Board: Districts and schools would instead develop local assessment strategies that provide a robust picture of students’ knowledge, skills
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