Unfettered school choice doesn’t work: Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, has built her philosophy upon an outdated notion. Sarah Carr explains how school choice without any government regulation makes education worse, not better, for poor kids.
Trump the quack: Alan Levinovitz, a longtime scholar of the allure of unproven miracle cures, argues that Trump’s supporters won’t hold him accountable when he fails to follow through on campaign promises. “When people make big bets on miracle cures that fail to work,” he writes, “they rarely turn against the treatments or their merchants.”
How to cover an administration of liars: Dan Gillmor has a suggestion for journalists who want to hold Trump accountable: Don’t broadcast his press secretary’s press conferences live. (Don’t live-tweet them, either.)
Enough with the bumbling dad trope: Thousands of dads had to parent by themselves while their partners attended women’s marches around the country. They don’t deserve praise for that, says Christina Cauterucci.
For fun: A cartoon diary of the Women’s March on Washington.
And for Slate Plus members: For the final installment of Slate’s Year in Great Books, John Dickerson joins Laura Miller to discuss The Brothers Karamazov. Join now to follow along.
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