Lots in the news this week, including the revelation that young Trump was “certainly not a super genius.” Plus, yoga, creationism, testing, and all the rest…

Massachusetts tries to ban creationism, at NCSE.

• The bad news: It won’t work. Here at ILYBYGTH.

What’s wrong with yoga in public schools? At WaPo. Even if teachers aren’t preaching it as religion, students are learning it that way:

even secularized yoga and mindfulness programs can encourage spiritual and religious experiences.

We all agree now—we can’t test our way to better schools. Rather, we have to improve society if we want to improve schools, not the other way around. Even test maven Michael Petrilli is on board.

A few unoriginal reminders from two centuries of school reform here at ILYBYGTH:

• Teachers are often part of the problem, but they are always most of the solution.
• One change to schools will—by itself—never heal social issues such as poverty and inequality.
• Any school reform that promises big results without big investments will probably disappoint.
• Low-income families deserve a high-quality education, not a “chance” for a high-quality education.
• And maybe the hardest one of all for ed-reform newbies to accept: Schools alone can’t fix society; schools are society.

Non-surprise of the year: Creepy Epstein was a creepy teacher, at NYT.

Is the Dem pledge to have a teacher as the next Ed Secretary worth anything? PG at Forbes:

It’s worth remembering that although previous secretaries include a school administrator and a college professor, the one secretary who taught in a public high school was Rod Paige, who presided over the “Texas Miracle” that turned out to be a mirage, and who once called the NEA a terrorist organization. Coming from a public school background is no guarantee that someone is a public school supporter.

Trump in the Ivy League: Former admissions officer remembers him as “Certainly not a super genius.” At WaPo.

Why does a teachers’ union need to endorse the “fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade”? At NR.

• The union debated other controversial issues at its annual meeting, including $ for striking teachers and “white fragility,” at EW.
• But it refrained from demanding anti-charter purity from Democratic candidates, at AEI.

Alaska university cuts highlight tricky culture-war divide over higher ed, at The Atlantic.

Even though people may feel dubious about higher education more broadly, they can see the good that their local schools do and often feel favorably toward them as a result. But what happens when the fate of local colleges is not up to the public decision but to a single politician?

• It’s not just Alaska—the news from Puerto Rico at IHE.