Weekly Writers Round-Up: Drug Cartels, Criminal Justice Reform, and STEM Education’s Flaws

Each week, we’ll be featuring the work of the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. For more information on the program, see here. Applications for the spring are now open!

Will Drug Cartels Miss Jeff Sessions? by J.J. Rich (Fall 2018) in The Orange County Register
As drug overdoses ravage the American landscape, the cartels are enjoying unprecedented profit. Only three months after announcing “Operation Synthetic Opioids Surge” to fight this epidemic, Jeff Sessions submitted to pressure from the White House and resigned as attorney general. While Matt Whitaker assumes the temporary role of acting AG, people across the political spectrum are welcoming Trump’s endorsement of mandatory-sentencing reform and the prospect of new leadership at the Department of Justice — but not the cartels…

Micro-Schools Offer Kids a Customized, Hands-On Education by Jude Schwalbach (Fall 2018) in The Daily Signal
There’s a world of difference between telling kids what they are supposed to know and teaching them how to learn. As parents look for more and better education options, the up-and-coming phenomenon of micro-schooling aims to bridge the gap between facts and experience with project-based learning…

Prisoners Can’t Find Work When They Get Out — This Could Easily Change That by Jared Meyer (Spring 2015) in The Washington Examiner
More than one-third of the 600,000-plus people released from incarceration each year will return to prison within three years. While there are many factors behind this failure, the largest is a lack of work for ex-offenders. People leaving prison are faced with thousands of harsh, overly broad occupational licensing restrictions that keep them out of work…

STEM Subjects Dogma Has Undermined Soft Skills by Fergus Hodgson (Fall 2018) in The Epoch Times
Federal officials struggle to categorize the programs to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), but they sure know how to throw money at it. Their dogmatic more-is-better belief has spawned 162 STEM educational programs spanning 13 agencies, and it has obscured a sense for proportion and what makes a productive employee…