The Free Speech Movement, an early tremor of the earthquake that shook campuses in the 1960s, began on Sproul Plaza at the University of California at Berkeley, in 1964. Today eight of the 10 universities in the UC system are administering faculty hiring practices that involve coerced speech, enforced political conformity and mandatory political participation.

The Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow in Education at the Hoover Institution, Eric Hanushek (pictured), joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss new findings on the gaps in educational achievement by socio-economic status. Hanushek and Peterson are co-authors of “Long-Run Trends in the U.S. SES-Achievement Gap,” with Laura M. Talpey and Ludger Woessman.

A new volume edited by Michael Petrilli and Chester Finn titled How to Educate an American brings together numerous thought leaders around social policy to discuss the conservative vision of education reform. I was pleasantly surprised by this book because it does not simply rehash the same talking points but contains a number of interesting new ideas and clear expression of the themes that divide political conservatives and liberals when it comes to education reform.

Hoover Institution fellow Michael Petrilli discusses a new study which shows that people with bachelor’s degrees earn more per year on average than those with only a high school diploma. The gap widens around Boise, where people with a bachelor’s degree earn almost $38,000 more per year.