education-policy
(5)
Nat Malkus
Nat Malkus is a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he turns national datasets into arguments that policymakers can act on. He built the Return to Learn Tracker that mapped pandemic school closures and now follows the chronic absenteeism crisis it exposed, and he hosts The Report Card, AEI's education podcast. A former middle school teacher who once graded papers in Prince George's County, he now does his grading on the whole American school system - with the data to back it up.
Rick Hess
Frederick M. Hess - known to nearly everyone in education circles as Rick - runs Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and writes the long-running Education Week column 'Rick Hess Straight Up.' A former high school social studies teacher with a Harvard PhD in government, he has authored or edited dozens of books on K-12 and higher education and is repeatedly ranked among the most influential people shaping U.S. education policy.
Will Stancil
Will Stancil is a civil rights attorney and research fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School's Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, known for his prolific and combative presence on social media - dubbed by Slate as 'the most harassed man in the history of Twitter.' A specialist in housing policy, school segregation, and metropolitan governance, Stancil gained national attention in 2023 defending Biden-era economic narratives against 'vibecession' framing, ran for Minnesota state legislature in 2024, and emerged in 2026 as a visible organizer documenting ICE operations in Minneapolis. His mix of rigorous policy research and relentless online engagement has made him one of the most recognizable progressive voices in American digital politics.
Freddie deBoer
Freddie deBoer is an American author, cultural critic, and PhD-wielding contrarian who has spent 17 years making everyone on the internet uncomfortable - including people who agree with him. A self-described Marxist who despises most of the left, his Substack newsletter 'cool but rude' has over 67,000 subscribers hungry for unvarnished takes on education, identity politics, media dysfunction, and mental illness. Author of three books - The Cult of Smart (2020), How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement (2023), and debut novel The Mind Reels (2025) - deBoer writes with the conviction of someone who has nothing left to prove and everything left to say.
Kelsey Piper
Kelsey Piper is an American journalist and effective altruism advocate best known for her work at Vox's Future Perfect newsletter, where she spent seven years covering AI safety, global catastrophic risks, evidence-based philanthropy, and education policy. She broke major stories including OpenAI's non-disparagement agreements and conducted the first post-collapse interview with Sam Bankman-Fried. In August 2025, she left Vox to co-found The Argument, a Substack newsletter focused on reasoned policy debate. A Stanford Symbolic Systems graduate who pledged 30% of her lifetime income to charity, Piper brings a rare combination of technical fluency, ethical rigor, and accessibility to some of the most consequential questions of our time.