Decades ago, the Supreme Court held in a case called Monell v. Department of Social Services that you can sue a local government for violating your constitutional rights only if the violation resulted from the locale’s “official policy.” In other words, if a county employee goes rogue, you can’t hold the county itself responsible.

A new court decision stretches Monell to the point of absurdity, holding that the county’s top official does not set official county policy. Boone County, Illinois’s coroner, Wesley Hyland, committed a constitutional violation of an uncommonly disturbing sort. He “kept several skulls as trophies from the deceased he examined,” according to the Seventh Circuit. One of them belonged to a high school student who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Forty-five years later, her brothers learned that Hyland had held onto her skull. They recovered it, exhumed her other remains, and reburied them together. Then, they sued Boone County.

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When TIME asked President Trump about the national debt surpassing $40 trillion, he directed much of his blame toward the Federal Reserve. 

Economic growth, the president insisted, would pay off the federal debt, but not with the Fed cooling the economy. The Fed’s raising interest rates, Trump argued, “is hurting our country more than inflation is hurting our country… Certain levels of inflation will also pay off that debt very rapidly.”

That hints at a coherent, if alarming, policy view: inflation is a tolerable price, maybe even a useful tool, for a government as deeply in debt as the United States. No wonder Trump said he loved the inflation in June.

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Last week, the Social Security Administration announced a 3.6 percent increase in monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for 2027. This cost-of-living adjustment is meant to keep recipients’ benefits in step with inflation. The problem: Congress adjusts government benefit programs with a different inflation measure from the one used for Americans’ income tax brackets.

SSI and many other benefit programs make similar adjustments using variations of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). These measures have methodological flaws that overstate inflation by failing to properly account for how consumers adjust their spending as prices change. Consequently, federal taxpayers foot the bill for automatic benefits and eligibility increases that exceed what rising prices alone would justify.

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On this day 81 years ago, as Argentina was under a military dictatorship, thousands of protesters gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to demand the release of Colonel Juan Domingo Perón. As vice president, he had been arrested by his own colleagues as he gained popularity and his presidential aspirations grew. But after the large demonstration on October 17, thereafter known as Loyalty Day by his future followers, Perón was released, and it became clear that the rules of the political game in Argentina would never be the same. 

What may not have been so obvious is that, well into the 21st century, Argentines would still be paying the price of that change.

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AI researchers, scholars, and commentators gathered in the Bay Area for The Curve earlier this month. Operating under Chatham House Rule, employees at the frontier AI labs shared warnings about the capacity of their company’s respective models. One speculated that hospital systems could be taken offline by agentic “swarms” like those that hacked into Hugging Face. Another forecasted AI agents gaining control of weapons systems and refusing to accede to human commands. From my mixing and mingling, most attendees appeared to agree; they hadn’t seen sufficient evidence that labs knew how to prevent agents from escaping testing environments and wreaking havoc. 

In rare cases, threats could materialize from the use of malign AI and may even necessitate governors exercising emergency powers to respond to a natural or man-made disaster. However, conversations around such authorities often neglect the critical detail of which powers should be called on, to what ends, and how to end things when the true crisis is over. 

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In most areas of life, when something isn’t working, we look for a better option. In K–12 education, though, children are assigned to public schools based on where they live—and if that school isn’t a good fit, the child is generally seen as the problem. School choice is changing that by expanding access to alternative learning environments. But educational freedom changes lives only if parents and teachers know what options exist, which is why Cato’s Friday Feature highlights the schools, policies, and organizations bringing those choices within reach.

“We couldn’t find the right school, so we made one,” Tiffany Diamond recalls, describing the origins of Evergreen Elementary in Hudson, New Hampshire. An experienced educator—including serving as a tutor for students with autism and a public and private school teacher—Tiffany wanted a school that focused on the individual child, both academically and developmentally. So she and her husband, who also worked in education, are creating it one step at a time.

Now in its third year, Evergreen currently serves preschool through first grade, with plans to expand through fifth grade. “We have built a school that feels like home, and the families are very involved in the community,” Tiffany explains. “The children love coming to school and forming their relationships and having fun and being children in addition to the fact that they are surpassing grade-level standards by one to two years.” 

Evergreen’s approach emphasizes hands-on learning, play, and real-world experiences. Students move between structured lessons and open play throughout the day, with more academically intensive work generally taking place before 1 p.m. Afternoons focus on movement, science experiments, and other interactive activities. 

The school’s outdoor space, developed with support from VELA, provides additional learning opportunities. A farmer has brought chickens to teach students about their life cycle, while a botanist helped children explore plants growing on the school’s property.

Tiffany is creating Evergreen’s curriculum and assessment system year by year as the school grows. Although it is based on state standards, it looks very different from conventional schooling. There are no typical tests, quizzes, or homework. Instead, teachers track students’ progress through frequent, informal, one-on-one check-ins. 

For example, when teaching kindergarteners about books, teachers might evaluate whether students can identify a title, explain what an author does, or recognize story elements. They record whether each child has mastered individual skills and use that information to guide instruction. 

The process is designed to make assessment feel like another part of learning rather than something stressful. Tiffany recalls a student reassuring a newcomer, “If you get it wrong, we always say it’s okay. It’s okay to make mistakes because that means that you’re learning.”

Parents receive detailed trimester reports showing their children’s progress on specific skills, along with suggestions for reinforcing learning at home. 

Making Evergreen accessible to lower-income families is another central part of Tiffany’s mission—“I was one of those students,” she notes. All of the school’s New Hampshire families use the state’s Education Freedom Account (EFA) program, which helps families pay for educational expenses. Support from The Drexel Fund and VELA helps bridge the gap between that funding and the actual cost of educating students. 

“We’ve grown from our initiative, which was one-third underserved, and now we’re at 50 percent underserved low-income students,” Tiffany says. “EFAs play a huge role in our ability to do what we do at the core of our mission.”

That growth creates challenges, particularly as Evergreen plans to add classrooms and eventually expand its building. But Tiffany says families are enthusiastic about the school’s future, and some have already offered to contribute their construction and trade skills. 

For others considering starting a school, Tiffany emphasizes persistence and early community outreach. Evergreen initially attracted significant interest, but construction delays meant many prospective families needed to enroll elsewhere before the school opened. 

“Make sure that you are driven by passion, that you have grit, that you value what it is that you are seeking to accomplish,” she adds. “You will come across boundaries and hurdles, and when you do, don’t stop. Just keep going.”