Sol Stern is a contributing editor of City Journal and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. He writes passionately on education reform, and his writings on that topic have helped shape the terms of the current debate in New York City.

Stern is the author of Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice. Aside from his work in City Journal, Stern’s articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, Commentary, The New Republic, the New York Daily News, Newsday, the Village Voice, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and The New Statesmen.

Mr. Stern was an editor and staff writer for Ramparts magazine between 1966 and 1972. He then spent the next twelve years as a freelance writer and editor. From 1985 to 1994, Mr. Stern served as director of Issues, press secretary, and senior policy adviser in the Office of the City Council President of New York. In 1994, he was appointed executive director of a New York State Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform, where he served for one year. After leaving state government, he returned to journalism.

Stern grew up in New York City and graduated from Stuyvesant High School and the City College of New York. He received an M.A. in political science from the State University of Iowa and did further graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Ruth Stern, who teaches in a New York City public high school.

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[SORT BY CATEGORY] [SORT BY PUBLICATION TYPE]

Articles/Op-eds

• Conservatives and the Common Core, Wall Street Journal, 05-04-13
• Common Core: Response to Joy Pullman, National Review Online, 04-08-13
• The Truth About Common Core, National Review Online, 04-03-13
• Public School Children Cheated By Perverse Performance Pay Incentives, The Daily Beast, 04-01-13
• When G-Men Do Research on Campus, Wall Street Journal, 08-12-12
• Bloomberg's Kids Just Aren't Learning: What the Grim NAEP Results Are Telling Us, New York Daily News, 12-09-11
• A Brilliant Experiment In Reading: But Will New Schools Chancellor Fund Revolutionary Program?, New York Daily News, 07-14-11
• Why Catholic Schools Matter To Inner-city Children, San Francisco Examiner, 04-21-11
• Bloomy's Bubble Bursts, New York Post, 03-06-11
• The Propaganda in Our Ed Schools, Minding the Campus, 10-26-10
• Aligned with Liberty, The New Criterion, 09-17-10
• The Testing Mess, National Review Online, 08-04-10
• Acorn: A Democratic Party Albatross, Forbes.com, 09-17-09
• Mike & Randi Make a Good Deal; Schoolkids Get a Raw One, New York Daily News, 06-25-09
• Pedagogy of the Oppressor, Washington Times, 04-27-09
• Pedagogy of the Oppressor, National Review Online, 03-28-09
• Remembering the Revolution, Wall Street Journal, 03-02-09
• Ayers Is No Education 'Reformer', Wall Street Journal, 10-16-08
• US English Tragedy, New York Post, 07-14-08
• Do We Need a Basic Rewrite of No Child Left Behind?, NewTalk, 07-05-08
• In School Reform, Billions of Dollars � But Not Much Bang, New York Daily News, 11-18-07
• Pulling A 'Fast' One, New York Post, 10-01-07
• Grading Mayoral Control, Townhall.com, 07-26-07
• Radical Teach, New York Post, 05-12-07
• Save The Catholic Schools, New York Post, 05-01-07
• Math And Marxism, New York Post, 03-20-07
• The Ghosts of Bill Ayers, Front Page Magazine, 10-16-06
• $5B Headache, New York Post, 10-16-06
• PR But Not the 3 Rs, Los Angeles Times, 03-25-06
• Pinko Teachers, Inc., New York Post, 03-12-06
• They Never Learn, Barron's, 01-24-05
• Opportunities Lost, The New York Sun, 12-14-04
• The Cash Excuse, New York Post, 04-13-04
• Teach Before You Test, Mike, New York Post, 03-28-04
• Klein's Phony Phonics Fix, New York Post, 01-24-04
• Klein’s Figleaf, New York Post, 01-12-04
• $40 Million Goof, New York Post, 10-20-03
• One Enemy Is Inside the Tent, New York Post, 09-02-03
• Lam Excuses, New York Post, 08-22-03
• Façade of Excellence, Education Next, 06-25-03
• NYC Schools: Aiming For Illiteracy, New York Post, 04-04-03
• S.O.S. -- Save Our Schools, Wall Street Journal, 12-10-02
• Bust That Trust: An Open Letter, New York Post, 08-19-02
• The Ideal Teachers’ Deal, New York Daily News, 04-30-02
• A Fight For The Kids, New York Post, 03-12-02
• Levy's Study Doesn't Add Up, New York Daily News, 06-29-01
• Tax Credits Can Teach Big Lessons, New York Daily News, 04-11-01
• A Quick Fix for Shortage of Teachers, New York Daily News, 02-21-01
• Give Teachers What They Merit, New York Daily News, 12-31-00
• What Do Our SchooIs Need?, New York Post, 05-30-00
• Memo to Levy: Money's No Cure-All, New York Daily News, 04-16-00
• Solving the Real Teacher ‘Crisis’, New York Daily News, 04-09-00
• What Rudy Crew Didn't Do, The New York Times, 12-29-99
• Rudy, We Hardly Knew Ye, New York Daily News, 12-05-99
• The Shrinking School Day, New York Daily News, 10-15-99
• . . . and Why Unions Are Death on Charter Schools, New York Post, 12-06-98
• Steer Clear of Stadium Madness, New York Daily News, 11-23-98
• A Charter School Renaissance, Investor's Business Daily, 09-03-98

Books

• A Century of Palestinian Rejectionism and Jew Hatred, August 2011
• Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice, May 2003

Podcasts

• Sol Stern discusses his article from the spring 2010 issue of City Journal, "Can New York Clean Up the Testing Mess?," with Paul Beston, 05-06-10
• E.D. Hirsch and Sol Stern discuss E. D. Hirsch's "Curriculum for Democracy", 10-22-09
• Sol Stern and Paul Beston Discuss "A Marshall Plan for Reading", 08-13-08
• Kay S. Hymowitz, Stefan Kanfer, and Sol Stern read their stories from City Journal's collection, 'May 1968: 40 Years Later', 05-06-08
• Brian Anderson and Sol Stern discuss "School Choice Isn't Enough", 01-20-08

Interviews

• A School Reformer's Journey: From Parent to Journalist to Policy Analyst: an interview with Sol Stern
  Written By: George A. Clowes, School Reform News, The Heartland Institute, May 1, 2004

City Journal articles

• Core Confusion, 17 April 2013
• Missing a Chance at Greatness, 31 January 2013
• The Curriculum Reformation, Summer 2012
• Hannah Arendt and the Origins of Israelophobia, Winter 2012
• The Excellence Gap, Autumn 2011
• Lots of Children Left Behind, 9 December 2011
• Who’s a Zionist?, 14 October 2011
• Naming the 9/11 Enemy, 6 September 2011
• Democracy in Tel Aviv’s Streets, 12 August 2011
• A Solution for Gotham’s Reading Woes, Summer 2011
• An American in the Paris of the Middle East, 6 May 2011
• Solidarity, Then and Now, 2 May 2011
• Why Catholic Schools Matter, Spring 2011
• Misdirected Palestinian Rage, 25 February 2011
• Now City, Autumn 2010
• Bloomberg’s Black Eye, 16 November 2010
• The Intellectuals Keep Flying, 21 October 2010
• The Nakba Obsession, Summer 2010
• A Bridge Too Short, 8 June 2010
• A Modest Budget Proposal, 17 May 2010
• Can New York Clean Up the Testing Mess?, Spring 2010
• The Ramparts I Watched, Winter 2010
• E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy, Autumn 2009
• School of Crock, 30 September 2009
• The Promise Land, 28 August 2009
• A Teachers’ Contract for a New Era, 21 July 2009
• Win/Win/Lose, 25 June 2009
• Pedagogy of the Oppressor, Spring 2009
• Catholic-School Closing Tragedy, 13 February 2009
• The Acorn File, 14 October 2008
• The Bomber as School Reformer, 6 October 2008
• The Late, Great New York Sun, 1 October 2008
• Buyer’s Remorse on Mayoral Control, 2 September 2008
• A Marshall Plan for Reading, Summer 2008
• New York’s Lake Wobegon Effect, 26 June 2008
• Reading First Still Works, 19 May 2008
• May 1968: 40 Years Later, Spring 2008
• Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem, 23 April 2008
• Is School Choice Enough?, 24 January 2008
• School Choice Isn’t Enough, Winter 2008
• False Prophet, Autumn 2007
• The NAEP Doesn’t Lie, 15 November 2007
• Debate, Don’t Demonize, 1 November 2007
• False Prophet, 1 October 2007
• Old-School Idealist, 7 September 2007
• Grading Mayoral Control, Summer 2007
• Radical Math at the DOE, 11 May 2007
• Save the Catholic Schools!, Spring 2007
• Radical Equations, 19 March 2007
• This Bush Education Reform Really Works, Winter 2007
• Gotham’s Telltale Reading Tests, Autumn 2006
• Eliot Spitzer’s CFE Problem, Autumn 2006
• The Ed Schools’ Latest—and Worst—Humbug, Summer 2006
• Reorganizing the Reorganization, Summer 2006
• Won’t Someone Stop This Tragedy?, 18 April 2006
• City’s Pupils Get More Hype than Hope, Winter 2006
• Potemkin Education Reform, 17 November 2004
• Yes, the Education President, Summer 2004
• New York’s Fiscal Equity Follies, Spring 2004
• Destined to Fail, Spring 2004
• The Iron Chancellor, 23 January 2004
• Joel Klein’s Figleaf, 9 January 2004
• Tragedy Looms for Gotham’s School Reform, Autumn 2003
• Mayor Bloomberg’s Diana Lam Problem, 21 August 2003
• Ah, Those Black Panthers! Beautiful!, Summer 2003
• Israel Without Apology, Summer 2003
• Ah, those Black Panthers! How Beautiful!, 27 May 2003
• Gotham’s Education Reform Is in Trouble, 11 April 2003
• Bloomberg and Klein Rush In, 8 April 2003
• ACORN’s Nutty Regime for Cities, Spring 2003
• Bloomberg and Klein Rush In, Spring 2003
• Mayor Bloomberg’s No Excuses Speech, 17 January 2003
• Compassionate Conservatism’s Next Step, Winter 2003
• Compassionate Conservatism’s Next Step, 15 November 2002
• What the Voucher Victory Means, Autumn 2002
• School Daze, Autumn 2002
• School Daze, 17 October 2002
• Who Should Run Gotham’s Schools?, 14 July 2002
• An Epochal Victory for Kids, 28 June 2002
• The Education Mayor?, Spring 2002
• Showing the Flag, Autumn 2001
• Harold Levy’s Fuzzy Math, Summer 2001
• Dems to Poor Kids: Get Lost, Spring 2001
• A Fair Day’s Work?, Winter 2001
• Falling Dominoes, Autumn 2000
• The Vanishing Teacher and Other UFT Fictions, Spring 2000
• Crew Flunks Out, Winter 2000
• America’s Most Influential—and Wrongest—School Reformer, Winter 2000
• The Vanishing School Day, Autumn 1999
• How Businessmen Shouldn’t Help the Schools, Summer 1999
• Prophetic Minority?, Summer 1999
• Crew Mutinies, Spring 1999
• The Schools That Vouchers Built, Winter 1999
• No to Sports Stadium Madness, Autumn 1998
• Squeezing Lemons, Autumn 1998
• A School Reform Whose Time Has Come, Summer 1998
• UFT Dress Code, Summer 1998
• The Rebirth of American History?, Spring 1998
• School Choice: The Last Civil Rights Battle, Winter 1998
• My Public School Lesson, Autumn 1997
• Who Says the Homeless Should Work?, Summer 1997
• Grading the Schools, Spring 1997
• How Teachers’ Unions Handcuff Schools, Spring 1997
• Catholic-School Canard, Autumn 1996
• Eviction Notice, Summer 1996
• The Invisible Miracle of Catholic Schools, Summer 1996
• Off Course, Spring 1996
• Albany’s New Deck Chairs, Spring 1996
• The School Reform That Dares Not Speak Its Name, Winter 1996
• The Legal Aid Follies, Autumn 1995
• Let's Seize This Chance for School Reform, Spring 1995
• Here's What We Have to Reform, Winter 1995
• America Works Summer 1993
• Liberalism and the City Autumn 1991