This week, we wrote about the Manhattan Institute's new report and model legislation on restricting smartphone usage in K-12 public schools. Yesterday Axios was reporting on the bipartisan momentum for smartphone bans at the state level.

The MI report makes for pretty compelling reading. The report cites extensive research indicating that smartphone use in schools has significant negative effects on both academic performance and student wellbeing. Studies have found that students receive an average of 237 notifications per day, with 25% occurring during school hours, and over 90% of college students report texting during class. A systematic review of literature supports a negative relationship between smartphone use and academic achievement. One particularly notable study of a phone ban in Spain found that when phones were prohibited, student scores improved by approximately 10 points in math and 12 points in sciences compared to a (synthetic) control group.

Meanwhile, the politics may be changing. A few months ago we cited polls to the effect that the public opposed smartphone bans. This may be changing. MI commissioned a poll finding that 60% of likely voters nationwide are "extremely or very worried" about cellphone use in schools, and 73% agree that schools should take steps to limit access to cellphones. In New York State specifically, 60% of voters support banning smartphones in classrooms. Among educators, support is particularly strong, with 90% of National Education Association teachers supporting policies prohibiting cellphone use during instructional time, and 83% favoring prohibition throughout the entire school day. In New York City, 63% of public school teachers support a citywide ban, with support rising to 70% among teachers in schools that have already implemented bans.

MI's model legislation would prohibit smartphone use during school hours and school-sponsored activities. Students must either place phones in storage racks, give phones to staff for safekeeping, or keep phones turned off in backpacks. The legislation also plans for common sense exceptions, such as school-authorized devices for educational purposes and medical exceptions with proper documentation.

What we found most interesting is the evidence marshaled by the report against a common objection to smartphone bans, which is emergency response. According to experts cited by the report, smartphones can actually impede rather than help during emergency situations, because phones can distract students from following critical safety protocols and adult directions in moments where quick action is essential.

Overall, a solid case for action with a clever prescription.

Policy News You Need To Know

#AI — Remember how AI deep fakes were going to flood the zone with disinformation during the 2024 election, and we needed tons of regulation to prevent that? And then nothing happened. This good piece from R Street's Chris McIsaac argues convincingly that free speech and public awareness are better countermeasures against false information than regulation.

#Immigration — Final update to Heritage's tracker of illegal border crossings under the Biden-Harris Administration. It turns out there have been a total of 10,945,944 illegal alien encounters during those four years.

#Immigration — Speaking of, David Bier of Cato has a good list of the Day One executive orders we can expect from President Trump.

#AmericanManufacturing — As we have covered many times, American shipbuilding is in the doldrums, and Asian countries, particularly China but also South Korea, reign supreme. Here's a good article by Hudson Institute's Bryan Clark and Michael Roberts on what we could do about it.

#Entitlements — CBO just released its menu of options to lower the cost of Medicare. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has good coverage of it. The two biggest savings come from Medicare Advantage and site-neutral payments.

#SmallBiz — The Bipartisan Policy Center, whose work is always valuable, has a big new report out, ambitiously called "The Small Business Policy Playbook." More anon.

#DOGE — Clever find from FAI's Dan Lips: there are plenty of IG recommendations on how to cut wasteful spending. What if DOGE just applied those? How much would that save? Lots and lots, it turns out.

#Ag — Fascinating analysis from R Street's Caroline Melear: government subsidies are boosting fertilizer and pesticide use, which in turn hurts our valuable soil and our own health, and creates more CO2 emissions than necessary.

Friday Essays

Obviously, for this week's Friday Essays, we have to focus on Commonplace, the new magazine launched by the fine people at American Compass and headed up by the outstanding Helen Andrews. People like to complain "Does the right need a new magazine?" but we always like new magazines.

You can read Oren Cass's introduction article, explaining what the new magazine is about.

The standout article in this inaugural issue is Michael Brendan Dougherty standing up in defense of travel teams for kids.

We very much appreciated this article from the great Henry Olson on the lessons of conservative-populist alliances in Europe for the Trump-Vance Administration and the Republican Realignment.

Also very interesting: from Marty Manley, a former Assistant US Secretary of Labor, on how conservatives should rethink unions to help the working class.