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

• 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
• More Articles >>

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

• 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
• More City Journal Articles >>