School Suspensions Have Plunged: We Don't Yet Know If That's Good News
A controversial new paper suggests schools in New York City are less safe now that fewer students are being suspended.
We are in the midst of a quiet revolution in school discipline.
In the past five years, 27 states have revised their laws with the intention of reducing suspensions and expulsions. And, more than 50 of America's largest school districts have also reformed their discipline policies — changes which collectively affect more than 6.35 million students.
A new paper from Max Eden, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, argues that this is all too much, too soon. In New York City, for example, suspensions have fallen by half since 2011.
Eden's read of the available evidence argues that school climate in the city, on the whole, has gotten worse. "Without making the case that we need to start
