The sun rises on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., January 22, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

It’s hard to notice, given all there is to worry about just now, but spring is here. And among other things, that means the spring 2020 issue of National Affairs has arrived.

It’s not about the virus (though there are certainly valuable things to read in our archives about public-health challenges, and you can see all that my AEI colleagues are writing about the pandemic here), but it’s about some enduring governing challenges that haven’t gone away in this period.


Among the offerings in this issue:

Rick Hess on the Right’s education agenda

Jason Delisle on the real cost of free college

Daniel Disalvo on public-sector unions after Janus

Sally Satel on the strange evolution of vaping

Robert Cherry on how to help struggling black communities

Arthur Rizer, Nila Bala, and Emily Mooney on ways to fix probation

Richard Reinsch on the capitalism debates

William Haun on religious liberty and the common good

Ryan Anderson on our proxy wars over religion

Checker Finn and Leslie Lenkowsky on inconvenient facts and public policy

George Thomas on constitutional law as civic education

Adam Garfinkle on challenges to deep literacy

Read in good health.