Student debt has e a hot issue this election season, with both Democratic candidates —Clinton and Sanders — offering proposals for forgiving student loans. But what would happen if the U.S. actually forgave student debt? Would the loans simply vanish? Would tuition prices decline? Economist Don Boudreauxexplains what really happens and why “debt forgiveness” merely transfers the debt to others. ...

“Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.” – Lord Acton Today, people across the United States will march in parades, set off fireworks, and don red, white, and blue to huge family cookouts, all in celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. In the years since those first Americans pledged their loyalty to the philosophy of natural rights and the equality of all men, the document has...

The current debate surrounding overcriminalization and juvenile incarceration is often centered around the male prison population. The debate increasingly overlooks the problems that face young girls caught in the prison pipeline to juvenile detention. New data in the past several years has shown that the prison pipeline for girls often includes a pattern of sexual abuse that is not present in cases involving male delinquents. A 2015 report published by Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality found that girls...

On Thursday, June 16th, it was a great pleasure to e William B. Allen – Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy and Emeritus Dean of James Madison College at Michigan State University – as a plenary speaker at Acton University 2016, to deliver an address entitled “A Moral Surprise: The Common Foundation of Christianity and Modern Politics.” Allen used his address to argue that true political freedom requires freedom of conscience as its foundation – a freedom of conscience that cannot...

Between the outrageous actions of legislators, controversial supreme court decisions and the ing presidential election, every day the news is bombarded with stories and opinions that do not coincide with biblical convictions. This seems to leave many Christians in the United States despairing, disillusioned and detached. While they certainly have legitimate troubles, I’m concerned when I see my fellow Americans retreating from interest in the public sphere because they are so bothered by “the way this country is headed.” Regardless...

“Limits on free speech is uniquely troubling for the future health of a free society,” wrote Ray Nothstine in an Acton Commentary. “Students e accustomed to having their rights limited, and will be more lethargic in countering possible oppression from a growing and intrusive state.” Nothstine wrote those words in 2008 — and they’ve proven to be distressingly prophetic. Every year for the past decade limitations on speech by students has been increasing, leadingan entire generation to assume such restriction...

Growing up impoverished in the Grand Rapids area himself, Justin Beene brings a unique perspective to his lecture on Community and Economic Development. He has seen first-hand the good intentions behind top-down investing to eliminate poverty and racial injustice, and the consequential damage wreaked upon munities. Urban cities have largely been developed through three forces: gentrification, pouring resources into them, munity development. Beene asserts that we need to cut off top-down funding and start supporting neighborhoods in solving their own...

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve added 92 lectures from Acton University 2016 to our digital download store! You can pick up the evening plenary lectures from Magatte Wade, Vernon Smith, William Allen, and Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico for free – and then select audio froma wide variety of speakers on a diverse range oftopics from the daily sessions, including addresses by intellectuals and experts like Michael Novak , Kim Tan, and Prof. Peter Kreeft, among others. Nobel...