Top Journal ‘Science’ Says More than 2,600 of Its Papers May Have ‘Exaggerated Claims’

Atop international science journal funded by the federal government recently acknowledged that thousands of its published research papers may contain misleading language.

More than 2,600 of the papers from “Science,” the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and one of the world’s top academic journals, were examined in depth by another research journal, “Scientometrics.” It found in a study that from 1997 to 2021, the use of “hedging” words have fallen by about 40%. 

Read More

Commentary: Students and Teachers Are Ditching Public Schools in Droves

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released a report titled, “A Nation at Risk,” which was an important point in the history of American education. The document used dire language, asserting that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

The report also stated: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

Read More

School District Misled Court on Why It Banned Opt-Out for LGBTQ Lessons, Religious Groups Say

Newly revealed teacher-training materials and sworn affidavits show Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools misled the federal court hearing a lawsuit by religious families against the district’s no-exemptions policy for gender and sexuality instruction in the English Language Arts curriculum, a national Muslim group claims.

School officials in the affluent suburb bordering Washington, D.C. told a judge last month it rescinded opt-outs and parental notification this spring because of the logistical challenges created by too many families choosing to remove their children from the “Pride storybooks,” which teach children as young as 3 about sex workers, kink, drag, gender transitions and prepubescent same-sex romance.

Read More

Author of New Book on Marxism in Schools Says U.S. in ‘National Danger’

Popular author and commentator Dr. James Lindsay joined Liz Collin on her podcast this week to discuss the deterioration of America’s education system over the last 30 years.

Lindsay’s new book, “The Marxification of Education,” examines the left’s “theft” of the education system. He has been touring the country and world speaking to audiences about this topic and will be in Minnesota Oct. 11 for an event hosted by the Child Protection League.

Read More

Commentary: Compulsory Schooling Laws Have Got to Go

When Massachusetts passed the nation’s first compulsory school attendance law in 1852, parents were mandated to send their children to school under a legal threat of force. Today, that threat remains stronger than ever.

Prior to that law, and those that followed in all other US states over the subsequent decades, cities and towns were compelled to provide schooling for those who wanted it, but parents were under no obligation to use those schools. Many didn’t, choosing instead to send their children to private schools, church or charity schools, “dame schools” in their neighbor’s kitchen, apprenticeships for older children and teens, or to homeschool.

Read More

Arkansas Launches Investigation into New AP Course for ‘Critical Race Theory’ Content

The Arkansas Department of Education is investigating an Advanced Placement (AP) pilot course dedicated to African American studies for possible Critical Race Theory (CRT) content, according to The Associated Press.

Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva asked five school districts Monday to send in their course materials for the AP African American course, drafted by the College Board, an academic organization that administers and writes high school courses for college credit, so the state may evaluate whether the course complies with its CRT ban, according to the AP. Prior to the investigation, the five school districts announced that they would continue to teach the course despite the state saying that the course was not approved and would not count towards college credit.

Read More

Massachusetts Pro-Family Group Warns Sex Is on School Calendar ‘All Year Long’

LGBTQ activists are seeking to ensure Massachusetts public schools are celebrating their agenda’s events throughout the academic year, Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) warns parents.

“Sex on the school calendar has become commonplace all over the nation,” a downloadable document from MFI states.

Read More

National Pro-Life Group Creates ‘Abortion Distortion’ Animated Videos to Confront Pro-Abortion Talking Points

The late founder of national pro-life organization Life Dynamics created his group’s new animated videos to serve as a tool for every pro-lifer, regardless of age, to help them engage with common pro-abortion talking points.

Pro-life leader Marcus “Mark” Crutcher, who died in March, wanted to address the issue of how to help pro-lifers engage in responding to common pro-abortion talking points, said a press statement Thursday announcing the release of Crutcher’s “Abortion Distortion” videos.

Read More

Ivy League University Offers Seminar on ‘Fatness, Queerness and Family’

A freshman seminar this fall at Cornell University is focused on how queer, trans, black, indigenous and people of color experience care through food, according to their website.

The seminar titled “Have You Eaten Yet? QTBIPOC Care” aims to use written texts and popular media such as “Lizzo’s music videos” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to analyze how queer, trans, black, indigenous and people of color give, receive and experience care through food, according to the course listing. The seminar is offered through the Cornell Department of Performing and Media Arts by Ariel Dela Cruz, who is a Ph.D. student whose expertise is in “queer studies, trans studies, Filipinx diasporic studies, performance, and care work,” according to her bio. 

Read More

Commentary: A Case for the Lost Art of Memorization

Memorization and recitation became part of my life through a club I was part of in middle and high school. With the club, I had the opportunity to recite patriotic speeches and poems along with chapters from the Bible in front of an audience of veterans, law enforcement officers, and first responders just about every month. I loved seeing how the words recited touched the people listening.

Almost without fail, after we spoke, adults would come over to thank us, amazed by the fact that we could remember so much and recite it with such confidence. Often, people said something along the lines of “I never thought kids could do that” or “That’s more than I would ever be able to do.”

Read More

Schools Struggle to Get Students to Class amid Learning Loss

Schools across the country are struggling to get kids to class while still recovering from the learning loss following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The New York Times.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress released a report this month showing that students who missed three or more days of school had lower math scores than those who were not absent. Schools, however, are having trouble finding bus drivers to get children to class, with some districts delaying their start times each day and others forced to postpone school for a week, according to the NYT.

Read More

Commentary: Conservative Christian Education Is Being Born Again Post-Pandemic

Conservative Christian education is being born again.  

Arcadia Christian Academy, which opened in Arizona on Aug. 8, is one of dozens of Christian micro-schools popping up across the country, offering a hybrid in-class and at-home education to keep costs down and the odds of survival up in an increasingly competitive K-12 sector. What’s more, many long-established Christian schools are growing their enrollment after years of stagnation. 

Read More

Teachers Union Conference Encouraged Educators to Lobby for Gun Control

A teachers union conference in July encouraged educators to lobby for gun control, according to a conference agenda revealed by the Defense of Freedom Institute.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second-largest teachers union, held a “Together Educating America’s Children” (TEACH) Conference July 21-23 featuring professional development workshops to teach educators tools and strategies to “help kids and communities succeed,” according to the teachers union’s website. One professional development session offered, “Speaking of Gun Violence: How Do We Ensure Educator Voices Matter?” was taught by “Teachers Unify To End Gun Violence,” an organization that works to help pass gun control legislation, and encouraged educators to “collectively raise [their] voices for change,” according to the conference agenda.

Read More

Largest Virginia School District Defies Gov. Youngkin’s Guidance on Bathrooms, Pronouns

Virginia’s largest school district announced Tuesday that it will be defying guidance from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration that requires students to use bathrooms on the basis of biological sex, rather than gender identity, according to a press release.

The Virginia Department of Education released a final version of its model policies for the state’s public schools in July that requires teachers to use a student’s biological name and pronouns unless given written permission by a parent to use something else. Fairfax County Public Schools said it does not plan to adopt the state guidance after determining that the district policies are in line with federal and state anti-discrimination laws, according to a press release.

Read More

State Supreme Court Says Religious Schools Can Require Teachers to Adhere to Faith-Based Principles

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Catholic school Monday, arguing that religious organizations have the right to require their staff to adhere to certain faith-based principles, according to court documents.

The case involved former teacher Victoria Crisitello whose contract was not renewed by St. Theresa School after she disclosed that she had become pregnant outside of wedlock, which was a violation of the school’s code of ethics, according to the ruling. After her contract was not renewed in 2014, Crisitello filed a lawsuit against the school claiming that she had been discriminated against, but the New Jersey justices did not agree, according to court documents.

Read More

Commentary: Seven Ways Schools Are Creating ‘Empty’ Children

In the early 1990s, New York Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto, threw in the towel on teaching with his famous I Quit, I Think  letter to the Wall Street Journal.

Gatto’s reason for quitting was simple. He could no longer justify teaching “a curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency.” Such a system, Gatto opined, was turning our children into mindless robots.

Read More

American College of Pediatricians Rejects Reaffirmation of Children’s Transgender Medical Treatments by American Academy of Pediatrics

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) stated Thursday in a press release it opposes the decision by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to reaffirm transgender medical interventions for children and teens, but supports AAP’s claim it will be reviewing the latest evidence pertaining to the highly controversial treatments.

Last week, AAP reaffirmed its support for providing children and teens with transgender hormones and surgeries – called “gender-affirming care” by the transgender medical industry – while it simultaneously announced it would review medical research on the life-altering treatments.

Read More

Universities Are Spending Like Crazy to Grow Their Bureaucracies, and Students Are Footing the Bill, Analysis Finds

Public universities across the United States are spending money to increase their workforce and then passing the bill along to students, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

Since 2002, the average flagship university’s spending rose 38%, with a majority of the money being spent on salaries and benefits, which rose by 40% in the same time period, according to an analysis by the WSJ. However, the average tuition cost per student rose 64% to cover the costs of salaries and benefits in the same time period.

Read More

Florida Tells Schools They Can Teach AP Psychology Course Despite Claims It Was ‘Banned’

The Florida Department of Education (DOE) told schools Wednesday that an Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology course at the center of a controversy meets state law and can be taught, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

On Aug. 3, the College Board, an academic organization that administers and designs high school courses for college credit, claimed its AP Psychology course had been “effectively banned” because they refused to modify the course to comply with the state’s guidance prohibiting age-inappropriate lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation in Pre-K-12 classrooms. In a Wednesday letter to Florida school superintendents, the state DOE noted that the course can be taught under its Parental Rights in Education law and that the AP course will be offered during the 2023-2024 school year.

Read More

College Profs Sue over State Abortion Law, Argue It Criminalizes Classroom Discussion

Idaho professors and teachers unions are alleging that a state law violates their First Amendment rights by preventing them from teaching pro-abortion viewpoints, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the ACLU.

Idaho passed the No Public Funds for Abortion Act in 2021, which prohibits state contracts with abortion providers and bans public employees from promoting abortion, according to Idaho’s legislative website. Public employees who violate the law can be charged with a felony and fired, and professors argue the law has forced them to alter their course modules by taking out entire sections related to abortion due to fear of repercussions, according to the lawsuit.

Read More

Openly ‘Marxist’ Library Group Chief Stunned by Backlash, Withdrawal of Funding

After the head of the American Library Association (ALA) declared herself to be an open “Marxist,” the group has faced severe backlash that has led to at least one state pulling its funding altogether.

As reported by Fox News, Emily Drabinski celebrated her own election as head of the ALA last year by tweeting “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD. I love you mom.”

Read More

Report: Government Needs to Determine If Troops-to-Teachers Program Works

The U.S. Department of Defense needs to figure out if its Troops-to-Teachers program is meeting its goal to reduce teacher shortages in high-need schools and key subjects such as math, science and special education. 

A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that it is unclear if the Troops-to-Teachers program is meeting its goals because the Department of Defense lost access to participant data when it canceled the program in 2020, has not used the data from annual performance reports and has not worked with the Department of Education on the program as required.

Read More

Poll Shows Voters in Battleground States Trust Republicans over Democrats on Education

A new EdTrends poll of voters in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada, shows that Democrats have given up what was once a double-digit lead on “trust in education” and are now lagging behind Republicans by three percentage points.

The poll revealing the historic shift was released Friday by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), an organization that lobbies for Democrat candidates and heads campaigns to achieve “educational equity for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.”

Read More

Biden’s DOJ May Be Working with Leftist Group to Silence Parents Again, America First Legal Warns

A conservative group is demanding answers about whether the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden is repeating its 2021 strategy of targeting concerned parents after the Southern Poverty Law Center just added concerned parents to its “hate map.”

SPLC staff have met with Biden at the White House, and the administration has adopted the “book banning” rhetoric many activists use to slam parents concerned about sexually explicit books in school libraries.

Read More

University of Virginia Adds Racial Identity Question to Admissions Essay

The University of Virginia (UVA) announced a new essay question for the 2023 to 2024 admissions cycle that circumvents the Supreme Court’s ruling that universities can no longer consider race in college admissions.

Applicants are now required, in 300 words, to answer: “What about your background, perspective, or experience will serve as a source of strength for you and those around you at UVA?”

Read More

Politico: Democrats Say Republicans Have Failed in Proving Teachers’ Union Colluded with CDC on School Reopening Guidance

A report at the German-owned Politico Monday stated Democrats are now claiming Republicans have failed to provide evidence that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), led by Randi Weingarten, exerted extraordinary influence over government school reopening policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Democratic staff said in a memo obtained by Politico,” the news outlet stated, that “[d]espite a lengthy investigation, Republicans still can’t prove one of the nation’s largest teachers unions had undue influence over the Biden administration’s school reopening guidance.”

Read More

Commentary: Three Observations and Predictions About Affirmative Action in Universities Moving Forward

Following the recent Supreme Court decision overturning race-conscious admissions, certain sections of the media have adopted an alarmist tone, fueling doomsday predictions. Others are keen to celebrate the end of discriminatory practices that educational institutions have adopted for nearly 60 years.

Read More

Biden Administration Withholding Funds from Schools with Hunting Courses

The Biden Administration’s Department of Education (ED) confirmed that it is deliberately withholding federal funds from elementary and middle schools that have courses in hunting or archery.

As Fox News reports, the ED issued a statement claiming that the decision was due to an interpretation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed last year in response to several shootings. The agency claims that its interpretation determined that funding for any shooting-related activities will be blocked across the country, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.

Read More

Tennessee School Trains Staff on White Christian Privilege, Says People of Color, LGBT Are Oppressed

A Tennessee school district offered voluntary Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for staff that included a section about how people who are white, male, cisgender, heterosexual or Christian are considered privileged while people of color and those who are nonbinary, polyamorous or pagan are oppressed.

Read More

Commentary: The Educational Establishment’s Radical New Ploys

Increased spending, common good bargaining, community schools and transitional kindergarten will not improve student learning.

A Gallup poll released earlier this month shows that just 28% of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in K-12 public schools. The number for Republicans is particularly damning: Just 14% of GOPers view education in a positive light.

Read More

SPN Poll: Majority of Parents Say Teachers Regularly Stray from Course Curriculum

The vast majority of parents in a new State Policy Network poll say public school teachers regularly deviated from set school curriculum to interject their own personal views and feelings over the past year.

In all, two out of every three parents polled in the survey of 2,014 respondents said teachings strayed from what was supposed to be taught, and 25% said they actually had a problem with a public-school teacher on the issue over the last 12 months.

Read More

Commentary: Listening for Alien Civilizations Is ‘Eavesdropping,’ ‘Surveillance,’ These Indigenous Scholars Say

As a young teen I couldn’t get enough of Carl Sagan’s book “Cosmos,” and the movie based on his novel of the same name, Contact, remains one of my favorite scifi offerings.

Sagan, and by extension Contact protagonist Ellie Arroway, became the sort of individual I came trust to handle what will be the greatest discovery in human history: proof that humans are not alone in the universe.

Read More

‘We’re Paying People to Hate America’: Musk And Ramaswamy Blast Department of Education

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Twitter owner Elon Musk ripped the current education system in the United States Friday, saying that taxpayers were “paying people to hate America.”

Ramaswamy and Musk took part in a Twitter Spaces forum where Ramaswamy blasted the Department of Education for using funding as an incentive for schools to use certain theories in curricula. Ramaswamy outlined plans to shut down that department during a July 20 forum in New Hampshire.

Read More

Catholic Education Soaring in Popularity

The annual conference this month of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education offered an atmosphere of overall joy and confidence as Catholic schools committed to the teachings of the faith reported they “could not keep up with the demand” for their services, Mark Bauerlein, contributing editor at First Things, wrote this week.

Bauerlein appeared to revel in the stark contrast between the upbeat environment at the Catholic education conference which, he noted, featured tables run by “organizations dedicated to Western civilization, the liberal arts tradition, and Catholic study” that “offered materials blessedly free of the negative politics and rhetoric that fills the discourse of the National Education Association, the ed schools that train teachers, and all too many school boards.”

Read More

Colleges Plot New Ways to Discriminate After Supreme Court Strikes Down Race-Based Admissions

Colleges throughout the country are plotting new ways to weigh race in the admissions process after a Supreme Court ruling that blocked the use of affirmative action policies, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s use of affirmative action admissions policies was unconstitutional, halting the practice across higher education institutions. Colleges and universities are considering the use of essays and different potential student recruiting methods following the Supreme Court ruling, according to the WSJ.

Read More

Virginia Senator Reintroduces Legislation to Increase Funding for Teacher Recruitment and Training

Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine joined Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in reintroducing legislation that would increase funding opportunities for teacher and school administrator recruitment and training, as well as minority-serving colleges and universities.

The Preparing and Retaining Education Professionals Act, or PREP Act, was initially introduced in the Senate a couple of years ago as the PREP Act of 2021. Though touted as bipartisan, Collins is the only Republican cosponsor alongside seven Democrats.

Read More

GOP Senators’ New Bill Would Crack Down on ‘Marxist’ Race-Based Lessons in K-12 Schools

Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio led the introduction of a bill Tuesday that would prohibit taxpayer funds from being spent on K-12  American History and civics classes that promote Critical Race Theory (CRT), according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Under the Protect Equality and Civics Education (PEACE) Act, federal dollars cannot be used to fund curriculum, teaching or counseling in K-12 American History and civics courses that promote tenets of CRT, including that the U.S. is fundamentally racist. Rubio introduced the bill alongside two co-sponsors, Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer.

Read More

Biden Admin Opens Federal Investigation into Harvard University over Legacy Admissions

Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) officially opened an investigation Monday into Harvard to determine whether or not the university’s use of legacy admissions violate the Civil Rights Act, according to a letter from the DOE.

The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) opened the investigation to determine whether or not Harvard discriminates on the basis of race by having donor and legacy admissions preferences after a complaint was filed on behalf of several activist organizations including The Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network, according to a letter from the DOE to Lawyers for Civil Rights. The complaint follows on the heels of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down race-based affirmative action admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

Read More

Virginia Community Colleges Approve Tuition Hikes

Tuition is increasing at Virginia community colleges for the first time in five years due to a unanimous decision from the State Board of Community Colleges.

Virginia’s 23 community colleges are increasing their tuition by $4.61 per credit hour, about 3% of the previous in-state tuition rate. For most of them, tuition will be $158.61 per credit hour for the 2023-24 school year or $2,379.15 for a 15-credit-hour semester. Other mandatory fees will vary, depending on the college.

Read More

Yale Law Library Shuts Down Attempt to Investigate Status of Its Clarence Thomas Portrait

Yale law library staff denied a reporter access to view the portraits hanging in its building in May and would not confirm whether a Clarence Thomas portrait donated to the library is among them, and this week deferred on numerous media requests asking about the whereabouts of the painting.

College Fix associate editor Maggie Kelly identified herself as a reporter and asked the interior gate attendant several times at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale whether she could access the building to view its portraits. The attendant told her that only Yale law students and their guests are permitted to access the library. He also declined escorting the reporter around the building for a tour.

Read More

Commentary: Montana Leaves Marxist-Led American Library Association

Local libraries have become a fierce battleground in the cultural revolution sweeping America.

“Drag Queen Story Hour” and the promotion of pornographic materials in children and teens sections have prompted parents around the nation to push back—and some families to withdraw entirely.

Read More

The Anti-Defamation League’s ‘No Place for Hate’ Program to Push Inclusion Popular Among Northern Virginia, Maryland Schools

Many schools in the Washington, D.C., region participate in a program called “No Place for Hate” designed to promote inclusion among students.

At least 143, and possibly closer to 200, are in Virginia and Maryland.

Read More

Commentary: The Solution to Pandemic Learning Loss Is Less Schooling, Not More

The latest data dump from the Nation’s Report Card reveals declining academic performance among US students. As with previous releases showing the same trend, especially over the past three years, the solution proposed by many education reformers and advocates is to double-down on the amount of schooling and school-like activities students get.

Read More

Virginia Ends Previous School Transgender Policies, Now Requires Parent OK to Student Pronoun Change

The Virginia Education Department announced new model policies regarding the treatment of transgender students in the state’s public schools in guidance that separates students by biological sex and gives parents the sole authority to change their children’s names and pronouns in school.

The policies, released Tuesday, deliver on a significant campaign promise from Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to promote parents’ rights, as the guiding principles of the policies emphasize respecting all students and giving parents priority in making decisions for their children.

Read More

Commentary: There is a Good Reason Why Democrats are so Frightened of ‘Moms for Liberty’

For most Americans, “Mom” evokes images of kindness, courage, sympathy and love. Likewise, “liberty” calls up concepts like individual rights, freedom of expression, equality and justice. Yet, the perversity of the current political environment is such that a parental rights group whose name combines these two words has been demonized by Democrats, the corporate media and the reactionary left. Just recently, a New Hampshire Democrat denounced the group as “Assholes with casseroles,” the Hill ran a story titled, “Six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization,” and the Southern Poverty Law Center added them to its Hate Map.

Read More

Commentary: Can Virginia Republicans Find 500,000 Votes?

Capitol of the Commonwealth of Virginia

Back in November 2019, the Commonwealth of Kentucky was well on its way to being a blue state.

That is, until the state’s Republican leadership saw the trend and decided to do something about it.

Read More

University Slaps Trigger Warning on Hemingway’s ‘Old Man and the Sea’ over ‘Graphic Fishing Scenes’

A university in a prominent Scottish fishing sector cautions its students that a classic Ernest Hemingway novel contains “graphic fishing scenes” that may upset some readers.

Students at the University of the Highlands and Islands are informed prior to their reading assignment that “The Old Man and the Sea” includes descriptive fishing passages, reported the Daily Mail, which obtained a copy of the warning through a public records act request.

Read More

Elite NYC All-Boys School to Start Admitting Biological Girls

A historic all-boys school in New York City will begin allowing trans students who identify as male, according to the New York Post.

Browning School is an elite K-12 school on the Upper East Side that costs $62,500 a year per student and was founded to educate Percy and John D. Rockefeller, according to the Post. The school will “consider for admission any child who (i) identifies as a boy or (ii) was assigned male at birth, who wishes to join a boys’ school and is well-served by our mission,” according to their website.

Read More

Gallup Poll: Fewer Americans Have Confidence in Higher Education

On Tuesday, a new Gallup poll suggested that Americans across all demographic groups are less confident in the institution of higher education than they were several years ago.

According to Axios, the Gallup survey in question shows that just 36 percent of Americans report having confidence in colleges and universities. In 2018, that number stood at 48 percent, which itself was a drop from 57 percent in 2015.

Read More