A note on what this page is before it is anything else. What follows summarizes an opinion column — one author’s argument, published on the Journal’s editorial pages, attributed to him throughout.
We are carrying it because many of our clients are teachers and they will be talking about it. Capital Wealth has no position on school discipline policy.
What the Author Argues
Tony Woodlief identifies himself as president of Federalism in Action. He opens with a policy change.
On July 23 the Education Department announced it will no longer count racial disparities in K-12 suspension rates as proof of discrimination. He calls that welcome.
But he argues it will not automatically restore order. In his telling, thousands of schools were pressured into adopting alternative discipline methods whose main goal was race equity, at the cost of safety and learning.
These go by several names in his description: “restorative practices,” “social-emotional learning” and “restorative justice.”
Instead of suspensions, he writes, administrators invite an offending student to reflect in a calming place on the feelings that led to the behavior. Students may also join a “restorative circle” with staff and peers.
He cites 2017 observations from Manhattan Institute researchers that Philadelphia schools using the approach saw “skyrocketing truancy, serious misbehavior, and declining achievement.”
His Central Case Study
The Little Rock School District in Arkansas carries most of his argument.
He writes that in 2021-22, before what he calls wide-scale adoption, the district of roughly 20,000 students logged almost 2,500 instances of violence, bullying and weapons infractions.
He states the district engaged a community development corporation in 2022 and paid it almost $1.5 million between 2023 and 2025 for digital tutorials, peer mediation and restorative circles.
Since 2021-22, he writes, student-on-student assaults have jumped 118% and assaults on teachers and staff have climbed 151%.
He also cites an internal survey. Fewer than half of teachers said students treated each other with respect. Forty percent of middle-schoolers did not feel safe. More than half of elementary children were afraid to use the bathroom.
Enrollment, he reports, fell from 20,786 to 18,964.
He extends the claim nationally. His group’s scan identifies more than 600 school districts, covering more than 9,200 schools in 41 states, openly practicing alternative discipline. He calls on school boards, legislators, governors and attorneys general to investigate.
Why We Are Carrying an Opinion Column
Because a large share of the households we work with are teachers, administrators and school staff. This column will be circulating in their staff rooms by Monday.
We would rather summarize it accurately and label it clearly than pretend it is not being read.
What we do not do is take a side. Discipline philosophy belongs to school boards, parents and voters, and reasonable colleagues disagree about it in good faith.
We have no standing to referee that argument and no intention of trying.
A few notes on reading the column carefully, whichever way you lean.
The Little Rock figures are the author’s, drawn from district data and an internal survey he cites. He is comparing to a 2021-22 baseline, which was itself an unusual school year.
His nationwide count of 600 districts comes from his own organization’s scan. That is not the same as an independent audit, and he does not present it as one.
None of that makes the argument wrong. It means the numbers are his numbers, and a reader is entitled to know whose they are before deciding.
What we hear in our office is simpler than the policy fight. Teachers describe feeling worn down, and some are doing the math on leaving sooner than they planned.
That conversation happens regardless of who wins the argument on the editorial page. It is the part we can actually help with.