From the right: A Swedish Child-Care Lesson

“Sweden, often held up as an exemplar of high-quality early childhood education, does not regulate preschool staffing through mandated child-to-staff ratios,” notes Chelsea Follett at City Journal.

“The American Left reveres Sweden’s childcare system” and its “taxpayer-funded universal childcare,” but ignores this key difference.

“Even without any explicit mandate,” Sweden’s “ratio of full-time staff positions to children in preschool is roughly 5:1.”

The reason? “Sweden gives families the freedom to choose private preschools,” putting “reputational consequences” among families on the line. Meanwhile, child-to-staff ratio mandates in “states with the most restrictive child-staff ratio, toddler care costs an average of $20,196.” 

US policymakers should prioritize affordability and follow Sweden’s lead by placing “their confidence in childcare professionals and families instead of micromanaging these arrangements.”

Campus watch: Harvard Failed Jews but . . . Oh, Well!

“Thursday’s dismissal” of Team Trump’s lawsuit against Harvard suggests “consequences” for campus antisemitism “will be rare,” warns The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, so expect “less change.”

Judge Richard Stearns did slam the school in 2024 for failing Jewish students but “finds no reason ‘to further rehearse’ Harvard’s two years of likely noncompliance with Title VI.”

That is, “Harvard may have violated its students’ civil rights, but since there has been less of it after the Trump team threatened action, there can be no enforcement or consequences.”

So: The problem has “persisted,” yet Harvard won’t be “compelled to make meaningful reforms.”

“It might as well brush the antisemitism aside with the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nondefense of previous political views: Woke 2 in 2023-24, like 2020’s Woke 1, ‘was craaazy.’ ”

Budget hawks: Pols’ $40 Trillion ‘Wake-Up Call’

The national debt passes the $40 trillion mark this week, “months ahead of Congressional Budget Office projections,” fumes The Washington Post Editorial Board.

The feds’ July deficit alone hit $432 billion, “the highest monthly level” since the pandemic. And “the excuses for this rolling shortfall only highlight the extent to which Washington has lost control of federal spending.”

Interest on the debt alone, nearly $1 trillion, represents money that can’t be spent on “defense or education or scientific research.”

If left uncontrolled, deficits “will cripple Social Security and Medicare” and make it harder for the military to address munitions shortfalls.

Politicians’ “failure to control spending remains one of the biggest threats to the country. If only the $40 trillion milestone could be a wake-up call.”

Culture critic: Hollywood Parents’ Child Sacrifices

“So many child stars come to such miserable ends,” yet “most children offered up to the god of showbiz are sent by their own parents,” marvels Mary Harrington at Unherd.

The late Hayden Panettiere’s troubles follow such similar horrors as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Corey Feldman, as well as “darker, less verified rumors” around P. Diddy and his “multi-day drug-fueled freak-off parties.”

Parents who push their kids into showbiz “ghoulishly invert” the “parental instincts” of care by “are sacrificing important elements” of “normal childhood.”

And the biographies of troubled child stars frequently evince an “intensity of showbiz-parent enmeshment” that prevents the child from ever “reaching full adult independence.”

Affordability watch: Nix the Costly California Port Rule 

“If the Trump administration wants to lower costs for consumers,” undoing the Biden waiver that allowed the California Air Resources Board’s Vessels At-Berth regulation to kick in “should be an immediate priority,” explains Sam Raus in The Hill.

The regulation, imposing costs estimated to “exceed $2.2 billion through 2032,” forces ships to “plug into shore power and use costly approved equipment.”

And since “California’s ports move nearly 40% of America’s imports,” the pain is nationwide. Every dollar wasted here boosts costs for “imported goods that ordinary Americans buy on a daily basis.”

So “repealing this waiver” is “one practical step toward eliminating billions in avoidable supply-chain costs. If the administration is serious about making life more affordable, California’s port mandate should be on the chopping block.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board