Tea at Trianon: A Tale of Two States

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, June 6, 2025

A Tale of Two States

From Direct Line:

Florida Gets It
Let’s start with what Florida is doing right. This year, the Sunshine State hit an impressive 89.7% high school graduation rate.¹ Not only that, fourth-grade students scored an average of 243 in reading, outperforming the national average and leaving states like Maryland in the dust.²
How did they do it? Simple. School choice. Parents in Florida aren’t stuck sending their kids to a failing public school based on their zip code. They have options—charter schools, private schools funded by vouchers, virtual academies, and open enrollment policies. And guess what? It works.
Florida now operates over 730 charter schools with a 20.79% increase in charter enrollment over the last five years.³ That’s not just school reform—it’s a parent-powered revolution.
Maryland? Not So Much
Now let’s turn to Maryland—my home state and the land of great crab cakes and terrible education policy. (Read more.)