Kerby Anderson
The Wall Street Journal editorial board begins with this observation: “The laws of economics continue to exist even when politicians ignore them.” What they are talking about is the decision in California to increase the fast-food minimum wage to $20 an hour. When the editors predicted the inevitable outcome, the governor’s office claimed they were “pushing a false narrative.” Now reality has set in, and the predictions have come true.
Over the years, I have written commentaries about progressive attempts in cities like Seattle and Portland to raise the minimum wage significant amounts. The results are always the same. Some benefit, but most others do not. Owners cut back the number of workers and the number of hours for those who remain. And prices go up. California is no different.
“An Associated Press dispatch last week reported that California fast-food franchises have been cutting worker hours after the wage mandate took effect…. A Del Taco manager slashed the number of workers for each shift by half. A Jersey Mike’s franchise owner reduced morning and evening shifts, reduced his staff by 20 workers, and raised prices.”
The greatest harm is to those who lose their jobs. Research done by Beacon Economics recently found that California’s minimum wage law, “does particular harm to teenagers. In the past two years, unemployment among 16-to-19-year-olds nearly doubled.” As the editors noted, “Instead of flipping burgers, more California teens will be flipping through TikTok videos.”
Think of your first few jobs. Like me, your only job skills were a strong back and a good work ethic. We probably weren’t worth $20 an hour, but we did learn from skills that have made us successful today. Many young people won’t get that opportunity because of this law.

Kerby Anderson
One of my recent in-studio guests had a rags-to-riches story that was one more example of achieving the American dream, like the one we heard recently for J.D. Vance. My guest attributed his success to education and is a strong proponent of the American educational system. But he also acknowledged that education in America faces many challenges.
Earlier this year, I wrote a commentary about the 1983 assessment of American education from the National Commission on Excellence in Education. The panel lamented: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an act of war.”
Forty years later, the state of education in America seems worse even though we spend more on education per capita than just about any other country in the world. Not so long ago, the US was producing the best and brightest students in the world. Now, they are about average in science and reading and below average in math.
As a nation, we don’t even know our history or basic political facts. A study done by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation discovered that only one in three (36%) Americans could pass the U.S. citizenship test.
During the recent Republican National Convention, we heard many speakers suggest school choice might be a solution. At a previous Republican Convention, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice observed that, “when I can look at your zip code and I can tell whether you’re going to get a good education, we’ve got a real problem.” It is unlikely that school choice will be mentioned positively in the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
An important issue in this election is how we can meet the education challenges before us.