Banning child labor in developing countries may increase the number of child laborers, especially in poor families, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper published last month. Three economists from the University of California, San Diego, the University of Toronto, and Michigan State University contributed to the report. 

Support for marijuana legalization is on the rise, even among Independents, the elderly, and Christians, according to recent surveys.  

Kids now spend more of their waking hours consuming media from their  smartphones, TVs, and computers than any other activity, including attending school. But parents are not as involved as they should be in limiting media use, according to a policy statement published this week by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). One reason: Parents don’t see how many hours their children spend in front of a screen.

More women are using donated eggs for in vitro fertilization (IVF) and more healthy babies are being born through the process, according to a study released last week. While this is good news, the process also creates more embryos than can be implanted, leaving hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos in fertility clinics.

A new Canadian study challenges the mainstream insistence that children living with same-sex couples are “no different” than children living with married, heterosexual couples. Using a large, nationally representative dataset, Canadian economist Douglas Allen found that young adult children of same-sex couples are 35 percent less likely to graduate from high school as young adult children of heterosexual married couples. 

Less than half of students who take the SAT are ready for college, according to a report released last week by the College Board. Of the 1.6 million students in the 2013 graduating class who took the SAT during high school, only 43 percent met the College and Career Readiness Benchmark.

A California school district attempted to stop its teachers from attending the “See You at the Pole” (SYATP) student-led prayer gathering this week, initially claiming the teachers’s attendance would be unconstitutional before reversing its decision the day before the event.