It’s that time of year. A friend texts a picture of one red leaf on a maple tree, with a sad-face emoji. Your after-dinner walk is now a race with falling dark. Keats called it the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” Americans know it as back-to-school.

NR’s October issue is a progress report on education, from K–12 through college. Frederick M. Hess kicks off the special section, asking, “Have We Turned the Corner on Higher Ed?” “Conservatives’ trust in higher education has plummeted since 2015, and for good reason,” he writes. “A deluge of canceled speakers, tent encampments, DEI depravity, grade inflation, and out-of-control borrowing has marked the culmination of decades of institutional rot that has turned brand-name campuses into bastions of left-wing ideology.” The “right’s recent counteroffensive” has had “truly remarkable” successes.

Hess knows what we’re all wondering: “Does this mean we’re winning? Yes — for the moment. But the wins are tenuous, and........

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