David Whitman covered social policy for U.S. News & World Report for nearly two decades from 1985 to 2003. He is the author of the new book, Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner City Schools and the New Paternalism (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 2008), a two-year study of six high-performing inner-city secondary schools and their successful educational models. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Atlantic, New Republic, and numerous other publications. Since leaving U.S. News in 2003 to embark on a career as a freelance author and editor, Whitman has written widely on education, as well as environment and energy issues.