The Cato Institute’s Andrew Coulson gave interesting testimony at Senate hearings this week that focused on K–12 suspension policies. The testimony by Coulson — who makes clear that he is no fan of the cavalier use of suspensions — highlighted two recent and highly sophisticated studies by Rochester University professor Joshua Kinsler. The studies suggest that higher minority discipline rates are generally not the result of racism on the part of school officials, and that preventing suspension of disruptive students would actually exacerbate racial achievement gaps and disproportionately harm African-American students by increasing classroom disruption and reducing learning in predominantly-black schools. H/t Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.