by Frederick M. Hess, Senior Fellow and Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute
When it comes to education, conservatives have been better at explaining what we’re against than what we’re for. Everyone knows that conservatives mostly oppose federal overreach, reckless spending, racial quotas, and teachers unions. But what are we for, exactly? It often seems that the list begins and ends with school choice, free speech, and keeping Washington out of education.
And yet, conservatives are positioned to lead far more effectively on education than we currently do. Unburdened by entanglements with unions, public bureaucracies, and the academy, the right is free to reimagine institutions and arrangements in ways that the left is not.
In an effort to do just that, I penned a lengthy National Affairs essay in the spring of 2020 that called for this sort of conservative leadership and sketched half a dozen proposals depicting a broader sense of what conservatives might be for in education. More illustrative than comprehensive, I hoped to encourage more efforts to imagine what a robust conservative education agenda might look like.
In that spirit, I’m pleased to launch this attempt to sketch a “New Conservative Education Agenda.” We invited an estimable collection of (more and less) conservative education thinkers to sketch their own favored proposal, not knowing exactly what the exercise might yield.
The only request was that they offer suggestions that would complement—and not just rehash—the traditional conservative litany. Other than that: no rules. Proposals may address any level of government—or rely on the bully pulpit, private initiative, or philanthropic activity. As you’ll see, they span a remarkable array of topics, everything from hybrid homeschooling to the creation of nonprofit school safety auditors to competency-based federal student lending.
This collection is not intended as a comprehensive package or a handy “conservative education policy” playbook. Rather, in the spirit of AEI’s fierce commitment to the competition of ideas, the hope is that this thinking will deepen our sense of what is possible when it comes to improving American education.
Download a PDF of the report here.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization and does not take institutional positions on any issues. The views expressed here are those of the author(s).
