Getting Education Right

Frederick M. Hess is a senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the popular Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. Michael Q. McShane is director of national research at EdChoice and an opinion contributor to Forbes.

Contents Preface xiii Acknowledgments xix 1. Core Values 1 What Makes a Conservative in Education? 5 The Beliefs That Anchor Our Approach to Education 10 The Book Ahead 19 2. A Bit of History 21 The Origins of Our Education System 22 Post-War Conservatism and the Nations Schools 24 The 1980s and 1990s: A Nation at Risk 25 The 2000s: No Child Left Behind 27 The 2010s and the Pandemic: Backlash Against Bureaucracy 28 Lessons Learned 30 3. Pro-Family Policies 37 Enmeshing Families in Webs of Support 41 Building Family-Friendly Communities 44 Direct Financial Support for Families 47 Navigating an Online Childhood 49 Overhauling Adoption and Foster Care 52 4. Early Childhood Education 57 The Elephant in the Room 59 The Other Elephant in the Room 64 Little Platoons for Little People 65 ESAs for Every 3- and 4-Year-Old 67 Workplace-Based Child Care 68 Resisting the Nanny State 70 5. K12 Education 73 The World After School 75 The Handshake Between Student and Teacher 77 What Do We Want From Schools? 78 A Conservative K12 Agenda 82 Custodial School Reform 90 6. Higher Education 93 Wisdom vs. Wokeness 95 Groupthink and Orthodoxy 98 Embrace the Logic of Unbundling 99 Control College Costs 101 Make Sure College Enrollment Is a Choice 103 Protect Free Inquiry 105 Stop Subsidizing Payoff-Based College Admissions 108 Dont Just Fix Colleges, Build Them 109 Getting Higher Ed on the Right Track 111 7. Questions & Answers 113 8. What Now? 129 The Recess Rorschach Test 131 Plenty More Where That Came From 132 A Forward-Looking, Healthy Conservatism 134 Education That Values Our Little Platoons 136 Free to Reimagine 137 Putting a Vibrant Conservatism to Work 139 Endnotes 143 Index 161 About the Authors 167