Getting Education Right

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 Nation's 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. K-12 Education ?73 The World After School ?75 The Handshake Between Student and Teacher ?77 What Do We Want From Schools? ?78 A Conservative K-12 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 Don't 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