FC Talk: Robert Maranto, University of Arkansas

This talk will examine some of the ironies of American education. Why have four decades of public education reform underperformed? Why do education majors tend to have lower standardized test scores than other undergraduates? And why did a libertarian leaning, union-skeptical Republican elected to school board in a progressive college town ally with the local teacher union against administration? The answer to each question is that k-12 public schools, and increasingly colleges, do not exist to educate students. To explain why, I’ll summarize the history of U.S. education as a field, and how that history shapes today’s k-12 schools, and increasingly colleges. Importantly, our weak educational systems increasingly undermine our strong constitutional systems via political correctness. I’ll end with ideas for reform.

Robert Maranto is Endowed Chair in Education Leadership and Professor of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas.

This talk will be hosted on Zoom. For more information, please email Lucy Schwarz.