Father, Child of God, Runner | Research Fellow, @AEI & Director, CERN | Author, "What Is Wrong with Our Schools?"
Articles by Daniel Buck
New Book Advances Objective Principles for American Schools
For all the talk of leftists being relativists, they have a clear idea of what they want from education. From the Port Huron Statement of the 1960s to contemporary teacher preparation programs, there’s a central dogma guiding their advocacy, reform, and policy: Educational institutions should serve as primary mechanisms for deconstructing Western ideals. Conversely and perhaps counterintuitively, there’s a tension among conservative education reformers vis-à-vis educational relativism.
Correcting Incentives Can Restore School Order
Working as an education lawyer and former teacher, respectively, we hear about a lot of bad behavior in schools. Teachers have told us stories of students brandishing knives, threatening violence to get a grade changed, screaming profanity in teachers’ faces, threatening loved ones, and starting brawls. Many of these students never face administrative consequences. Rather, the consequences fall on everyone around them, as their behavior disrupts the learning of every other student in the classroom.
Many New Staff, Same Old Class Size
Last spring, Milwaukee Public Schools committed to reducing class sizes, setting new guidance that schools should include no more than 22 students in kindergarten classrooms, increasing up to 32 by middle school. Earlier, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran its own analysis, finding that the majority of the district’s classrooms were already well within district recommendations. The average kindergarten classroom size was 22, for example.
Correcting Incentives Can Restore School Order
Schools need transparency, litigation, and accountability to ensure safe, successful learning environments. / Education, Public Safety / Eye on the News / Education, Public Safety Working as an education lawyer and former teacher, respectively, we hear about a lot of bad behavior in schools. Teachers have told us stories of students brandishing knives, threatening violence to get a grade changed, screaming profanity in teachers’ faces, threatening loved ones, and starting brawls.
Many new staff, same old class size
Last spring, Milwaukee Public Schools committed to reducing class sizes, setting new guidance that schools should include no more than 22 students in kindergarten classrooms, increasing up to 32 by middle school. Earlier, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran its own analysis, finding that the majority of the district’s classrooms were already well within district recommendations. The average kindergarten classroom size was 22, for example.
Can School Choice Make Special Education Work?
I support school choice. I ended my career as a teacher and administrator working in private choice and charter schools. School choice will almost certainly yield net benefits to American education. At the same time, I’ve always been skeptical of those school choice proponents who sell the policy as a wonder drug. Lagging academic scores? School choice. Crime, poverty, and teen pregnancy? School choice. Civic tolerance and racial comity? School choice. Paternity suits?
7 Potential Federal Policies — And How They’ll Affect Investors
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UCLA Would Rather You Didn’t Read the Syllabus
I had a simple question: What are teachers learning at schools of education? I wanted to examine what books these institutions assigned, what instructional practices they promoted, and what their assignments required. In the course of that investigation (the results of which you can read about here), I requested the syllabi of required courses from 10 different universities. Eight gave me the requested documents promptly.
UCLA Would Rather You Didn’t Read the Syllabus
I had a simple question: What are teachers learning at schools of education? I wanted to examine what books these institutions assigned, what instructional practices they promoted, and what their assignments required. In the course of that investigation (the results of which you can read about here), I requested the syllabi of required courses from 10 different universities. Eight gave me the requested documents promptly.
What Nikole Hannah-Jones Learned from Her Daughter’s School
Over the weekend, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the journalist behind The 1619 Project, published an essay asking, strikingly, if she had betrayed her own child. A decade ago, she and her husband felt an “obligation to make educational decisions based on the collective good and not just [their] individual advantage.” Dedicated to the cause, Hannah-Jones and her husband enrolled their kindergarten daughter in a low-performing, urban public school across the street from a housing project.
What Are Schools of Education Teaching Teachers?
Hint: It has little to do with imparting knowledge to students.
What Are Schools of Education Teaching Teachers?
The teaching profession is a modern priestly caste. Not only are educators responsible for the basic academic training of the next generation — a responsibility once also held by religious leaders — but they also shape the worldview, opinions, beliefs, and perspectives of their students. Such formation isn’t necessarily nefarious. From how they decorate their walls to the books they teach, everything a teacher does inculcates a set of beliefs and habits.
What Teachers Should Learn: An Alternative Graduate School Curriculum
Earlier this month, I released a report reviewing coursework at ten graduate schools of education across the country. I won’t rehearse the findings at length here. Think lots of “queering education” and postcolonial theory and little phonics or classroom management. Now I like to believe that these “spot the woke” exercises are useful insofar as they expose malpractice and ideological drift. They’re most certainly fun.
Two Concepts of Educational Liberty
Schools promise to help students think and act for themselves and yet constantly tell them where to sit and how to act. How can we make sense of this paradox? Especially in classical schools, how can we presume to provide an education designed to create free citizens while telling kids to sit down, be quiet, and memorize what we tell them to? Liberty and freedom are arguably the foundational principles of our country.
K-12 Schooling Archives
Report American Enterprise Institute What Good Readers Know Podcast American Enterprise Institute Should We Close the US Department of Education?
Discussing how progressive ideology has infiltrated teacher training programs: Buck on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom”
Research Fellow Daniel Buck discusses how progressive ideology has infiltrated teacher training programs on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom.
The Trump Administration’s Head Start Overhaul Explained
The Trump administration recently proposed a sweeping overhaul of the federal Head Start program, eliminating over 100 pages of federal regulations covering everything from playground mulch depth to class-size-to-staff ratios. While some called it a long-overdue deregulation of an early childhood program buried in federal requirements, other early childhood advocates are concerned that the reforms could undermine the future quality of the program. Are their concerns valid?
Pedagogy of the Progressives: A Review of Syllabi from Graduate Schools of Education
Many graduate schools of education (GSEs) display a concerning ideological asymmetry, advancing dogmas grounded in progressive and critical theory frameworks rather than exposing prospective teachers to intellectually diverse ideas and training them in pragmatic instruction and classroom management methods.
Three Policy Avenues to Help Public Schools Flourish
Executive Summary For the last decade, academic scores in Wisconsin have been in steady decline. Seeing as our state’s civic, economic and cultural health depends on a well-educated population and the majority of students attend public schools, it is imperative that policymakers reverse this trend. This report recommends three broad avenues for lawmakers to consider, along with several concrete actions within each.
Making University Civic Centers Last
Three years ago, Governor Ron DeSantis established the Hamilton School at the University of Florida. According to The Washington Post, the school now boasts “50 professors, four majors, 69 classes this spring.” Similar efforts are afoot with the University of North Carolina’s School of Civic Life and Leadership and The Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society.
All Red States Should Immediately Audit Their Biggest School Districts
At the end of June, an audit of Jefferson County Public Schools was released to the public. The largest district in Kentucky, Jefferson County (which includes Louisville) enrolls almost 100,000 students — one in seven students in the state. The report by auditor Allison Ball reveals the system’s complete institutional failure. In 2024, Kentucky House Bill 6 compelled a special examination of Jefferson County schools and provided the funds to do so.
All red states should immediately audit their biggest school districts Original
At the end of June, an audit of Jefferson County Public Schools was released to the public. The largest district in Kentucky, Jefferson County (which includes Louisville) enrolls almost 100,000 students — one in seven students in the state. The report by auditor Allison Ball reveals the system’s complete institutional failure. In 2024, Kentucky House Bill 6 compelled a special examination of Jefferson County schools and provided the funds to do so.
Making University Civic Centers Last
Three years ago, Governor Ron DeSantis established the Hamilton School at the University of Florida. According to The Washington Post, the school now boasts “50 professors, four majors, 69 classes this spring.” Similar efforts are afoot with the University of North Carolina’s School of Civic Life and Leadership and The Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society.
Can Charter Schools Survive Universal School Choice?
Echoing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s sentiments distancing herself from wokeness, a common sentiment among reformers seems to be that the bipartisan education reform era was “craazzy.” Standardized testing pep rallies, the glorified grant writing beauty pageant called Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind, guarantees of 100 percent reading proficiency by 2014—maybe we went a little overboard, folks.
Against the Pinterest classroom
We’ve all visited those classrooms. They look like 30-gallon bags full of confetti, crepe paper, and Elmer’s glue exploded in the center. The bulletin boards are a mess of student work and neon posters, arts and crafts projects dangle from the ceiling, and groups of desks are buried in tassels and decorations. Must a classroom be a confusing and unrelenting assault on the senses? I admit that such an opening salvo leaves me vulnerable to accusations of wanton curmudgeonliness.
A Trip to Madison’s BLM Autonomous Zone
What strikes you first as you approach the Cory Ruiz Autonomous Zone in Madison, Wisconsin is the smell: weed, excrement and urine. Protesters set up this encampment after police officers shot and killed Corey Ruiz July 22nd. Gubernatorial candidate and wannabe-Mamdani Francesca Hong called the shooting an execution.
Promising State Policies to Improve School Behavior
Last month, the Long Beach Post reported on teachers who were being hit, bitten, kicked, headbutted, and bruised. One student struck a teacher so hard that he sent her to the emergency room and permanently altered her vision. The number of severe workers’ comp claims in Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) is increasing year after year. LBUSD is no outlier; it parallels a broader trend.
Teaching Students to Love America Again
Renowned classicist Werner Jaeger wrote that “education is the process by which a community preserves and transmits its physical and intellectual character.” Through education, a country introduces the next generation to its heroes, literature, music, arts, and ideals. Similar to an inheritance, a culture’s intellectual riches are passed along to children in the classroom by their teachers for them to enjoy and steward. America began this process early.
Teaching Students to Love America: They Inherit Its Achievements, and Must Maintain This Great Civilization
An education promoting the prosperity and artistic achievements of America is no longer the norm. We have to give students something to feel pride in with school curriculum, and America's culture and past offer much.
The Decline of Teachers Unions (and How to Advance the Trend)
Since its peak of 3.2 million members in 2009, the National Education Association has slowly but surely shrunk for a decade and a half. While there was a slight increase last year, membership now hovers around 2.8 million. For conservatives, it can seem as though the power of teachers unions continues to grow unabated year after year. But according to a new report from the Fordham Institute, that simply isn’t true.
The Decline of Teachers Unions (and How to Advance the Trend)
Since its peak of 3.2 million members in 2009, the National Education Association has slowly but surely shrunk for a decade and a half. While there was a slight increase last year, membership now hovers around 2.8 million. For conservatives, it can seem as though the power of teachers unions continues to grow unabated year after year. But according to a new report from the Fordham Institute, that simply isn’t true.
Democrats aim to kill school choice from Wisconsin to the rest of the US
; ; ; Continue reading More for You ; ; ; ; Continue reading More for You
Democrats aim to kill school choice from Wisconsin to the rest of the US
A lawsuit and two gubernatorial candidates target Milwaukee's pioneering voucher system as progressives push back nationwide At a recent town hall, both leading Democratic candidates for the governorship of Wisconsin, state Rep. Francesca Hong and former Lieutenant Gov. Mandela Barnes , pledged to abolish the school choice program in their state.
Democrats aim to kill school choice from Wisconsin to the rest of the US
Trump Administration 2 hours ago Exclusive: Trump administration plans to use homeland security funds to force states into election changes CNN - Gabe Cohen, Tierney Sneed • 2h The Trump administration is threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal homeland security funds from states unless they adopt a sweeping set of election changes, according to multiple sources and internal documents obtained by CNN.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit Could Blow Up in Our Faces
They say don’t bury the lede, so here goes: The Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC) could be an utter disaster. The EFTC is a new federal program that passed through the reconciliation bill last year. It allows donors to provide a $1,700 donation to a scholarship-granting organization (SGO) and receive that money back through a tax credit.
Taylor Swift University: The Proliferation of Pop Culture College Courses
In its early years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison offered courses covering Virgil, Cicero, Livy, logic, calculus, ethics, chemistry, constitutional law and other touchstones of a classical education. In the year of our Lord 2026, students can stroll past Lincoln’s statue looming atop Bascom Hill on that very same campus to study video games through feminist, queer and ecocritical lenses.
Taylor Swift University: The proliferation of pop culture college courses
Opinion>Opinions - Education The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill by Daniel Buck and Garion Frankel, opinion contributors - 06/02/26 12:00 PM ET Link copied by Daniel Buck and Garion Frankel, opinion contributors - 06/02/26 12:00 PM ET Link copied Taylor Swift speaks during a graduation ceremony for New York University at Yankee Stadium in New York, Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Opinion - Taylor Swift University: The proliferation of pop culture college courses
In its early years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison offered courses covering Virgil, Cicero, Livy, logic, calculus, ethics, chemistry, constitutional law and other touchstones of a classical education. In the year of our Lord 2026, students can stroll past Lincoln’s statue looming atop Bascom Hill on that very same campus to study video games through feminist, queer and ecocritical lenses.
A Plea to Reform Academic Journals
Social science journals have had a rough go of it over the past few months. A recent, extensive examination of social science papers found that only about half of previously published studies replicated—and when they did, the replicated effects were much smaller than those originally reported. Of papers where reproduction was possible, the study found just over half were precisely reproducible.
While other states boost schools, Wisconsin rejects reforms | Opinion Original
Wisconsin's Democratic governor and Republican Legislature are at a stalemate over education policy. Gov. Tony Evers recently vetoed two education bills, one involving a federal tax credit and another concerning classroom discipline. The authors argue that Wisconsin is falling behind other states that are adopting various education reforms. One vetoed bill would have allowed Wisconsin to join the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, which uses private donations for educational expenses.
Five Policies for School Boards to Improve Discipline
One year, I decided to write down bullet-pointed notes on all the chaos, violence, and disorder that occurred in my school: Two students held a peer against a wall while a third pummeled them in the face and stomach; another student beat up a special needs child on the bus; a girl brought a hammer to school but it was confiscated before she could use it. In the end, I stopped my note-taking exercise after two months because such occurrences became too quotidian.
Sovereigns in the Schoolhouse
Imagine for a moment a school where no adults showed up for an entire month, but students still did. What would happen? Some students would attempt their studies but struggle and peter out as they encounter novel and increasingly difficult concepts. Another contingent would follow their own childish inclinations: eternal recess, free reign in the gym, phone time. And a final group would exert their power—the bullies, troublemakers, and ne’er-do-wells.
Harvard Tries Grade Deflation
This academic year, Harvard has endured a dark night of the soul, including (among other troubles) facing down the consequences of grade inflation and searching for curricular absolution. In a much-publicized fall report, the university confessed that its current grading system is, in fact, a “problem”—an admission that reportedly left students “soul-crushed” and crying in their beds. Undeterred, America’s oldest institution released in February a new plan to deflate grades.
Harvard Tries Grade Deflation
This academic year, Harvard has endured a dark night of the soul, including (among other troubles) facing down the consequences of grade inflation and searching for curricular absolution. In a much-publicized fall report, the university confessed that its current grading system is, in fact, a “problem”—an admission that reportedly left students “soul-crushed” and crying in their beds. Undeterred, America’s oldest institution released in February a new plan to deflate grades.
When Helping Hurts: Rethinking Special Education Accommodations
We need to talk about accommodations. Like puppies or grandma’s cookies, they are treated as unmitigated goods—at least in my experience. Should we not support all students? Should we not provide differentiated instruction? Who in their right mind could oppose offering accommodations, leveling the playing field, and helping students with special needs? In the media, a dash of skepticism has breached the surface.
Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda, Fifth Edition
The fifth edition of Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda features terrific contributions from a range of conservative educators, scholars, and activists. A hallmark project of AEI’s Conservative Education Reform Network, the volume explores policy proposals and educational innovations from across the education spectrum—from K–12 to workforce development.
The Demise of Academic Excellence
During my time as a teacher in Title I schools, I watched as year after year expectations for students got only lower and lower, all in the name of “equity.” Every standard to which we used to hold students—from memorizing basic math facts to writing a simple paragraph with proper punctuation—was deconstructed by progressives. I sit here today frustrated. Frustrated because I’ve watched progressive policies ruin schools, lower standards, and codify into law the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Mexico unearths new evidence in century-old killing of outspoken Texas journalist
You almost certainly have never heard of the early-20th-century crusading newspaperman Carlos M. Wood, whose star-crossed, peripatetic life met an early end in 1914 at the hands of the Texas Rangers. But his story — which began in his birthplace of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and ended in Marfa, Texas — was filled with controversy, conflict and even a historical mystery.
Conservative Solutions for Child Care’s Problems
Earlier this month, Sunny Hostin claimed that a household needs to earn $400,000 per year in order to afford child care. Patently incorrect in her numbers, she touches on a grain of truth: Child care consumes a significant portion of family income, oftentimes outpacing wages and the cost other common expenditures such as housing and groceries. For those with young children, the difficulties of finding and affording quality child care are all too real.
Low Girlboss Fertility Is a Real Social Problem
In a recent Free Press article, Patrick T. Brown of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a frequent contributor to the IFS blog, argued that it is improper to “blame” falling fertility on “girlbosses,” since fertility has mostly fallen for lower socioeconomic status women. There’s a grain of truth to his argument: fertility really has fallen most for lower socioeconomic status women.
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