Ken Blackwell: It’s Time to Make Education Great Again!

On January 29th, President Trump signed an executive order that could spark a sea change in American education. Hopefully, this is an early sign of our culture moving past the progressive onslaught in K-12 education of the past four years and returning to the classical features of the liberal arts tradition under which America’s founding fathers were educated. The defining characteristics of American education should not be dictated by a progressive vision of race, sex, and gender, but rather by the great works of western civilization that have stood the test of time.

Throughout my career, I have been involved with both classical education and standardized testing. My personal deep commitment to advancing classical education was influenced by my Jesuit education at Xavier University and my service as a trustee at Grove City College, Xavier, and Wilberforce University. My work with Mortimer Adler, a leader in the Great Books Movement, further enhanced my appreciation of classical education, and I examined how students from classical schools measured up on standardized tests through my service on the Advisory Board of the Princeton Review and the Board of the Black Alliance for Education Options. During COVID, many colleges and universities dropped their requirements for standardized testing, which was a mistake. Standardized tests level the playing field, and I’m delighted the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I participated in an Executive Program, is the first elite institution in America to return to a standardized testing requirement.

As we look ahead to the future of education in America, we must ask ourselves two questions. How do we want young people in American to be educated, and how do we want them to be assessed academically? Over the past 20 years, I have watched the school choice movement make great strides for educational freedom in America, and as a result, alternatives to traditional public education are now booming. If the only curriculum you have is the Common Core, however, school choice can only take you so far. Many Americans are not aware that the College Board essentially has a monopoly on education in America. They write the SAT, they write the AP tests, and teachers use the Common Core to prepare students for both. If we’re really going to transform education in America, we don’t just need school choice, we also need assessment choice.

For the past ten years, I have also watched an alternative standardized test grow in popularity, providing students with another way to showcase their intelligence and aptitude. The Classic Learning Test (CLT) assesses critical reading, writing, and mathematics skills just like other standardized tests, but the CLT is uniquely rooted in classic works of literature, philosophy, and history. It measures students’ ability to communicate clearly, read difficult prose, understand metaphors, think logically, and solve puzzles. The Florida legislature passed a law regarding the adoption of the CLT, and now, other state legislatures are taking notice.

When education amounts to utilitarian preparation for the workplace, students are bored to tears and disengaged. On the other hand, when education is a deep dive into what it means to be human and when students are challenged to comprehend the most rich and consequential texts of western civilization, students are inspired. Linda McMahon, the President’s choice for Secretary of Education, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth understand this. In a recent op-ed, David Goodwin, who wrote Battle For the American Mind with Secretary Hegseth, argues for an overhaul of the curriculum taught in the K-12 schools administered by the Department of Defense. He also points out that Secretary Hegseth could instruct America’s service academies to permit student applicants to submit CLT scores in lieu of SAT scores. Choice is good for any market, and we need assessment choice to bolster the effectiveness of the school choice movement.

We are at a crossroads. America ranks 13th in the world in education, so what we’re doing isn’t working. President Trump is always one to consider all options on the table regardless of what’s popular or politically expedient. He and his cabinet have the power, and the stated desire, to act on this important issue and reshape American education for the future. As they find ways to promote school choice, I hope they include assessment choice in their plans.

Ken Blackwell is a policy and thought leader at the America First Policy Institute. He has lectured at Harvard and Oxford University, where delivered the Beckett Lecture on Religious Liberty. He is Vice President of the Council For National Policy.