By Romolo Tavani @Adobe Stock
Max Eden of the Washington Examiner reports how Ben Sasse has just been handed a golden opportunity to remodel not only higher education but substantially improve public K-12 education along with it. Eden writes:
In late 2022, former Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse was appointed president of the University of Florida. The media mostly ran with artificially inflated stories of student protests. But Sasse’s supporters were optimistic that he could prove a transformative leader.
To date, he’s kept a relatively low public profile. But Sasse has just been handed a golden opportunity to remodel not only higher education, but substantially improve public K-12 education along with it. We should know soon whether he’ll take it.
For decades, conservatives have complained about teachers’ colleges, where educators and administrators must receive certification. The evidence proves that they’re a waste of time and money that confers no benefit on new teachers. Worse than that, they’ve devolved into little more than critical race theory-indoctrination camps. It’s rather insane that red states still require teachers to be steeped in anti-white, anti-American, anti-achievement dogma before entering a public school classroom.
But most do, for three reasons. First, state legislators tend to be intimidated by people who have “Ph.D’s,” even if they have Ph.D’s in nonsense. Second, legislators are typically reticent to rock the boat at their alma maters. And third, even if legislators had the will, transformational leaders who could overhaul a teachers’ college are few and far between.
None of these limiting conditions, however, apply to the UF.
The Florida legislature passed House Bill 1291 last month, which mandates that state-approved teacher-preparation programs may not be “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.” Instead, these programs must teach “mastery of academic program content” and “instructional strategies.” Fancy that — schools of education that teach teachers to teach, rather than be social justice warriors. This law goes into effect on July 1. […]
Here’s hoping he gets started next month on his transformational legacy.
Read more here.
