While they explain early on that their book is intended to “sketch a positive, coherent, conservative vision” for improving education at all levels, authors and former teachers Hess and McShane actually demonstrate a more center-right, pragmatic approach to education policy. But the book definitely provides worthwhile ideas for improving what desperately needs improving in public education.

Getting Education Right covers the gamut of issues impacting education today at all levels, from the authors’ comprehensive review of pre-K instruction to its discussion of “wisdom vs. wokeness” in colleges and universities.

While Hess and McShane point out the errors of the left, including many that other conservative authors have described, they don’t hesitate to also cite those they perceive as errors on the right, such as focusing too much on big government interference, the expansion of school choice, and the restoration of free speech in higher education. It’s not that they disagree with those complaints, they simply believe conservatives would be better served by expending more energy in other areas, such as “articulating a robust conservative educational vision.”

They stress, for example, that conservatives “are inevitably the ones depicted as divisive” when they speak up, organize, or protest troubling programs or initiatives pushed by the left. The remedy, they say, is to go on the offensive by outlining “a principled vision that is worth reckoning with — one rooted in conservative values but, perhaps, appealing to some who would never describe themselves in that way.”

The authors describe this vision in detail throughout the book. First and foremost, they make clear that it starts with acknowledging parents as the first and primary educators of their children, and that parents “deserve to know what’s going on in schools and deserve to have an opportunity to be part of decisions that affect their child.” They repeat throughout the book their belief that “families are the bedrock of a strong polity, and educational institutions and public policy should reflect this.”

Getting Education Right also emphasizes research showing that intact families produce students more likely to succeed in school and beyond, and that the extended family is also important for a child’s development. The authors acknowledge the contemporary world’s hostility toward children, and offer a blueprint for how conservatives can champion the family by supporting community, tax, and employer initiatives and programs that provide aid to families.

Perhaps the most impressive chapter is that covering “early childhood education.” While many conservatives believe young children are best served by the care of a stay-at-home parent, the authors recognize that a majority of children don’t have that luxury. Their pragmatism is evident in this area; however, the ideas they present are thoughtful and comprehensive. In the end, they believe an appealing solution to the cost of child care is “the creation of a state-based education savings account” similar to a health savings account that would allow parents to shop around for the best and least expensive options, which they say would also contribute to cost control.

They add that parents who provide their own child care or education should be permitted to use ESA dollars. “Families looking to provide care or education for their children at home should be able to access funds for resources, instructional materials, online provision, and the rest, just like more formalized care centers.” In the end, they write, “early childhood education should come in all shapes and sizes because little kids do. It’s a mistake to seek to refashion early childhood education into something that looks more like the industrialized machinery of K-12 public education.”

The authors’ analysis of K-12 education is similarly compelling. They cover many of the egregious examples of the progressive mindset that permeates K-12 classrooms, but note that they’ve spoken with “many, many teachers who don’t endorse the claims of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History or the 1619 Project but are afraid to speak up due to fears of how they’ll be viewed by supervisors, advocates, ‘experts,’ and activist peers.”

They explain that improving K-12 schooling entails many things — great teachers with high expectations, rigorous curricula, including phonics reading instruction, responsibility, engaging parents ... “but, perhaps above all, it has to be about schools and educators that put students first, ahead of political crusades or personal agendas.”

Most readers would say “amen” to that, but how to make it happen is another matter. In addition to their recommendations for improving public schools, the authors describe the increasing number of educational alternatives, including “microschools, hybrid homeschools, and pandemic pods.” They cover these alternatives and others in some detail, adding their recommendations for effective curricula, such as authentic civics instruction rather than the environmental activism that often poses as civics education. Their recommendations for reform are consistent with bringing education back to its “formative mission” rather than what they call the “performative mission” it reflects today.

In sum, this reviewer found Getting Education Right a worthwhile read. Hess and McShane do an admirable job of analyzing the current state of education — outlining problems and offering solutions. More importantly, they provide a blueprint for what conservatives can do to facilitate change.

With the new Trump Administration taking charge, change may be forthcoming in education anyway. Conservatives should be encouraged by what is already happening, and hopeful that we will soon witness a turnaround in education.

To read the entire book, go to Amazon.com to order!

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