For decades the Republican mantra on public schools has been to make them ‘business like,’ driven by the belief that strong schools = a strong economy. No more. Today’s top priorities for the GOP are moving students into private religious schools and home schools, and infusing religion into public schools. How did such a dramatic shift occur? In the latest episode of Have You Heard, political scientist Heath Brown, author of Homeschooling the Right, joins us to talk about the transformation of the Republican Party and its implications for education policy.
Recommended readings
Heath Brown, Homeschooling the Right: How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State, Columbia University Press, January 2021.
Larry Cuban, “Making Public Schools Business-like . . . Again,” American Political Science Association, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2004.
Melinda Cooper, “Family Capitalism and the Small Business Insurrection,” Dissent, Winter 2022.
Sam Adler Bell, “MAGA Misfits vs. Nationalists vs. Reaganites vs. Dorks The battle of the Trump transition,” New York Magazine, December 14, 2024.
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