The Hoover Institution hosted "Education 20/20 Speaker Series: William Bennett" on Thursday, June 13, 2019 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EDT.

The Education 20/20 speaker series continued on June 13 as we brought you another major thinker about American education: William J. Bennett, U.S. Secretary of Education and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Ronald Reagan, and later director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Dr. Bennett argues that, too often, conservatives have lauded school choice to the neglect of other essentials. But though choice is crucial, it's no panacea. And while progress has been made on accountability and standards reform, implementation has often been stymied by botched federal interference and an overreliance on test scores that have alienated parents and teachers. This has allowed liberals to take hold of the education agenda to the detriment of student learning. Bennett argues that a robust body of shared knowledge, led at the state-level and based on comprehensive content and curriculum reform, is vital to both an individual's ability to succeed and a society's ability to thrive. And agreement on that precept can serve as a unifying vision for conservatives and a vehicle for promoting other reforms.