A Balanced Approach to K-12 Education
By Mitch Siegler, Founder

In 2019, David Frum wrote in The Atlantic that when moderates fail to uphold reasonable standards, more extreme forces will step in to fill the vacuum. Frum was writing about border enforcement, but the argument holds true in many other areas, including K-12 education.

Our schools used to be the ultimate moderate institution, designed to teach the fundamentals of language, math, history, and science. (Remember “Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic”?) But, over the past few decades, moderate approaches have too often given way to more extremist views in classrooms, in teachers’ unions, and on school boards.

How did this happen? As Ernest Hemingway wrote about bankruptcy in The Sun Also Rises, “gradually, then suddenly.” Divisive ideologies trickled down from university ivory towers to K-12 teachers and their unions, teaching a new generation that race is destiny, America is a hypocritical empire in need of dismantling, and all education is political. At the same time, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other radical groups financed far-left candidates for school board seats. These ideas from the universities and the philosophies of the DSA are neither accurate nor, as our nationwide surveys have shown, supported by parents. But their effects have been felt in schools and communities across the country.

From curriculum design to classroom teaching, fringe ideological assumptions now often shape how subjects are presented and discussed – even for the youngest students and for subjects well beyond history and social studies. Many parents have grown frustrated, not because they oppose teaching about the shortcomings of our country – the straw man argument of many activists – but because they dislike the heavy-handed, dogmatic pedagogy that arrogates to itself the power to determine which groups deserve protection and which should be taken down a peg.

If reasonable people with centrist views – folks who care deeply about their children’s education and the future of our democratic republic – do not stand up against these radical ideologues, we risk ceding the ground to reactionaries from the far right who have no qualms about narrowly defining America as a divinely empowered, flawless utopia.

Nature abhors a vacuum, so those in the center must plant our feet, make our voices heard, and prevent such a vacuum from being created. Calling out the problem is necessary but far from sufficient; we must present a constructive vision to displace the radical one that has taken hold in too many schools and classrooms.

We need principled, measured leaders and advocates in our school districts and school boards who are willing to draw clear lines to prevent K-12 classrooms from becoming political battlegrounds or indoctrination centers. That means emphasizing civil dialogue, critical thinking, mutual respect, and the virtue of disagreeing in an agreeable manner.

It also means maintaining transparency with parents and communities, who deserve to understand what is being taught and why. THINC’s November 2024 nationwide survey of nearly 1,500 parents found that nine in 10 want K-12 curricula to be publicly available.

Our common-sense approach, in line with the views of a supermajority of parents and built on a foundation of shared values, mutual respect, and civil discourse, will teach the values students need to thrive in our dynamic world.

The path forward is not complicated, but it does require courage. Educators, administrators, and policymakers must be willing to articulate and defend a middle ground, one that prioritizes students’ shared humanity, the value of diverse viewpoints, and the need for reasoned debate. Leadership means resisting pressure from activists who seek to impose rigid frameworks that leave no room for nuance or debate.

If sensible voices do not take the lead, others will. Schools should be the last place this sort of ideological approach should be allowed to take root. Hats off to strong and principled leaders willing to stand firmly in the center and to seek opportunities to unify students rather than divide them.