By Jillian Schneider in The Lion

What does a truly conservative vision for the future of education look like, according to policy experts?

It might look like the new Phoenix Declaration, published by The Heritage Foundation.

Taking the mythical phoenix as a metaphor for rebirth, this vision of education upholds the following ideals:

• Parental Choice and Responsibility to make decisions about where and how their child should be educated;
• Transparency and Accountability on the part of schools, who are aiding parents, not replacing them;
• Truth and Goodness, an education grounded in reality and morality;
• Cultural Transmission including our national heritage, broader Western and Judeo-Christian values, and humanity’s overall learning and wisdom;
• Character Formation to train self-governing and virtuous citizens;
• Academic Excellence and rigor in foundational subjects to ensure students reach their full potential; and
• The importance of Citizenship, including civic rituals, an understanding of the founding documents, and civic virtues such as civil disagreement.

Heritage Education Policy Fellow Jason Bedrick, who chaired the drafting committee, told The Lion that conservatives need a coherent vision for the future of education – not just a list of grievances against the current system.

“That doesn’t mean we should replace left-wing indoctrination with right-wing indoctrination,” Bedrick told The Lion.

Instead, he said schools should engage students “with the great conversation of clashing ideas, what Matthew Arnold called ‘the best that has been thought and said’ in the world, particularly (though not exclusively) the Western and Judeo-Christian traditions that constitute the foundation of our civilization.”

Such an education might sound too scholarly and erudite for the average student. But Bedrick insisted it’s vital if America wants to flourish.

“Parents want schools to help them form their children into not just good workers, but also good friends, good neighbors, good citizens and good people,” he explained. “This is why the Phoenix Declaration lists character education before academic excellence.”

In other words, education is not all about the job a student ends up having. It is about the type of person they end up becoming.

Bedrick also refuted the idea that schools should simply teach basic subject knowledge and leave everything else to the parents.

“The attempt to remove values from the classroom always fails because education is inherently a value-laden enterprise. Attempting neutrality merely leaves a vacuum,” Bedrick told The Lion. “Instead, schools should be intentional about cultivating virtue, transmitting our culture, and teaching the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship.”

The Phoenix Declaration has received a variety of endorsements from conservative groups including:

• The 1776 Project Foundation;
• Center for Christian Virtue;
• The Coalition for Jewish Values;
• The National Association of Scholars; and
• Parents Defending Education.

“We’d like to see policymakers at the state and local levels commit themselves to the principles of the Phoenix Declaration,” Bedrick concluded. “Doing so will not only be a shield against bad ideas, but a roadmap for renewing our education system.”

The declaration was also endorsed by numerous state leaders and education reformers, including:

• Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt;
• Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder;
• Florida’s Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz;
• New Hampshire’s Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut;
• Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters;
• South Carolina’s Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver;
• School choice evangelist Corey DeAngelis;
• Co-founder of Moms for Liberty, Tiffany Justice;
• EdChoice’s Michael McShane;
• PragerU CEO Marissa Streit; and
• Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies.

Numerous organizations contributed to the Phoenix Declaration, including policy groups such as The Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, and colleges such as Belmont Abbey College and Colorado Christian University.

Photo credit: 20210810-FNS-UNC-0023 by U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC0 1.0 license on Flickr