On Rescuing Western Education

How to turn things around in the education wars:

To say our educational system needs rescuing implies that it is in a bad way, and steps must be taken to turn things around before things get worse. Many have sought to make this case. I have as well. This happens to be my 264^th article on education, so plenty of documentation as to what ails us in this realm has already been provided. Just two of these posts can be highlighted.

In this piece I offer a number of vital quotes by one key American authority and list some of his important books on the matter: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/12/15/30-classic-quotes-on-education-by-thomas-sowell/

And in this piece, I list 41 books that carefully discuss why things are so bad in our schools, and how ideology and propaganda have trumped real education and learning: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2026/05/05/what-we-must-know-about-the-crisis-in-education/

In that second piece I featured quotes from two brand-new books on the school wars. Here I will offer more quotes from these volumes – the first penned by an Australian and the second by an American. What I will emphasise is the ‘but what can we do?’ angle. Both books spell out in great detail the mess modern education is in, but thankfully both conclude by offering some constructive ways forward.

d’Abrera, Bella, Mindless: How the Education System is Indoctrinating Children and Destroying Our Civilisation (Wyborn Press, 2026)

With some 270 pages devoted to showing how the rot has set into Western education (looking primarily at Australia, America and England) d’Abrera asks ‘What is to be done?’ She looks at how America is leading the way here, with Australia and the UK lagging well behind.

She notes how Washington, under Trump, “turned off the money tap”. For example, it “began freezing billions of dollars in federal research grants in response to what it described as ‘institutional antisemitism’ and entrenched ideological bias on campus.” (p. 273)

She offers various examples of this, and then writes:

Whatever one thinks of Trump, the freeze has exposed a reality. Supposedly, sovereign institutions have long been propped up by federal support, and Washington can hold them to account if it chooses…

 

Ultimately, it appears that ‘what is to be done?’ cannot be left to the universities themselves. The solution, therefore, lies outside the system. And in this respect, America is leading the way. There, individuals with dedication, energy, and awareness of how precarious things have become, are establishing new universities. Their aim is simple: to restore the university to its true purpose and ensure that they are not beholden to the state. (pp. 274-275)

Hillsdale College in Michigan is one such example of this, as is the University of Austin in Texas. Things are tougher in this regard in England, but Australia has had some success in creating new educational institutions, including Campion College in Sydney, Alphacrucis University College in Melbourne, and St John Henry Newman College in Queensland.

And the corruption in schools, and not just in higher education, also can be challenged. Thus the rise and rise of things like homeschooling, private schooling, Christian education, charter schools, and so on. School choice, as in the voucher system, is an important way forward.

She says this about the situation in America:

Down in Texas and Arizona, school choice legislation has expanded dramatically, making it possible for parents to send their children to charter or private schools with state-backed vouchers. Vouchers are essentially public grant money which gives families the genuine freedom to decide where their children are educated, and to take them out of the ideologically captured public system.

 

Vouchers don’t just give parents freedom to choose, they open up an immense range of choices. Parents can send their children to one of seventy-five Chesterton schools, whose curriculum is everything that today’s state system is not. Children are immersed in Homer, Dante and Shakespeare. Where government schools strip away the arts, Chesterton insists every child must paint, sing, and perform. There is no climate change anxiety, no gender confusion, and no racial tensions. (pp. 280-281)

She goes on to discuss the importance of parents in schooling:

To reclaim education, they must first reclaim their role as parents. It is mothers and fathers who bring children into the world, who give them their moral and spiritual formation, not the state. They must start to recognise the ideological dangers that the system is posing to their offspring and become far less trusting. It is time for parents to stop outsourcing authority and for the family, that building block of society, to reclaim the child. This means rejecting the Rousseau-inspired deception that only experts can raise children, which has permeated Western culture, and which has to some extent, given parents licence to abnegate responsibility. (p. 283)

d’Abrera closes her book this way:

Where we go from here will decide whether the Western mind survives. If children continued to be subjected to mass conditioning while being denied the chance to flourish in truth, beauty, reason, and reality, then Western Civilisation itself will not endure. The closing of the Western mind is not merely an educational crisis, but a civilisational one. We are teetering on the edge, but it is not too late. Our survival won’t depend on the rising generation now rebelling against the system, whose minds remain open enough to chart a course out of the ideological doldrums into which we have drifted. (p. 285)

Stefanik, Elise, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities (Threshold Editions, 2026)

After 163 pages outlining in nauseating detail the horrendous state on modern American higher education, the final chapter of this book looks at “How We Fix It”. The Congresswoman begins by noting that there are SOME good schools out there. She then looks at how government can deal with the education crisis. While conservatives do not look to government as the cure all in most matters, she explains why it is needed here:

It was crystal clear throughout our congressional investigation that while given ample opportunity and time after withering public scrutiny, the elite colleges failed to fix themselves. Instead, they doubled down, proving that they are institutionally incapable of fixing themselves. So, state and federal governments must help hold colleges and universities accountable when they strayed from their core purpose and crossed legal lines. In fact, it is our responsibility in federal elected office, as stewards of hardworking. US taxpayers, to see that universities that receive federal funds abided by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI)…. (p. 172)

Stefanik notes how Trump has been repeatedly doing just that, including via Executive Order 13899, “Combatting Anti-Semitism”. She goes on to discuss what Congress can do as well. This includes, in bullet point form:

-We must have stronger accountability and oversight measures.

 

-We need to further scrutinize schools’ tax-exempt status.

 

-Congress must pass the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act.

 

-My Fairness in Higher Education Accreditation Act aims to rein in out-of-control higher education accreditation agencies.

 

-Congress should also modernize the Clery Act, which dictates how campus crimes are reported.

 

-Fundamentally, the United States must prioritize American students first.

 

-We must completely dismantle DEI, which is by definition antisemitic and racist. Instead, schools must double their effort to achieve true viewpoint diversity.

 

-The tenured faculty system must be reformed and revamped. (pp. 179-180)

She concludes this way:

The explosion of antisemitism on campus in the wake of October 7th was not a coincidence. It was the result of years of rot deep within our most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Our elite universities chose ideological fanaticism over intellectual diversity. They chose groupthink over independence. They chose spineless moral bankruptcy instead of strong, principled leadership.

 

But we can choose differently.

 

Elite academia and higher education writ large is in the midst of a generational upheaval. That’s the time to begin to build anew. We have the incredible opportunity to reform and refashion our elite colleges and universities into institutions that can once again educate and elevate American leaders who will serve and promote the good of all citizens, not just a small elite. We can renew the compact between our elite institutions and the American people. And we must. (p. 186)

There is hope that the mess modern education is in can be reversed – at least to a significant extent. Books like these can greatly assist us in this regard.

[1388 words]