Children learn a great deal about race and gender in schools these days, but not nearly enough about reading and math. A big reason is the colleges that teach the teachers, and a new report forthcoming Wednesday brings more insight into how they promote politics instead of the basics of instruction.
The evidence comes from Daniel Buck of the American Enterprise Institute, who examined syllabi for programs at eight public graduate schools of education across five states. For each school
Children learn a great deal about race and gender in schools these days, but not nearly enough about reading and math. A big reason is the colleges that teach the teachers, and a new report forthcoming Wednesday brings more insight into how they promote politics instead of the basics of instruction.
The evidence comes from Daniel Buck of the American Enterprise Institute, who examined syllabi for programs at eight public graduate schools of education across five states. For each school he analyzed one master’s or certification program that “aligned most closely with an elementary teaching degree,” he writes, not programs that are “overtly political.”
Yet even these programs advance “dogmas largely grounded in progressive and critical frameworks,” he writes. Mr. Buck analyzed more than 400 readings from 75 course syllabi and categorized them as “traditional,” “progressive,” “therapeutic,” or “critical,” meaning critical race and other social justice theories. His evaluation isn’t exhaustive, since he couldn’t access some syllabi, and some didn’t include all readings.
But in only one program, at Florida International University, did he classify more readings as “traditional”—on such basics as phonics or classroom management, for example, or classic books—than in any other category. “Where traditional approaches appeared, they were mostly ancillary,” he writes. “Notably lacking” were “educational philosophies predating the 20th century, or much focus on the elements and principles of classical liberal arts education.”
Consider the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose education graduate school was ranked No. 1 by U.S. News and World Report in 2025. Of the 95 readings Mr. Buck looked at, 45% fell into his “critical” category. That includes a report claiming that “attacks on CRT [critical race theory]” are “part of a larger ideological effort to delegitimize historically accurate presentations of race and racism.”
At California State University, Northridge, a class on “reflective teaching” assigns students an article titled “Queering Elementary Education: A Queer Curriculum for 4th Grade.” At University of Texas-Austin, another top-ranked school, “the syllabus for the required course on young adult literature opens with a land acknowledgment,” suggesting that whites stole the land from Native Americans, Mr. Buck reports. He classified 90% of the readings he reviewed at UT Austin as “critical,” including one on “Anti-Racist Linguistic Anthropology.”
Dubious teaching methods abound. At Texas Tech, Mr. Buck reports, “even the courses focused on more practical classroom skills” emphasize “individual autonomy over learning through direct instruction.” At FIU, a training on classroom management “largely discourages” teachers from issuing consequences to misbehaving students.
Mr. Buck notes that he can’t say how the readings are taught in class, and these are a small sample of 1,600 education schools in the U.S. But other analyses have found teacher colleges left-leaning or not useful for basic classroom instruction.
More than half of teachers earn master’s degrees of some kind, and many states or districts offer higher pay for teachers who do. Mr. Buck suggests ending this “master’s premium” and expanding other teacher certification pathways. Another idea: “governors could establish centers for classical or liberal arts education” at public universities to bring ideological diversity into the system, as some have done for civics.
Republican efforts to limit federal loans for these programs are sound. Children and teachers are poorly served when progressive politics and fads replace the practical, traditional transmission of knowledge.
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