By shifting the education reform conversation back to deregulation, incentives, unlocking private initiative and dynamic entrepreneurial problem-solving, embracing fiscal discipline, and demanding accountability from schools, conservatives will find themselves on ground where they are credible and comfortable. This will also allow them to do right by the nation's children and their own communities.
In the run-up to the 2000 presidential election, candidate George W. Bush and his advisors made a strategic decision to appropriate educational rhetoric generally associated with Democrats and the left. This decision helped Bush present himself as "different kind of Republican" and a "compassionate conservative" and to dramatically narrow the Democrats' traditional advantage on education, particularly among suburban women. This was critical in helping to win the election.
But Bush didn't stop there.
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Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at AEI. Michael J. Petrilli is a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
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