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The Hoover Institution hosted "Education 20/20 Double Standards on Discipline Will Widen the Racial Divide" on Thursday, September 27, 2018 from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT.

Twenty years ago, conservative ideas were gaining traction in K–12 education. Charter schools were opening all over the place, vouchers were finally being tried, academic standards were rising, results-based accountability had become the watchword in policy circles, and reformers were taking the idea of “character education” seriously.

But no victory is ever final. In recent decades many of these reforms, given life by conservatives, have been transformed by progressives, reshaped by their obsession with identity politics, or just abandoned. And conservatives have too often stopped talking about why education matters, skipping ahead to structural changes, typically summed up with “more school choice.”

The Education 20/20 speaker series, sponsored by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Hoover Institution, aims to refill the conservative void in the education reform conversation. Over the course of the 2018–19 school year, prominent conservative writers, intellectuals, and policymakers will provide compelling answers to the age-old question, “What's the purpose of school?”

On Thursday, September 27th, Heather MacDonald, author of The Diversity Delusion, kicked off the series with her perspective on race-based discipline reform, including why it hurts the children it purports to help and how it cuts against one of the core purposes of schooling.

Featured Speaker:
Heather Mac Donald, Manhattan Institute

Upcoming Events

Thursday, February 12, 2026
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Wilson Bentley’s Army Of Souls: A Photographic Requiem Of The American Civil War
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives invites you to a hybrid event on Thursday, February 12, 2026 from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. PT. Organized in… Hoover Tower, Stanford, California
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
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What Counts As Success? Assessing The Impact Of Civics In Higher Ed
The Alliance for Civics in the Academy hosts "What Counts as Success? Assessing the Impact of Civics in Higher Ed" with Trygve Throntveit, Rachel… Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
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How Can Universities Strengthen Civic Education in K–12 Schools?
The Alliance for Civics in the Academy hosts "How Can Universities Strengthen Civic Education in K–12 Schools?" with Jennifer McNabb, Joshua Dunn,… Hoover Institution, Stanford University
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