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Flypaper

Sarah Palin, anti-intellectualism, and the plight of the liberal arts

Michael J. Petrilli
7.16.2009

I have a piece by that title in today's Education Gadfly. I argue that the Republican Party can hardly be the standard-bearer for a rigorous liberal arts education for all when it goes gaga over candidates who quite obviously don't embody that sort of education themselves. But the Democrats aren't much better, obsessed as they are with the narrow, utilitarian goal of getting all students "college and work ready." Case in point: In??the nine major policy addresses he's given in his six months as Secretary, Arne Duncan has never once mentioned "history," "literature," or "geography." Meanwhile, he's used the phrase "charter schools" an astounding 29 times. Read more here.

Tags: Arne Duncan Democratic Party Republican Party

President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Michael J. PetrilliĀ is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, executive editor of Education Next, editor in chief of the Education Gadfly Weekly, host of the…

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