How States Can Fix the Failed Teacher Education Model
11th May 2026
It’s time to dismantle one of the most degraded sectors in American higher education: schools of education. The colleges responsible for training and certifying the majority of our nation’s teachers have become factories for mediocrity and indoctrination—the embodiment of what Allan Bloom termed “the closing of the American mind.” States have both the authority and obligation to replace these monolithic institutions by promoting better teacher-prep pathways that are already proving their worth across the nation.
As recent graduates of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, we believe that teachers must be more than competent technicians—they must deliberately form American citizens.
Today, however, schools of education are the chief culprits in the growing disquiet among pundits and everyday Americans about the value of the traditional four-year college experience. Graduates with bachelor’s degrees in education are among the lowest earners of any college major. Even more alarmingly, recent research shows their degrees aren’t worth what they paid and are often financed with loans.