Who Controls America's Schools? Andy Smarick on Parents, Experts, and Government

Andy Smarick joins Big John to discuss public education, education policy, school choice, and who should control America’s schools: parents, experts, school boards, voters, or government. Every fight over schools eventually becomes a fight about America itself. In this episode of The Big Questions with Big John, Andy Smarick and Big John discuss public schools, school governance, institutional trust, democratic accountability, and why Americans no longer agree on what education is supposed to do. Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former president of the Maryland State Board of Education. This conversation goes beyond school reform and asks a larger question: what are institutions for, and who do they actually serve? In this conversation: • Why schools became a proxy fight over America • The tension between parents, experts, school boards, and voters • Why institutions deserve respect, but not blind trust • How school choice changes the meaning of public education • Why education policy is really a fight over authority and accountability • What America loses when public education becomes purely ideological Follow Andy Smarick: X: https://x.com/@Smarick Substack: https://substack.com/@andysmarick More Big Questions: 📜 Substack: https://bigquestions.substack.com 🔔 Subscribe for more: http://dw.tny.cc/YT_Sub 🎙️ Big Questions playlist: http://dw.tny.cc/BigQuestions Chapters: 00:00 - Public Education and the Fight Over America 01:00 - Why Andy Smarick Chose Public Institutions 05:21 - Expertise, Institutions, and Practical Wisdom 09:20 - Trusting Institutions Without Blind Deference 14:21 - Democracy, Natural Law, and Expert Authority 19:07 - What Is Public Education For? 21:15 - The Many Purposes of Public Schools 24:16 - Federal Power and Education Funding 25:19 - Basic Skills, Civics, and American History 30:06 - School Choice and Parental Control 37:43 - Why Public Education Became Government-Run Schools 39:35 - Charter Schools, Vouchers, and Education Savings Accounts 42:07 - Is America’s Education System Smart or Chaotic? 49:20 - A Nation at Risk and the Education Standards Movement 52:14 - Why Better School Data Did Not Solve the Debate 54:14 - The Hardest Question for School Choice 57:19 - Milton Friedman and Government’s Role in Education 59:23 - What Should Schools Require, Allow, or Prohibit? 01:01:21 - Final Five 01:02:10 - Andy Smarick’s Oval Office Imposter Moment 01:02:58 - The Books Andy Smarick Would Save 01:04:02 - Social Media, Technology, and Lost Community 01:05:29 - What Education Reformers Miss About Schools 01:06:30 - Liberty, Tradition, and Voluntary Constraints 01:08:40 - Where to Follow Andy Smarick #EducationPolicy #PublicEducation #SchoolChoice