Dueling Visions for Elite Education Reform

Prof. Luke Foster (Hillsdale College)
Law School, Room 7200
@ 12:00 pm

The American Founding era saw widespread agreement that highly-educated leaders would be necessary for the new republic, but also intense debates about the appropriate setting for elite education (state or Federal), what elites should know, and the proper relationship between elites and people. These debates produced models of elite education that remain decisive in America today. Jefferson’s vision of a skeptical, scientific elite who would be reliably elevated by their local fellow-citizens for their technical ability looks very different from Benjamin Rush’s ideal of a corps steeped in self-discipline whose statecraft would steer the federal government. John Adams’ account of emulation helps explain why Jeffersonian meritocracy has proved so unappealing in practice and why today’s initiatives for higher-education reform would benefit from a Rushian civics.