Stanley Kurtz
Senior Fellow
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Beyond his work with Education and American Ideals, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates on a wide range of issues from K–12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. On a wide range of issues, from K–12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
Mr. Kurtz has published two influential books on President Obama’s political history and policy agenda: Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (Threshold) and Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities (Sentinel). He has also led the campaign to reform federal subsidies to academic programs of “area studies” under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, and has co-authored model campus free speech legislation adopted by several states.
Mr. Kurtz’s latest book, The Lost History of Western Civilization (National Association of Scholars), offers both a critique of deconstructionist history and a new way of looking at America’s cultural conflicts. (A free pdf of the book can be downloaded here.)
Mr. Kurtz received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. He later taught at Harvard, winning several teaching awards for his work in a Great Books Program. He was also Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
Salman Rushdie and the Decline of Western Civilization
Stanley Kurtz
Surveys now show that up to two-thirds of students approve of shouting down campus speakers, while almost a quarter believe that violence can be used to cancel a speech.
Articles
National Review Online / August 15, 2022
University Accreditation: The Unknown Clash
Stanley Kurtz
Conservatives lost the commanding heights of the culture for many reasons, but failure to fight back against the leftist education establishment, even where we held the levers of power, is surely among the most important.
Articles
National Review Online / August 11, 2022
Schools Slide Down the Gender Identity Slope
Stanley Kurtz
The economy may still be at the center of our politics, but the culture war’s share seems to grow each year.
Articles
National Review Online / August 2, 2022
Responding to Defenders of the Federal Civics Bill
Stanley Kurtz
The wording of the current version of the Civics Secures Democracy Act has been tweaked a bit, yet the substance remains the same.
Articles
National Review Online / August 2, 2022
How Stacey Abrams Hijacked Civics
Stanley Kurtz
Action civics has become the hands-on do-it-yourself version of CRT.
Articles
National Review / July 26, 2022
Pompeo Impressive on Civics Bill
Stanley Kurtz
Pompeo’s CSDA takedown shows impressive command of the issue.
Articles
National Review / July 13, 2022
PolitiFact’s Failed Attack on DeSantis over Civics Education
Stanley Kurtz
DeSantis isn’t talking about formal curricular coercion via federal law or executive order. He’s talking about what amounts to a massive federal bribe via grants that incentivize CRT.
Articles
National Review / July 11, 2022
DeSantis Blasts Fake Civics Bill
Stanley Kurtz
Public opposition from so prominent a Republican office-holder as Ron DeSantis may break the logjam and shift momentum against this dangerous bill.
Articles
National Review / July 7, 2022
Bogus ‘Civics’ Bill Will Push CRT on States
Stanley Kurtz
Unless America’s parents wake up and make themselves heard now, there is a very real chance that CRT could be the new Common Core by summer.
Articles
National Review Online / June 21, 2022
Ron DeSantis Can Save America’s Universities
Stanley Kurtz
Up to now, it’s been impossible to craft a program of higher-ed reform that weakens the intellectual monopoly currently controlling our universities, without also undermining the principles of intellectual freedom that make the university a worthy institution to begin with.
Articles
National Review / June 14, 2022