Cato Institute Book Discussion: "No Adult Left Behind"

Event Title:
Online Book Forum: "No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and Hurts Kids"

Registering for the Online Event:
To register for and watch this FREE event, go to: https://www.cato.org/events/no-adult-left-behind-how-politics-hijacks-education-policy-hurts-kids

You can also watch it live on Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/1123669172

NOTE: You can submit questions in the comment box on the Cato Institute's event page. For event updates, follow @CatoInstitute on X. If you have questions about the event or your registration, please email events@​cato.​org.

Event Description:
It is often said that public schooling is the bedrock of democracy. It prepares children to be knowledgeable citizens, and some believe that it exemplifies democratic governance through its control by locally elected school boards. But what if such control is a bug, not a feature? What if it elevates the concerns of adults, many of whom do not even have children, over the children the schools are supposed to teach? And what if it turns education into a gladiatorial political arena rather than a peaceful realm for learning?

For decades, Americans have debated why our students consistently score lower than their peers in other developed countries. While most debates have focused on school spending, curriculum, teacher quality, and teachers’ unions, No Adult Left Behind argues that local democratic control is the root of the problem. Elected school boards govern local school districts, but only adults vote in local elections – most of whom don’t have children or care about academics. This leads to educational debates that are centered around issues that adults care most about, such as partisanship, identity politics, property values, and employment concerns, while the needs of students get left behind. In identifying the misalignment between the interests of school children and the political and policy agendas of the adults who control education, No Adult Left Behind stands to become a landmark study on modern education politics.

Join us to discuss!

About the Speakers:
* Vladimir Kogan is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Ohio State University and one of America's leading scholars of education politics. Kogan previously covered education at the Voice of San Diego, a pioneering nonprofit specializing in investigative journalism. He's the author of Paradise Plundered: Fiscal Crisis and Governance Failures in San Diego (2011) and No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and Hurts Kids (2025).
* Charles Wilson is Professor of Law Emeritus at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, former President of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) in 2020-21, and an at-large member of the Worthington Schools Board of Education in Ohio from 2008 to 2013.
* Neal McCluskey is Director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, and has a PhD in Public Policy from Georgetown University. He is the author of the books Feds in the Classroom (2006) and The Fractured Schoolhouse (2022) and is coeditor of several volumes, including School Choice Myths (2020) and Unprofitable Schooling (2019).

About the Cato Institute:
Founded in 1976, the Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. The institute advocates for free market economic policies, protection of civil liberties, criminal justice reform, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. It publishes the annual "Human Freedom Index" that ranks countries based on their levels of personal & economic freedoms, and it hosts cross-partisan discussions monthly at "Cato Unbound". To learn more, go to https://www.cato.org/about

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................