Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse made a pointed claim about the origins of American public education during a recent appearance at an event with The Trinity Forum, arguing that the system was designed from the start to pull Catholic children away from their families and faith.
"The spread and rise of American public schools in the factory model was overwhelmingly about separating Catholic kids from their parents and their parish," Sasse said. "That's what it was for."
Sasse announced in December that he had been diagnosed with metastatic Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which he described as "a death sentence." Despite the diagnosis, he has continued making public appearances and speaking about education, family, and work.
At the Trinity Forum event, Sasse also reflected on the relationship between work and home life, and what the digital economy has changed about it. "And I think we now know that work and home being as separated as they've been has lots and lots of downsides and the digital economy for good and for ill, but ultimately among intentional parents and workers for good, being able to have more scheduled control and choice about when you bucketize family stuff and when you get your focused work done and what kind of work you can do alongside other people," he said.
On the future of school structure itself, Sasse predicted significant disruption to the current model. "I think eventually the 40-hour a-week institutionalized factory model school will not be replaced with some new 40-hour thing," he said. "It will be replaced by a 2-hour thing and a 10-hour thing and a 5-hour thing and a 15-hour thing and some digital this and a new community that, and better youth sports and different things are going to disrupt that factory model."
Sasse connected the current school structure to what he sees as a failure to prepare young people for an economy being reshaped by technology. "And when that comes, I think we're going to look back on this moment and wonder why we assumed that the passivity was possibly going to produce entrepreneurial self-motivated workers who could navigate the disrupted economy of the post-digital revolution," he said. "And we're going to know that we did this for way way too long. And we should be encouraging more self-ownership, autodidacticism, and entrepreneurial disruption among 12-and 14-and 16-and 18-year-olds, and especially 14-and 16-and 18-year-old boys."
Sasse served in the U.S. Senate representing Nebraska from early 2015 through the beginning of 2023. He then became president of the University of Florida, resigning in 2024 after his wife received an epilepsy diagnosis. His remarks at the Trinity Forum come as national debates over school choice and education funding continue in state legislatures and in Washington.
