You know things are bad when Thomas Sowell — the 95-year-old intellectual who’s been dismantling leftist nonsense since before most of today’s “woke” activists were born — has to step out of semi-retirement just to remind us that the American education system has gone from classroom to clown show. And frankly, he’s not wrong.
In a scorching interview on Hoover Institution’s “Uncommon Knowledge” podcast, Sowell laid it all out with the surgical precision we’ve come to expect: the education system in this country isn’t just broken — it’s been hijacked. According to Sowell, our schools are no longer teaching kids how to think, but what to think. And let’s be honest, if your child knows all the correct pronouns but can’t do long division, that’s not an education — that’s indoctrination.
What makes Sowell’s critique so sharp is that he’s not simply venting — he’s observing, analyzing, and drawing from decades of data and experience. Remember, this is a guy who grew up poor in Harlem, fought his way through the Ivy League, and became one of the most respected economists in the country. He’s lived the American Dream, and now he’s watching as the education system works overtime to bury that dream under piles of ideological garbage.
Sowell called out the teachers’ unions — and rightly so — for running what he and host Peter Robinson both described as a “straightforward racket.” Billions in dues go straight to the pockets of politicians who, surprise, surprise, return the favor by shielding these unions from any form of accountability. Meanwhile, student test scores are in freefall, and parents are left wondering how their kids can be in school for 12 years and still not know how to write a coherent sentence or balance a checkbook.
And it’s not just the public schools. Sowell warned that even private schools are on the take now, soaking up billions in taxpayer dollars and dancing to the same tune. The end result? Generational failure — baked in, well-funded, and aggressively defended by union bosses and their friends in the Democratic Party.
The data backs it up. Math and reading scores are circling the drain. Nearly half of high school seniors are scoring below basic in both areas. That’s not just bad — that’s catastrophic. We’ve got a system where mediocrity is rewarded, accountability is a dirty word, and the only people really winning are the bureaucrats who get paid no matter what.
Oh, and don’t even try to suggest alternatives like charter schools. Democrats (particularly in places like California) can’t shut them down fast enough. Why? Because charter schools work. In fact, in Sowell’s 2020 book, he showed that kids from the same neighborhoods, even in the same buildings, perform dramatically better in charters than in traditional public schools. But the unions see that as a threat — not to the kids, but to them. So, the solution? Pass laws that hamstring charters and protect their turf, even if it means throwing students under the bus.
All of this makes Sowell’s timing perfect. It’s National School Choice Week, and the Trump administration is putting the pressure on states to opt into the newly minted federal K-12 scholarship tax credit — part of the Working Families Tax Cut Act (or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in classic Trump fashion). And for once, there’s real money on the table. Taxpayers can get up to $1,700 back just by redirecting their tax dollars to approved Scholarship Granting Organizations. Those SGOs then turn that money into scholarships, giving families a shot at something better than the government-run mess we’ve got now.
New interview with Thomas Sowell just dropped, focused exclusively on education, and it is🔥🔥🔥
Schools have become “propaganda agencies more so than education institutions.”
Unfortunately, there are no incentivizes for them to self-correct
May the King live on👑 pic.twitter.com/P8RLzRgaJx
— Daniel Buck, “Youngest Old Man in Ed Reform” (@MrDanielBuck) January 27, 2026
Twenty-three states have already signed on. The rest? Well, let’s hope their governors aren’t too busy playing politics to give their constituents a fighting chance.
Sowell’s warning couldn’t come at a better time. The American people are waking up. Parents are pushing back. And the iron grip of the teachers’ unions? It’s starting to slip. Maybe — just maybe — we’re finally seeing the beginning of a long-overdue course correction. And if that bothers some overpaid bureaucrat with a rainbow-flag bulletin board and a stack of grievance studies textbooks, well… maybe it’s time they learned a little history themselves.
