Dennis Prager explains what’s wrong with public education

Famous talk show host Dennis Prager isn’t optimistic about public education – but he does have a few ideas about how to fix it.

In a conversation with Making the Leap hosts Chris and Christine Stigall, Prager discussed what public schools are teaching – or not teaching – students.

“Nothing. [Kids are] taught almost nothing,” Prager said. “If one knows only one thing about modern life, one should know this– everything the left touches, it destroys. Schools [are] one example.”

He cited a new California policy that prohibits schools from suspending students for poor behavior, even when their actions are “willful defiance.”

“That will singlehandedly destroy public education,” added Chris Stigall. “It’s a prison system. At that point, if teachers are not able to deal with willfully defiant children, that’s it. Your kids cannot learn.” 

Prager’s solution?  

“Get [children] out of the entire system and let it collapse so that we can build something beautiful,” he said. “In the meantime, the most wonderful thing people could do for this country is homeschool their children.” 

Prager also noted that women – who are significantly overrepresented in education professions – are now working against their traditional role of protecting and nurturing children.  

“Women are playing a wildly disproportionate role in ruining children,” Prager explained. “I don’t mean as mothers – I mean as people in the education system, people advocating that we teach children that they’re not boys or girls.” 

“If we have no problem acknowledging that men disproportionately commit violent crime … then you will just as readily acknowledge the disproportionate role women are playing in hurting children,” he continued.  

Co-host Christine Stigall agreed that women are contributing to the problems in public education, but also noted than many women – such as Riley Gaines and those involved with the International Women’s Forum – are leading the charge against leftist ideologies.  

For his part, Prager’s media nonprofit, PragerU, has ramped up its kid-focused media content, now partnering with states such as Florida, Oklahoma and New Hampshire to provide conservative curricula options to public schools. 

Prager, who is Jewish, also explained how the programming can help adults understand current events such as the Hamas-Israel conflict.  

“You will learn more about the Middle East dispute watching PragerU videos than getting a Ph.D. in Middle East studies at Princeton,” Prager told the Stigalls. “I know this because I went to graduate school at the Middle East Institute of Columbia University.” 

The Making the Leap podcast is produced by The Herzog Foundation, which also publishes The Lion.