Editing American Enterprise Institute (section)

===Social and cultural studies===
{{primary sources|section|date=September 2024}}
AEI's social and cultural studies program dates to the 1970s, when [[William J. Baroody Sr.]], perceiving the importance of the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of modern economics and politics,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aei.org/speech/15229|title=Remembrances of William J. Baroody, Sr.|last1=Kristol|first1=Irving|last2=Novak|first2=Michael|date=December 11, 1980|access-date=June 18, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615204719/http://www.aei.org/speech/15229|archive-date=June 15, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> invited social and religious thinkers like [[Irving Kristol]] and [[Michael Novak]] to take up residence at AEI. Since then, AEI has sponsored research on a wide variety of issues, including education, religion, race and gender, and social welfare.

Supported by the [[Bradley Foundation]], AEI has hosted since 1989 the Bradley Lecture Series, "which aims to enrich debate in the Washington policy community through exploration of the philosophical and historical underpinnings of current controversies". Notable speakers in the series have included Kristol, Novak, [[Allan Bloom]], [[Robert Bork]], [[David Brooks (journalist)|David Brooks]], [[Lynne Cheney]], [[Ron Chernow]], [[Tyler Cowen]], [[Niall Ferguson]], [[Francis Fukuyama]], [[Eugene Genovese]], [[Robert P. George]], [[Gertrude Himmelfarb]], [[Samuel P. Huntington]] (giving the first public presentation of his "[[clash of civilizations]]" theory in 1992), [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], [[Leon Kass]], [[Charles Krauthammer]], [[Bernard Lewis]], [[Seymour Martin Lipset]], [[Harvey C. Mansfield]], [[Michael Medved]], [[Allan H. Meltzer]], [[Edmund Morris (writer)|Edmund Morris]], [[Charles Murray (political scientist)|Charles Murray]], [[Steven Pinker]], [[Norman Podhoretz]], [[Richard Posner]], [[Jonathan Rauch]], [[Andrew Sullivan]], [[Cass Sunstein]], [[Sam Tanenhaus]], [[James Q. Wilson]], [[John Yoo]], and [[Fareed Zakaria]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.aei.org/tag/bradley-lecture-series/ | title=Bradley Lecture Series | website=American Enterprise Institute | access-date=October 18, 2018 | archive-date=February 20, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220190951/https://www.aei.org/tag/bradley-lecture-series/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

====Education====
Education policy studies at AEI are directed by [[Frederick M. Hess]]. Hess co-directs AEI's [https://web.archive.org/web/20090429194419/http://www.aei.org/futureofeducation/ Future of American Education Project], whose working group includes Washington, D.C. schools chancellor [[Michelle Rhee]] and Michael Feinberg, the cofounder of [[KIPP]]. Hess works closely with Rhee:<ref>{{cite news|last=DeBonis|first=Mike|title=Fund and Games|work=City Paper|place=Washington|date=March 4, 2009|url=http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36893|access-date=June 18, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111055107/http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36893|archive-date=January 11, 2010}}</ref> she has spoken at AEI on several occasions and appointed Hess to be one of two independent reform evaluators for the [[District of Columbia Public Schools]].{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} Hess coauthored ''Diplomas and Dropouts'', a report on university graduation rates that was widely publicized in 2009.<ref>See, for example: {{cite news|last=Lozada|first=Carlos|title=Making It to Pomp and Circumstance|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 3, 2009|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303172.html|access-date=June 18, 2009|archive-date=November 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108112912/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303172.html|url-status=live}} ; {{cite news|last=Marklein|first=Mary Beth|title=4-year colleges graduate 53% of students in 6 years|work=USA Today|date=June 3, 2009|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-03-diploma-graduation-rate_N.htm|access-date=June 18, 2009|archive-date=June 6, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606075545/http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-03-diploma-graduation-rate_N.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The report, along with other education-related projects, was supported by the [[Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]].<ref>{{cite press release|title=Diplomas and Dropouts Report Exposes Dramatic Variation in Completion Rates at Colleges and Universities Across the Country|publisher=Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation|date=June 3, 2009|url=http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/aei-college-dropout-rates-study-090306.aspx|access-date=June 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217203539/http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/aei-college-dropout-rates-study-090306.aspx|archive-date=February 17, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2007/Pages/American-Enterprise-Institute-For-Public-Policy-Research-OPP49481.aspx | title=American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research | website=Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929090226/http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2007/Pages/American-Enterprise-Institute-For-Public-Policy-Research-OPP49481.aspx | archive-date=September 29, 2011 | access-date=October 18, 2018 }}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=September 2024}}

AEI is sometimes identified as a supporter of [[school vouchers]],<ref name="j090"/><ref name="n302">{{cite web | last=Kahlenberg | first=Richard D. | title=Are Vouchers the Answer to Obama's Failed School-Reform Initiative? | website=The Atlantic | date=31 January 2017 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/01/can-vouchers-save-failing-schools/515061/ | access-date=5 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/american-enterprise-institute|title=Right Wing Watch|access-date=June 18, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701194700/http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/american-enterprise-institute|archive-date=July 1, 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> but Hess was critical of vouchers in 2009: "[I]t is by now clear that aggressive reforms to bring market principles to American education have failed to live up to their billing. ... In the school choice debate, many reformers have gotten so invested in the language of 'choice' that they seem to forget choice is only half of the market equation. Markets are about both supply and demand—and, while 'choice' is concerned with emboldening consumer demand, the real action when it comes to prosperity, productivity, and progress is typically on the supply side."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hess|first=Frederick M.|author-link=Frederick M. Hess|title=After Milwaukee|journal=The American|date=September–October 2009|url=http://www.american.com/archive/2008/september-october-magazine/after-milwaukee|access-date=June 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013042818/http://www.american.com/archive/2008/september-october-magazine/after-milwaukee|archive-date=October 13, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

AEI is a national allied organization of the [[American Federation for Children]] founded in 2010 by [[Dick DeVos|Dick]] and [[Betsy DeVos]] of the [[DeVos Family Foundation]].<ref name="j090"/> The AEI were supportive of [[Betsy DeVos]]' positions when she served under [[Donald Trump]] as Education Secretary in 2017-21. Hess supported her plan to gut the [[Borrower Defense Rule]], that enables defrauded students to seek debt relief. In a ''[[National Review]]'' op-ed, Hess praised DeVos’ proposal to base [[debt forgiveness]] on student income as “clearly better for colleges, taxpayers, and students”.<ref name="p618">{{cite web | last=Derysh | first=Igor | title=Exclusive: Betsy DeVos' family foundation funnels money to right-wing groups that boost her agenda | website=Salon | date=19 December 2019 | url=https://www.salon.com/2019/12/19/exclusive-betsy-devos-family-foundation-funnels-money-to-right-wing-groups-that-boost-her-agenda/ | access-date=5 September 2024}}</ref>

In a 2024 report co-authored with [[The Heritage Foundation]], AEI argued that higher education institutions should not give faculty stipends to join or attend conferences of professional organizations because these groups make statements on political issues.<ref name="s275">{{cite web | last=Blake | first=Jessica | title=Academic associations face critique for political statements | website=Inside Higher Ed | date=27 August 2024 | url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2024/08/27/academic-associations-face-critique-political | access-date=5 September 2024}}</ref>