| William J. Bennett | |
|---|---|
| 3rd United States Secretary of Education | |
| In office February 6, 1985 – September 20, 1988 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Terrel Bell |
| Succeeded by | Lauro Cavazos |
| 1st Director of the National Drug Control Policy | |
| In office 1989–1991 |
|
| Appointed by | George H. W. Bush |
| Succeeded by | Bob Martinez |
| 5th Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities | |
| In office 1981–1985 |
|
| Appointed by | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Joseph Duffey |
| Succeeded by | Lynne Cheney John Agresto (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 31, 1943 Brooklyn, New York |
| Political party | Democratic Republican (1986-present) |
| Spouse(s) | Elayne Bennett |
| Children | John Bennett Joseph Bennett |
| Alma mater | Williams College University of Texas-Austin Harvard Law School |
| Religion | Catholic |
William John "Bill" Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (or "Drug Czar") under George H. W. Bush. In 2000, he co-founded K12, a for-profit online education corporation which is publicly traded.
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Bennett was born in Brooklyn but later moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended Gonzaga College High School. He graduated from Williams College, where he was a member of The Kappa Alpha Society, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in Political Philosophy. He also has a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
From 1976 to 1981 he was the executive director of the National Humanities Center, a private research facility in North Carolina. In 1981 President Ronald Reagan appointed him to head the National Endowment for the Humanities, where he served until Reagan appointed him Secretary of Education in 1985. Reagan originally nominated Mel Bradford to the position, but due to Bradford's pro-Confederate views Bennett was appointed in his place. This event was later marked as the watershed in the divergence between paleoconservatives, who backed Bradford, and neoconservatives, led by Irving Kristol, who supported Bennett. It was in 1986 that Bennett switched from the Democratic to the Republican party. Bennett resigned from this post in 1988, and later that year was appointed to the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by President George H. W. Bush. He was confirmed by the Senate in a 97-2 vote.
Bennett is a member of the National Security Advisory Council of the Center for Security Policy (CSP). He was co-director of Empower America and was a Distinguished Fellow in Cultural Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Long active in United States Republican Party politics, he is now an author, speaker, and, since April 5, 2004, the host of the weekday radio program Morning in America on the Dallas, Texas-based Salem Communications. In addition to his radio show, he is the Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute. Further work at the Claremont Institute includes his role as Chairman of Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT). He is also a political analyst for CNN.
Bennett and his wife, Elayne, have two sons, John and Joseph. Elayne is the president and founder of Best Friends Foundation, a national program promoting sexual abstinence among adolescents. He is the brother of Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett.
Bennett tends to take a conservative position on affirmative action, school vouchers, curriculum reform, and religion in education. As Education Secretary, he asked colleges to better enforce drug laws, supported a classical education rooted in Western culture, and derided multicultural courses. He frequently criticized schools for low standards. In fact, in 1988, he called the Chicago public school system "the worst in the nation."[1]
Bennett has tangled with the educational establishment (which he dubbed "the blob" or bloated educational bureaucracy) over the following reform measures, which he espoused:
Bennett is a staunch supporter of the War on Drugs and has been criticized for his views on the issue. On Larry King Live, he said that a viewer's suggestion of beheading drug dealers would be "morally plausible." [3] He also "lamented that we still grant them [drug dealers] habeas corpus rights."[4]
Bennett is an opponent of same-sex marriage.
In 1995, he teamed up with C. Delores Tucker to create advertising to target Time Warner's lack of regulation of gangsta rap and its glorification of violence and denigration of women. Bennett is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998 PNAC Letter[5] sent to President Bill Clinton urging Clinton to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power.
Bennett's best-known written work may be The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories (1993), which he edited; he has also authored and edited eleven other books, including The Children’s Book of Virtues (which inspired an animated television series) and The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals (1998).
Other books:
Bennett writes for National Review Online, National Review and Commentary. He is also a former senior editor of National Review.
Bennett is currently the host of Morning in America, a nationally syndicated radio program produced and distributed by Salem Communications. The show airs live weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time; it is one of the only syndicated conservative talk shows in the morning drive time slot. However, its clearances are limited due to a preference for local shows in this slot, and the show gets most of its clearances on Salem-owned outlets. Morning in America is also carried on Sirius Satellite Radio, on Channel 144, also known as The Patriot Channel [6]
In 2008, Bennett became the host of a CNN weekly talk show, Beyond the Politics. It is unknown whether this will be a limited run or a permanent addition.
In 2003 it became publicly known that Bennett was a high-stakes gambler who reportedly had lost millions of dollars in Las Vegas.[7] Some felt it conflicted with his public image as a leading voice for conservative morals. Criticism elevated in the wake of Bennett's publication, The Book of Virtues, in which he argued for self-discipline— an attribute at odds with problem gambling. Bennett and Empower America, the organization he co-founded and headed at the time, opposed the extension of casino gambling in the states.[8]
Bennett never said he had a problem with gambling and has maintained that his habit did not put himself or his family in any financial jeopardy. After Bennett's gambling became public, he said that he did not believe that his habit set a good example, that he had "done too much gambling" over the years, and that his "gambling days are over". "We are financially solvent," his wife Elayne told the USA Today. "All our bills are paid." She added that his gambling days are over. "He's never going again," she said.[9]
Several months later, Bennett qualified his position, saying "So, in this case, the excessive gambling is over." He explained that "Since there will be people doing the micrometer on me, I just want to be clear: I do want to be able to bet the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl."[10]
On September 28, 2005, in a discussion on Bennett's Morning in America radio show, a caller to the show proposed the idea that the Social Security system might be solvent today if abortion hadn't been permitted following the Roe v. Wade decision. Bennett responded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but the crime rate would go down."[11] Subsequently, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as civil rights groups, condemned Bennett's statements and demanded an apology. President George W. Bush said Bennett's statements were "not appropriate."[12]
Bennett responded to the criticism saying, in part:
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Terrel Bell |
United States Secretary of Education Served under: Ronald Reagan 1985–1988 |
Succeeded by Lauro Cavazos |
| Preceded by Office created |
Director of National Drug Control Policy 1989–1991 |
Succeeded by Bob Martinez |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Joseph Duffey |
Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities 1981–1985 |
Succeeded by Lynne Cheney |
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