The Center for Education and Public Service
America’s first school of educational innovation
OUR MISSION
The sclerosis in K-12 education is a national crisis. Our primary and secondary school systems are failing families and society––and have been for decades. To make a change, we have to get to root causes.
Increasingly, schools are focused on teaching students “relevant” topics, ideologies, and strategies that drain learning of its meaning and wonder. Rather than fostering curiosity and intellectual humility, schools rob students of their natural desire to learn about the world around them.
They narrow their focus by equipping students for living in the “now” instead of exposing them to the wisdom of the past. At its roots, many of these long-standing challenges are driven by the schools of education in colleges and universities across the country. The U.S. has more than 1,200 post-secondary schools, colleges, and departments of education. However, nearly all, if not all, of these schools are focused on preparing future educators and administrators for the status quo–further calcifying the current, failing system.
With its commitment to fostering free and open inquiry and developing future leaders and entrepreneurs, the University of Austin (UATX) is seizing the opportunity to create the only school of education in the U.S. focused on educational choice and innovation. The Center for Education and Public Service (CEPS) will be quickly recognized as the leader in developing educators, entrepreneurs, and experts who can drive entrepreneurship and excellence throughout primary and secondary education.CEPS will focus on three core areas of study: pedagogy, education policy, and education entrepreneurship.
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Areas of Study
Pedagogy
Teachers are leaders. The Greek word paidagogos means “child-leader.” As such, teachers should first understand the moral weight of shaping the next generation, and by extension, our civilization itself. CEPS is distinctive among schools of education in that it takes intellectual and moral formation seriously. Since the early 20th century, schools of education have been neither academically rigorous nor meaningfully vocational.
CEPS students will first engage in the key civilization-shaping conversations through the UATX’s core undergraduate curriculum––Intellectual Foundations.
And they will gain significant vocational experiences in the form of student teaching at a variety of partner institutions, in contexts ranging from virtual learning, classical education, Montessori, project-based, and beyond. The CEPS curriculum will allow students to reflect deeply on the philosophy underlying each pedagogical approach as well as the way each approach achieves excellence on its own terms. Oriented by their Intellectual Foundations , students will complete a 4-year Polaris Project, building on the wisdom of the past to create something new that meets a pressing need in the K-12 space.
Education Policy
In the same way that teaching has been mired in an early 20th century vision of training people to be workers instead of leaders, educational institutions have been optimized for credentialing. The high school diploma was relatively rare until progressive education reformers made high school compulsory on the theory that the root of inequality was the credential, and not the unique talents and interests of each individual. Rampant credential inflation has followed, empowering institutions to gatekeep opportunities and create zero-sum conflicts.
CEPS will prepare students to understand how we got here and the emerging solutions to the one-size-fits-all model of schooling. Utilizing quantitative methods and public policy from leading researchers and practitioners, CEPS students will conduct meaningful research that contributes to policies that expand choice and improve policy implementation. Students will also have the opportunity to intern at leading policy organizations to learn how to carry out policy reforms in the legislative and administrative sectors.
Education Entrepreneurship
An ecosystem that supports robust choice is the first step in renewing our civilization, but it is just that--a first step. CEPS will equip a new generation of visionary leaders to create and lead excellent new schools and other learning environments to give families not just more choices, but truly better choices.
Students will have the opportunity to be mentored by leading educational entrepreneurs and leaders in Austin and beyond. They will be able to carry out their Polaris Projects with the advice and wisdom of bold innovators and fearless leaders. Projects could include developing new educational technologies, starting a microschool, writing better instructional materials, or creating methods for self-teaching. Intellectual Foundations will provide context for what it means for free people to be educated, and students will apply that inspiration in countless ways that will shape the civilization of tomorrow.
WHO WE ARE
Incubator for the Center for Education and Public Service Education innovation in service of excellence is Erin’s passion. Starting from her early years as a homeschooled student, she has always believed in the power of learning to transform lives.
She brings decades of experience in K-12 teaching, educational entrepreneurship, philanthropy, school leadership, and policy research and advocacy together to offer creative strategies for today’s rapidly changing learning ecosystem. She holds a B.A. in Classical Studies from Hillsdale College and an M.A. in Classics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Matthew develops educational programs fostering vibrant communities dedicated to excellence, liberty, civic friendship, and service to the common good.
An ardent advocate of the renewal of classical liberal education, he was inaugural director of the first graduate K–12 classical teacher formation program in the U.S. He has founded, developed, supervised, and fundraised for other programs serving education reform, including undergraduate and graduate degrees, K–12 professional and curriculum development services, a center, and a lab school, among other initiatives. He works with teachers and schools across the U.S. and Europe, teaching courses in literature, philosophy, history, and civics, among other areas.
support our work
To make this vision a reality, we will incubate the curriculum, faculty, programming, and partnerships for CEPS, culminating with the full-scale launch of the Center.
UATX has already secured generous seed gifts totaling $1.5 million and are looking for an additional $6.5 million to launch and scale this new Center over the balance of this decade.
During the Incubation Phase (2024 - 2026), we will:
During the Scaling Phase (2026 - 2030), we will:
Investment opportunities include:
Please note that the above link leads to the general UATX donation page. If you would like to make a gift towards the Mill Institute, please be sure to let us know in the notes section of your donation.