The reformer: Can Ben Sasse and the Republicans fix higher education?

Ben Sasse, the junior United States senator from Nebraska, has written tens of thousands of words about education policy, but his philosophy can perhaps best be summed up in 10 words: “We need more folks to fall in love with learning.”

From his perch on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — where he’s developed a focus on American competitiveness with China — the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“The world is changing, and we need to promote life-long learning and institutions that can provide it,” Sasse writes in a May essay for The Atlantic that reverberated throughout Washington. “American higher education is the envy of the world, and it’s also failing our students on a massive scale.”