William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative politician and political commentator who served as Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan.

He graduated from Williams College in 1965, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society, and received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in political philosophy in 1970.

In May 1979, Bennett became the director of the National Humanities Center, an independent institute in North Carolina, after the death of its founder Charles Frankel.

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 based on an assessment of the teaching and learning of the humanities at the baccalaureate level, conducted by a blue-ribbon study group of 31 nationally prominent authorities on higher education convened by NEH.

In March 1989, he returned to the federal government, becoming the first Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, appointed by President George H. W. Bush.

Bennett has been moderating The Wise Guys, a Sunday night show on Fox News, since January 2018.

Carried on Fox Nation as well, participants include Tyrus, Byron York, Ari Fleischer, Victor Davis Hanson, and others.

[13] Bennett tends to take a conservative position on affirmative action, school vouchers, curriculum reform, and religion in education.

"[14] He coined the term "the blob" to describe the state education bureaucracy,[15] a derogation which was later taken up in Britain by Michael Gove.

"[21] In 2003, it became publicly known that Bennett - who had spent years preaching about family values and personal responsibility - was a high-stakes gambler who lost millions of dollars in Las Vegas.

Also, Bennett and Empower America, the organization he co-founded and headed at the time, opposed an extension of casino gambling in the United States.

Other books: In 1967, as a graduate student in Austin, Texas, Bennett went on a single blind date with Janis Joplin.

Elayne is the president and founder of Best Friends Foundation, a national program promoting sexual abstinence among adolescents.