Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has long decried “woke” ideology, backed “equality, diversity, and accessibility” in a 2013 paper at Harvard University, a new report reveals.
In his master’s thesis for the Kennedy School of Government, Hegseth proposed establishing a public high school focused on math and science in his home state of Minnesota, according to The Boston Globe. Hegseth reportedly argued that some students in Minnesota and nationwide were being left behind in STEM education, and that this new school could help address that crisis.
“Ensuring low-income and minority children have the same opportunities as more affluent majority students is an essential goal and worth pursuing with vigor and substantial investment,” Hegseth wrote, according to The Boston Globe. “Our country and state must strive for equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, class, geography, or gender.”
Hegseth also wrote that closing racial achievement gaps is a “laudable goal,” and advocated for cooperation with state lawmaker Melissa Hortman, a Democrat who had been vocal on education, The Boston Globe reports.
Hortman and her husband were assassinated in their home three months ago. Their murders, which authorities called “politically motivated,” received little attention from the current administration. President Donald Trump even refused to call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in the aftermath, claiming it would “waste time,” the Associated Press reports.
Hortman was one of a dozen people Hegseth interviewed for his thesis, The Boston Globe reports.
Hegseth said his proposed school would be merit-based and for the “best and brightest” students, but that it would still ensure “a balance of race, class, gender and geography,” The Globe reports.
He also wrote that efforts to recruit women and minority students to science programs were “great” goals, and noted that he would want to “complement—not compete with—existing efforts,” according to the outlet.
Hegseth’s thesis stands in stark contrast to his speech in front of hundreds of U.S. admirals and generals in Quantico, Virginia, last week. There, Hegseth railed against “woke garbage” and “politically correct” policies in the military. He even argued that claiming “our diversity is our strength” is an “insane fallacy.”
He also said that women in the military must now meet “highest male standard.”
“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” he said. “If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told The Independent that Hegseth’s views from 2013 are consistent with his current views.
“The assignment was to write a paper from a bipartisan perspective, which is why the recommendations section at the end reflects bipartisan solutions,” Parnell wrote. “His views from 2013 are consistent with his views now as Secretary of War: meritocracy should reign supreme over woke ideology and DEI.”
Meanwhile, Phil Hanser, who served as one of Hegseth’s faculty advisers at Harvard, told The Globe that students weren’t required to be moderate.
Students were only required to write a paper that addressed and made recommendations about a policy or management issue related to a group or organization they were affiliated with before arriving at Harvard, Hanser told the outlet.
“I am a little surprised by the turn,” Hanser told The Globe. “There was nothing that suggested to me, this is going to be the next anti-DEI person.”
