Paul W. Bennett

Expert Overview

Paul W. Bennett, EdD, is a leading Canadian policy researcher, education professor, and the author of ten books, including The State of the System: A Reality Check on Canada’s Schools (2020). A senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, he founded Schoolhouse Consulting and its research arm Schoolhouse Institute in Halifax in September 2009. Over the past fifteen years, Bennett has been an adjunct professor and Instructor teaching Graduate Education courses at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. He serves on the board of the Canadian Association for Foundations in Education (CAFE), a branch of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE).

Bennett has produced more than a dozen policy research studies for think-tanks, including the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (2010–21), Northern Policy Institute (2013–17), IRPP Policy Studies, and Cardus Foundation. Since 2022, Bennett has been producing social policy research reports for MLI, including the widely read report, Weapons of Mass Distraction: Curbing Social Media Addiction and Reclaiming the Smartphone Generation (June 2024).

He founded researchED Canada in November 2017, and provides regular expert commentary for broadcast, print, and online publications.

A former high school history teacher, Bennett, wrote Canadian history textbooks, served as an elected school trustee, and headed two of Canada’s leading independent schools. Bennett’s blog, Educhatter, was named the top Education Blog in Canada in 2018 and 2022. He is currently chair of researchED Canada and education columnist for Brunswick News.