On Monday, the Pew Research Center released a poll which claims 58 percent of Republicans hold a negative view of higher learning institutions, while 78 percent of Democrats view colleges and universities positively.
Naturally, partisans on the left-side of the aisle are taking the opportunity to slam Republicans with confirmation bias. As the Daily Beast headline reads, “Stupid in America: Pew: Most Republicans View Higher Education as Bad for America.”
Unfortunately for the Daily Beast’s journalism standards, their headline is wrong.
Pew did not ask Republicans and Democrats whether higher education was bad for America, but rather, the question examined people’s views on a myriad of national institutions. The poll asked Americans their opinions on churches, banks, labor unions, national media, and of course, colleges and universities.
A slightly more accurate headline by Newsweek states, “Majority of Republicans Say Colleges Are Bad for America (Yes, Really).” But even the Newsweek headline ends with a subtle slap of disbelief against Republicans.
There is a difference between a college institution, which can often be a bureaucratic nightmare, and general academia. Left-wing pundits don’t want to differentiate between the two for partisan reasons.
In the same Pew Poll, 85 percent of Republicans stated they don’t like the current state of the national media. If the Daily Beast and Newsweek wanted to write an equally bias headline, they could write: “85 percent of Republicans Think Free Speech is Bad for America.” They don’t.
Republicans dislike colleges and universities for one simple reason: colleges are no longer institutions of higher learning.
While Democrats responded favorably to colleges in the Pew poll, Democrats actually hate higher education. This is why so many work to subvert academics with social justice.
Colleges were once bastions of free speech, where the liberal arts of Shakespeare, Plato, and Twain, were taught with vigor and spirit. Today, colleges ban classic works for “offensive” content, and some universities offer LGBT certification upon graduation.
Even STEM majors, and the hard sciences, are not immune to social justice. Scientists Nettie Stevens and Edmund Wilson would be flabbergasted to find out that today’s colleges consider their discovery of the X and Y genes sexist, as schools like Sarah Lawrence College set guidelines to push out gender-specific language.
From free speech zones, to Anti-Fa shutting down rallies and speakers, undisturbed by campus authorities, colleges and universities across the country are becoming enemies of free speech.
Most colleges in America are not teaching young adults valuable life skills like technical skills, nor are they teaching their students how to think with a liberal arts education. Colleges are coddling impressionable young minds with “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces,” and they are doing a disservice to every student enrolled. This is what Republicans responding to the Pew poll were getting at.
Today, only a handful of institutions can truly attest they are encouraging their students to fulfill their dreams, pursue happiness, and champion higher education.
As the University of Chicago tells every freshman student admitted, “Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”
If every college in America set values and standards for higher education like the University of Chicago does for its students, an overwhelming majority of Republicans would support college institutions. But most colleges seem more preoccupied with embracing social justice, even if it means sacrificing academic excellence.
Republicans don’t hate higher education, they hate colleges that are cheating students by promising well-rounded educations, but only delivering a piece of paper, a skewed mindset, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
