Is America’s justice system racist, rotten to the core, and in desperate need of reform? Or does stricter sentencing and increased policing help to keep vulnerable communities safe? One might think that college students would be forced to wrangle with challenging and competing ideas like these, but instead, universities are teaching one side of some of the most complex issues confronting our nation today, opting for anti-American indoctrination instead of education.
That’s the disturbing conclusion of a recent study examining millions of college syllabi. As the authors of the study write, “The truth is that far too many are teaching in ways that look a lot like they’re trying to indoctrinate students.” The results reveal the urgent need to restore real education to the center of universities’ missions.
The study by three professors, one from Scripps College and two from Claremont McKenna College, used a large database of syllabi to investigate the teaching of highly controversial issues in university classrooms. One of these issues was the role of race in the American criminal justice system.
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The study found that books arguing that American criminal justice is systemically racist — most notably Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow — are assigned far more often than books that criticize this conclusion.
Despite professors having several options for well-regarded books that dispute Alexander’s account of systemic racism, a shockingly small number of syllabi assign these books alongside Alexander. Her most prominent critic appears in less than 4% of syllabi that assign The New Jim Crow.
A book that appeared much more frequently on syllabi alongside Alexander was Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, a work that somehow offers an even stronger denunciation of America than The New Jim Crow. Coates writes that white supremacy is inherent and immutable in the American character, doubting that Americans will ever be able to excise racism from our society.
In other words, professors are failing to expose their students to multiple perspectives on highly controversial issues like race and criminal justice. By frequently assigning Alexander and Coates together, professors are reinforcing a single, disputed narrative: America was founded on racism, and our institutions continue to oppress certain groups.
You don’t need a doctorate to recognize that this one-sided approach fails to educate students for citizenship in a constitutional republic. There are certainly some topics, such as the periodic table of elements, that don’t require professors to teach multiple perspectives. But we fail students when we only expose them to a single, questionable perspective on highly controversial issues like criminal justice reform.
As citizens, students will be required to exercise their judgment in matters of public concern, weighing competing values and considering the costs and benefits of policies. It does students no good to send the message that there is only one valid perspective on these matters.
The widespread anti-American indoctrination revealed in this study reinforces the need for reform in higher education. Beyond the issue of criminal justice, students too often complete their college education without receiving any exposure to the foundational principles of our constitutional republic: freedom of speech, federalism, and the separation of powers. When these principles happen to be discussed in their college courses, they are often taught from a cynical point of view that emphasizes their shortcomings or that claims they derive from a desire to oppress.
To address this imbalance, the Goldwater Institute, where I work, is advancing the Freedom from Indoctrination Act, a state-level reform that requires public universities to provide students with a rigorous education in American civics. Under this policy, all students would take at least one course that closely examines the Constitution and discusses major constitutional debates and developments, along with foundational principles like limited government and equal protection.
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Such a course would challenge students to consider multiple perspectives on the document that continues to serve as the framework for our republic after nearly 240 years. With the 250th anniversary of American independence on the horizon, there are few more crucial tasks than to renew citizens’ understanding of our civic heritage.
For too many students, college looks more like indoctrination than education. But reforms like the Freedom from Indoctrination Act will help to restore universities to their core missions: the pursuit of truth and the education of citizens.
Timothy K. Minella is a Senior Fellow at the Goldwater Institute. He advances policies and develops programming that promote constitutional principles in education and public life.
