Former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the two GOP presidential frontrunners, have both promised a crackdown on colleges should they occupy the White House — a stark reflection of the right's growing skepticism of higher education.
Some Republican complaints about colleges are related to broader concern about "wokeness" and free speech. But others hint at deeper questions about the value of college, and how to ensure a degree comes with an appropriate economic return.
They see colleges as "liberal wokeness indoctrination centers" because their kids go to college and return more liberal. In a way, they're right, but it's not because colleges are actively indoctrinating students.
When you grow up in a town, you're likely to be surrounded by people like you. They all look like you and think like you. People who look and think different are "strange others" and stereotypes about these people abound.
Then, you go to college. Suddenly, you're surrounded by people who look different and think differently. That stereotype you have about Group A? Well, you've now met 5 people who are in Group A and none of them fit the stereotype. Your biases get shattered and you start to see people as actual people instead of "strange others."
Then you go back home. Nobody back home has met all the people you met. They still use the old stereotypes that you've discarded. To them, you've changed. They're right, but it's because your experiences have shaped how you see the world not because someone strapped you to a chair and forced "wokeness" into you.
Pretty much. I'd even go a step further and say the classic right-winger finds pretty much all types of education as an enemy now for potentially informing their kids that the BS they've been thought at home may not be accurate or based in fact. All of these right-wing groups trying to get books banned, teachers fired, and school curriculum changed pretty much spells it out.
I had the benefit of a better environment growing up, but when I was at Uni, I cannot say how many people told me this story, particularly about gay folks.
Yeah, I had a buddy who basically could not believe that black people weren't all savages out to rape and murder. Dude was raised in the backwoods of Georgia and probably never actually met a black person face to face in his whole life.
Not just Higher Education. Republicans are at war with gradeschool education as well. They know full well that ignorant people are more easily manipulated.
The shortsightedness is mind blowing. What happens in a generation when the US can’t produce enough scientists and engineers? We have to bring in smart people from other countries. And they won’t like that either. It’s astonishing.
Only the war on state and community colleges. Not ivy league rich universities like Harvard, Yale and Stanford where the majority of Republican donors matriculated.
Quite a number of people would be much better focusing on the trades. Many trades pay quite well and have a shortage of manpower. Colleges are too expensive for what you get.
It's pretty simple - the left gives a ton of money to colleges, why wouldn't they try to push left talking points and get more money?
If republicans would give more money to colleges, we all know that the colleges would push more right wing talking points.
Maybe Republicans could try becoming as successful as Democrats. Or having any policies or direction whatsoever. Or maybe they could try helping people instead of stripping individuals of their rights whilst also bending over and spreading their corp tax and reg cuts.
Are you saying like the DNC actually gives money to colleges? Or maybe people you just don't like make private donations, which has nothing to do with what's taught