In this column, Victor Davis Hanson sets forth the fact that our higher-education system has become a major element in our national peril. Students are exposed to a constant drumbeat of opinions and flat-out lies that support the “progressive” dream of omnipotent government. The ratio of such “teaching” about the alleged evils of the U.S. and teaching that supports the value of limited government, free enterprise, and the neutral rule of law is on the order of 100 to one. No, not all students emerge as social-justice warriors, but many do, and among the rest, few escape the leftward pull of the radicalized curriculum.
What is to be done?
Hanson has several good ideas.
Here’s one I particularly like: “If the SAT and ACT are increasingly dropped for admissions to universities, then an exit version of them should be required to ensure that all BA and BS degrees certify at least a minimum competence in math, science, and general knowledge.” But even for schools that haven’t eliminated those tests, let’s have an exit exam to show whether a student has learned anything of value or not. That would make our grievance studies majors nervous.
And another: “Get the government out of the $1.8 trillion student loan business — and perhaps campuses would understand the concept of moral hazard. Only then would they monitor carefully extraneous expenditures and begin graduating students in four years — with the skills that employers so desperately need and the knowledge that a democracy relies upon.”
The creation of federal college subsidies in the 1965 Higher Education Act was one of the worst blunders in American history. If we are going to save the country from control by statist authoritarians, ending higher-education subsidies is a necessary step.