In this Wall Street Journal article, Christopher Scalia, an English professor at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, urges GOP politicians such as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Governor Pat McCrory (R-NC), and Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) to stop “scorning the liberal arts.” Rubio et al. have suggested that college students would be better off pursuing degrees that lead to well-paying jobs, rather than, say, humanities degrees that may not reap immediate financial dividends. And other conservative leaders – such as former governor Rick Perry (TX) – have signed legislation that encourages students to avoid liberal arts programs and instead earn degrees related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

According to Scalia, such developments are part of an “unfortunate trend” and conservatives “should be among the strongest defenders of the liberal arts” for economic and philosophical reasons. He argues that recent unemployment and income data rebut the notion that math and science graduates automatically do better financially than liberal arts graduates.

Professor Scalia then quotes Thomas Jefferson, who said that, to defend against tyrannical governmental power, it is necessary to “illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibeth, that, possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purpose.”

Scalia writes, “The liberal arts, Jefferson recognized, have a practical value that has nothing to do with direct economic benefits: They are linked to the vitality of a commonwealth and the survival of a free people. It’s easy to see how such knowledge could help a politician, but Jefferson encouraged a general education for ‘the people at large’ to protect themselves from politicians.”