In Plato’s Gorgias, Socrates compares the person who battles for genuine political reform to a doctor. This doctor, in Socrates’ analogy, is called up on child-abuse charges. His accuser is a pastry chef. Moreover, the jury assembled to decide the doctor’s fate consists entirely of small children. The pastry chef’s case for the prosecution consists of...
If our students are not free to learn, they stand little chance of learning how to be free. Both American democracy and American higher education will wither if free speech and debate are squelched.
President Trump’s executive order regarding free speech on college campuses is a solid first step toward restoring colleges and universities to their original mission — guarding free inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. The executive order — the signing of which I was honored to attend — will tie federal funds to real, measurable...
In his book The Way to Wealth (perhaps America’s very first book of financial advice), Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Franklin might amend that today, in light of the skyrocketing cost of a university education, the crushing burden of student debt, and the mismatch between graduates and available jobs. Indeed, later...
In January, Texas A&M University became the Lone Star State’s sole university to receive the highest possible rating for its protection of the First Amendment on campus. At the same time, it appears that the University of Texas System is considering taking its own principled stand for freedom through adopting the University of Chicago’s exemplary...
In 2011, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry called on the Lone Star State’s public four-year universities to craft affordable bachelor’s degrees, what the Governor labeled at the time, “$10,000 degrees.” Texas universities have risen to the challenge. In late 2013, the first Texas Affordable Baccalaureate Degree was launched by Texas A&M-Commerce and South Texas College. The...
When the 116th Congress is seated in January, political control will be divided, with Democrats holding a majority in the House and Republicans in the Senate. What does this mean for higher education? We asked a few NAS members to weigh in. Other articles in the series are, Focus on Reining in the American Bar Association, Time to...
American government is divided into three branches. Can you name them? If so, you’re in the minority. National polling finds that only 26 percent of Americans can name all three branches of the government. This is down from 38 percent in 2011. Worse, 33 percent of Americans surveyed were unable to name even one branch of government....
Two weeks ago, a demonstration in support of Supreme Court nominee (now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh at the University of Texas at Austin was met with not only opposition but also some pushing and shoving. UT is far from the only school to witness such confrontations. Even the First Amendment, it would seem, has become a...
It has been ten years since the Federal Higher Education Act was last reauthorized. Little-noticed at the time, the 2008 reauthorization added a new provision—“American History for Freedom” (AHF)—which sought to counteract the politically correct agenda that has become all the rage at too many colleges and universities. AHF would award government funds to academic...
When I moved from Illinois to Texas, years ago, my children were still at the K-12 level. Helping my seventh-grader with her homework, I was struck by my new state’s commitment to teaching the history of Texas. Earlier this month, that commitment appeared to be wavering. But today, thanks to a mobilized citizenry, Texas students...
For roughly the past fifty years, higher education reformers have been warning about the decline in civic education in this country. National polling consistently shows that Americans, even college graduates, are growing increasingly civically illiterate. A recent survey found that only 36% of respondents can identify the three branches of American government. A mere 27% know that...