christiefan915 (07-22-2017), Cypress (07-21-2017), evince (07-17-2017)
Remember, a dumbass, uneducated populace is easier to control?!!
It doesn’t seem that long ago when most people’s version of the American Dream included sending their kids to college to ensure they had a secure future. Now it seems like a certain sect of the population is not so wild about the idea of college.
According to a new Pew poll, the majority of Republicans consider higher education to be bad for the country.
The stat is startling: 58 percent of Republicans and conservatives believe that colleges and universities have a “negative effect” on the United States. As a point of comparison, only 19 percent of Democrats and liberals feel the same way.
Conservatives haven’t always felt this hostile toward college – it’s a very recent phenomenon. In 2015, most Republicans said college has a “positive effect” on the U.S., with just 37 percent thinking poorly of higher learning. For that number to jump by over 20 percentage points in the span of two years is as amazing as it is disturbing.
How, in such a short timeframe, did we get to a point where the very institutions that keep our nation smart and competitive are reviled by one of the two major political parties?
Presumably, conservative Americans are taking their cues from GOP leaders and rightwing media that broadly label universities to be too liberal. By most measurements, academia does skew liberal. That said, it is an ongoing disagreement whether that is the result of a leftist conspiracy or just that intelligent people who research subjects extensively are more likely to reach a liberal perspective.
On top of that, conservative media has devoted a lot of airtime to portraying colleges as overly PC purveyors of “safe space.” As the Washington Post points out, internet searches for the term “safe spaces” were “basically nonexistent” back in 2015 before skyrocketing in the past two years.
Because of this coverage, a growing number of Republicans view colleges not as places of learning, but as facilities that breed “snowflakes,” whatever that means.
To be completely candid, there are a few ways that college does have a negative impact on Americans, not the least of which is the crippling loan debt students accrue. With college being so expensive these days, attending often isn’t about who performed the best in high school, but who comes from a rich enough family to afford the tuition. Oh, and then there’s the whole issue of for-profit colleges that rip off students and provide them no marketable skills.
However, if those are the kinds of reasons Republican voters have a bad impression of the service college provides, then they’re definitely supporting the wrong party. GOP lawmakers vote in such a way to increase the amount of debt students take on, not to mention cut state funding to local universities and community colleges, which makes tuition less affordable.
As for for-profit colleges, President Trump ran a fraudulent for-profit university and now his Education Department is rolling back rules Obama implemented to keep these institutions accountable to students.
The good news is that, disregarding political affiliations, just 36 percent of Americans has a negative opinion of college, placing the brunt of the animosity toward higher education on Republicans. Respect for college remains high overall, even if one party has soured on its contributions to the United States’s dominance.
Looking ahead, though, there is a real danger in the possibility of an entire half of the country’s political spectrum abandoning college because of this shifting view. How will America continue to lead in a world full of complicated issues if the very institutions that teach the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate these complexities are reviled?
By Kevin Mathews
christiefan915 (07-22-2017), Cypress (07-21-2017), evince (07-17-2017)
Anti-intellectualism has always been a theme on the right going back to the 19th Cemtury
Hate news
Hate polls
Hate science
Hate education
Hate foreigners
Hate brown people
Hate advancement
Hate equality
What the hell do these Republicans stand for?
Answer: Hate
We can probably substitute fear for this also.
Bill (07-20-2017)
political correctness run wild combined w/ liberal intolerance = a really crappy college experience of opening minds
Truth Detector (07-22-2017)
"By most measurements, academia does skew liberal."
Obama won by getting the votes of some of the dumbest people in America, so may want to talk about something else there goober
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C̶N̶N̶ SNN.... Shithole News Network
Trump Is Coming back to a White House Near you
Truth Detector (07-22-2017)
signalmankenneth (07-17-2017)
why
you people calim all college is bad for people
when peole get the facts they are more likely to embrace a liberal outlook
the facts have a liberal bias
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