Ben Carson just suggested on Glenn Beck’s show that the answer to the free speech police on college campuses is to put Washington D.C. and the Department of Education in charge of monitoring college campuses:
I actually have something I would use the Department of Education to do. It would be to monitor our institutions of higher education for extreme political bias and deny federal funding if it exists.
Excuse me, he wants to “monitor” free speech? Instead of completely eliminating of the Dept. of Ed. altogether, Dr. Carson wants it to keep an eye on federally funded universities to make sure they are not too politically biased? Universities, especially public universities are known for their left-leaning tendencies. It’s almost impossible to find a conservative public university, and it sounds like Dr. Carson might be looking for just that. I’m certainly not pleased with the general trend of education in our country, especially in higher institutions, but taking money away from educational institutions because of the bias of their professors is going too far.
The tragedy of the contemporary public university is a simple one: bright and intelligent students walk in and relativistic, liberal drones walk out. But this is the responsibility of the university, not of the federal government. Regardless of this bias, our country was founded on the freedom of speech. The protection of the First Amendment is something that the GOP has been fighting for, especially during this campaign. I’m eager to see what comes from these comments, and especially what other candidates will say and how they will work to better our education system.
To see more of Ben Carson on “The Blaze,” click here.
Carolina Baker works for the American Principles Project.
