In the last decade or so, the idea of conservative families deciding against sending their children to college has gained a lot of popularity. Instead, we’re told that we should be encouraging our children to enter into the trades or to start their own businesses.
Those are great suggestions for some. Given enough time and experience, they can provide a lucrative and fulfilling career capable of raising a family. The problem comes when it becomes the rule for conservatives.
Why should we abandon universities? It’s true that many have become a cesspool of debauchery and hyper-progressive thought. William F. Buckley lauded that reality in his book God and Man at Yale. That was published 75 years ago. How many titans of conservatism have come through the ranks of Ivy League schools since that book was published? How much worse would our situation be if they had been told that attending elite institutions was a fruitless endeavor?
The notion that college will "turn your kid woke" presupposes the idea that all colleges are simply progressive manufacturing plants. The reality is that a vast number of religiously orthodox and conservative universities exist throughout the country.
The Protestants have schools like Hillsdale College and Liberty University, both of which have an impressive list of alumni, along with many others. We Catholics have an extraordinarily long list of top notch schools, which can be found in a helpful guide from the Cardinal Newman Society. New projects like the University of Austin exist to blend a classical Good Books education with that of a high-quality business/tech training. These are the schools that are producing many of the future leaders of the conservative movement.
It’s true that college isn’t meant for everyone, but a movement that gains and retains effectively-wielded political power is not built by tradesmen alone. Lawyers, academics, and other university products will be vital to securing the future of the country.
The Left understands that. That’s why they want to dominate academia. That’s why they work so hard to suppress conservative thought on campuses. They understand that the halls of power will be credentialed in top level institutions. They are not working tirelessly to implement DEI policies that shut white and Asian students out for no reason.
The Trump administration understands this as well. That's why they've fought viciously to end affirmative action. That's why one of the last acts of the first Trump administration was to introduce the 1776 Commission. They know that, by influencing education, perceptions on policy and patriotism can be reshaped.
Academia is only a lost cause if we allow it to be. Retreating from that battleground only hurts ourselves.
