When Higher Education Goes Off the Rails

It’s one thing to debate the merits of higher education, but when a professor at the University of Kansas suggests that men who don’t vote for Kamala Harris should be “lined up and shot,” we’ve moved into a whole new level of crazy. Whereas the debate as to whether this is “free speech” could be considered unclear, what’s crystal clear is that madness is infesting Universities—especially at KU, my alma mater.

Once upon a time, higher education was about, well, education: learning, critical thinking, and discovery. Today? As Dennis Prager puts it, sending your kid to college is like playing “Russian roulette with [your] values.” Students in most public higher education institutions are being subjected not just to political left rhetoric but to calls for revenge and violence for political disagreements. Even a discussion on sleep cycles for men and women can be considered benign. Here is the unhinged rant by Professor Philip Lowcock of the University of Kansas on the matter,  

“[If you think] guys are smarter than girls, you’ve got some serious problems. 

That’s what frustrates me. There are going to be some males in our society who will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president. 

We can line all those guys up and shoot ’em. They clearly don’t understand the way the world works.

Did I say that? Scratch that from the recording. I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that.”

Sadly, for my alma mater, this is not an isolated incident. I live in Lawrence, went to KU for grad school – and have seen firsthand how campus life became a breeding ground for woke-ness. Roughly one year ago, a KU teaching assistant released a statement praising Palestine after they committed the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Then, there was that time when KU’s faculty council voted to oust Chick-fil-A from the student cafeteria. Or when KU scrapped ACT requirements for admission applications in the name of “lower barriers.”

What we’re witnessing is the slippery slope of this new Marxism. Universities and professors not only push a view on life through power dynamics but dismiss objective truth and replace it with oppression, victimhood, cynicism, and despair. In the words of economist Ludvig von Mises, Marxism is rooted in “dreams of bliss and revenge.” Economist Thomas Sowell expounds on this, claiming their “cosmic justice” attempts are nothing more than retribution against the group they blame for their historical grievances and unhappy life circumstances. Therefore, it’s not surprising that as universities embrace wokeism and social justice, it’s only a matter of time before their professors start calling for violence against the innocent.

Across the country, universities have increasingly embraced wokeism. A recent survey at Harvard University revealed that 82% of its faculty identify as liberal or very liberal, with a mere 1% identifying as conservative. This stark ideological imbalance contrasts sharply with the American public, where political identities are more evenly distributed. The result? Universities need to be more in touch with the people they serve. Tack on the fact that they are charging you tens of thousands a year for the privilege to indoctrinate your child; not only are universities leagues out of touch, but they are putting families in financial ruin while they do it.

It’s time to stop treating public higher education as a sacred cow. Universities should return to their original mission of educating young people to lead productive and meaningful lives. If not, they will march themselves right into irrelevance and ridicule. Lawmakers can turn off the spigot of taxpayer funds to these institutions that promote political violence. Otherwise, these schools will continue their race to the bottom, with the University of Kansas leading the charge.

Michael Austin is a free-market economist and president of Knowledge & Decisions Economic Consulting. He has spent his professional life educating about and fighting for pro-family, pro-freedom public policy.

Michael served as chief economist to two Kansas governors. He also served as the director of fiscal policy at the Kansas Policy Institute. Michael currently serves as a Legislative Director with Americans for Prosperity – Kansas Chapter and teaches Microeconomics at a state University in Kansas. 

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.