With Anti-Woke College Trustee Picks, DeSantis Chips Away At The Political Poison In Education

Florida Governor. Ron DeSantis announced New College, a small liberal arts institution located in Sarasota Florida, has appointed six new trustees. These new appointments include Christopher Rufo, a conservative education activist, Matthew Spalding, a Hillsdale College professor, and Charles Kesler, a renowned constitutional scholar. DeSantis had accused institutions of higher education of imposing harsh standards. “trendy” woke ideologies upon students and marked his administration’s latest attempt at a red-state rebuttal to the leftist orthodoxy that dominates American education.

It was fifth century Athens that Socrates established a shop, spoke freely about the things of the world, and followed truth wherever it would take him. It also happened in 1609 when University of Padua professor Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope at the moon and found that the heavenly orb wasn’t as pure and smooth as everyone said. It also happened in America, when the American Association of University Professors published its 1940 edition. “Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure,” Which hailed “the free search for truth and its free exposition.”

Conservatives today may be surprised to discover that this principle, independent inquiry, and freedom of speech, was also the source of the famous left-wing declaration called the Port Huron StatementThis book, authored primarily by Tom Hayden, was written to express regret that the managerial mindset and business interests of Tom Hayden had been distorted. “honest searching” “the liberating heritage of higher learning,” A campus that values conformity and is easy to navigate “less open to dissent.”

You may have laughed at the last sentence. The Port Huron Statement was first published in 1962. Who would argue that the campus has become more open-minded and free-wheeling over time? The academic left has been the most open-minded group, tolerant of all opinions, despite being opposed by Christian fundamentalists and corporate donors who would like their names to be on school buildings. It is a notable victory of the left that they have made clear threats to open inquiry, while simultaneously convincing centrists of every kind that these threats are not real.

In recent days, I’ve spoken with many journalists covering DeSantis’ appointment of some conservatives to the board of New College of Florida. These journalists, who are clearly liberals, support free speech and unfettered researcher. I was able to fully explain their views during our conversations. “Ivory Tower” conception.

They were open to new information and had a great conversation. I outlined the mechanisms of peer review and the obligation to withhold political opinions when it came to, say, evaluating candidates for hiring/promotion and manuscripts for publication, which I’ve done for two dozen scholarly presses and journals over the years. I mentioned how it would be great to have a Marxist colleague that understood the importance of students having a mentor. good general education Before politics took over, you could see what Marx had to say about it “commodity fetishism,” I was a strong advocate of arguing over lunch with conservatives like me.

The journalists