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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
[quote]In July, a Pew Research Center study found that 58 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents believe colleges and universities have a negative effect “on the way things are going in the country"[/quote]

The GOP is really frightening. They are beginning to lose faith in higher education. This is terrible! The economy is becoming higher tech and higher skilled. This will just further perpetuate a blue state/red state or city/rural divide.[/quote]

I think there's more to the story. Unfortunately Pew research article on this didn't ask why the respondents felt this way. Count me as one of the many republicans who has grown weary of colleges and universities in the US - and I say this as someone who has multiple undergrad degrees and an advanced degree. My beef is not with the concept of colleges and universities, but how US colleges and universities are CURRENTLY behaving. First is the hard lean towards progressive activism, creating thought bubbles that are antithetical to the idea of free exchange and learning. Second is the schools' focus not on core academic performance, but the construction of fancy facilities, resulting in escalating tuition that in turn saddle students with crushing debt. Thirdly, colleges and universities are not doing enough to guide students into productive fields like engineering, but are instead all to happy to indulge in the whims of immature children who study meaningless majors that have no hope for good employment upon graduation.

If you dig a little bit into the PEW research, Republicans and Democrats are largely aligned on most of the sub measures except one: Republicans indicate that colleges and universities should mostly be about getting educated and less so about personal growth. Meanwhile Democrats are split half and half on getting educated versus personal growth. The lack of any other correlation prompts me to hypothesize that Republicans are indeed largely weary of colleges and universities because they are not doing a good job of preparing kids in terms of personal growth. [/quote]
And yet, you will still send your kids to college, right?

So, do conservative leaning college do a better job at preparing kids for college, universities like BYU?

Throughout history, progressive activism has come from universities where students are encouraged to think for themselves.  It encouraged activism like Tianamen square and the revolt against military rule in South Korea in the 70s/80s. Those are just examples.  What you are saying is that universities shouldn't encourage people to reach for liberty or individual thought and instead just become a cog in the wheel.[/quote]

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