Free Republic

Suppose you’re a controversial left-wing speaker. Who do you think would be more likely to let you voice your opinions on campus: a slightly conservative man or a democratic socialist woman? Now suppose you’re a controversial right-wing speaker. Who do you think would be more likely to let you voice your opinions on campus: a slightly liberal man or a somewhat conservative woman? It may seem obvious that, regardless of gender, someone with a similar ideology would be more tolerant of your views. But recent data gathered by FIRE suggests that’s not always the case. Amazingly, it turns out that...

How many times does an undergraduate economics student hear the name “Hayek” in his or her courses? The answer, in most programs, is close to zero. This is surprising. Friedrich Hayek remains one of the most cited Nobel laureates in economics—second only to Kenneth Arrow in mentions and citations in Nobel lectures, according to research from King’s College London. His ideas on the knowledge problem and the economic calculation debate are fundamental to understanding the limits of central planning and the role of markets. And yet, in most classrooms, Hayek’s name never appears. Why? Because economics education today is not...

Of the many controversies currently raging in higher education, few arouse as much passion as the place of politics in universities. For years, the Right denounced the Left’s dominance over campus culture. After Donald Trump’s reelection, it was the Left’s turn to cry political interference. The North Carolina General Assembly has attempted to address this issue by mandating a policy of institutional neutrality in the University of North Carolina System, though even this policy is sometimes viewed with suspicion. Yet, amid this controversy, there has usually been agreement on one point: Overt campaigning on behalf of a candidate or party,...

A woman broke down in tears during a Thursday school board meeting in Royal Oak, Michigan, where multiple left-wing speakers demanded that a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter be shut down. Officials at Royal Oak High School approved the chapter on Oct. 21, according to Fox News, prompting protests from left-wing students and groups, including a walkout. During the meeting, the woman claimed that the conservative-leaning student group would promote “radicalization” of students. “I’m a lifelong Royal Oak resident, a supporter of the Royal Oak community, as well as an advocate for young people. I too came to speak about...

The largest changes in college enrollment by black students have nothing to do with Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), which banned affirmative action (“diversity”) in undergraduate admissions. SFFA practically only affects the narrow sliver of elite colleges. For most black students, the question remains the same as it is for all American students: Is it worth going to college at all? Many black students are saying no—because many American students are saying no. Kimberly Wilson writes in Essence (“Where Black Women Come First”) an article about the decision to enroll in college that applies just about word for...

PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA !! We are interested in hearing from any Christian individual who has the experience of living and working (or having lived and worked), for 1,000 days or longer, inside of a country governed by a totalitarian or authoritarian system or regime; that governing system/regime being either religious or atheistic. When we say, totalitarian or authoritarian, we give as examples: communist, National Socialist, authoritarian military junta, Islamic or Mohammedan, or the like. If otherwise, you may describe your own situation, and we may find that it applies. We hope to form a...

France and England in North America is a multivolume history of the European colonization of North America, written by Francis Parkman. The series highlights the military struggles between France and Great Britain. It was well regarded at the time of publication and continues to enjoy a reputation as a literary masterpiece.

The sabotage of K-12 education is easily implemented by rejecting methods that work, while simultaneously forcing phony substitutes into classrooms. QED: the experts embraced a far-left ideology that prefers control and leveling. Weirdly enough, our Education Establishment ends up promoting anti-education agenda. Here are the five most egregious examples of this totalitarian strategy in action. 1) Sight-Words Versus Phonics. All the main European languages are phonetic. You first learn the alphabet, then the sounds represented by the letters; and then the blends of those sounds. This approach has always worked. It's the method used in Hebrew, Arabic, Phoenician, Greek, and...

A young woman named Hannah Shvets, a Cornell student, was elected to the Ithaca Common Council last week. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Communist Party USA. She has also participated in anti-Israel protests, which is now standard for anyone on the left. The New York Post reports: Upstate NY city one-ups Zohran Mamdani by electing communist student, 20 The leaves aren’t the only reds upstate this fall. After socialist Zohran Mamdani won last week’s New York mayoral race, an upstate city has gone one better by electing a full-blown communist. Hannah Shvets,...

Artificial intelligence has democratized knowledge more than any invention in history. Anyone can now solve a problem in physics, medicine, or Greek literature instantly. Yet the safeguards that once verified a student’s mastery of a subject have been replaced by compliance rituals that only simulate it. [...] What once required thought, practice, and time now takes a single click. That isn’t evolution; it’s a breakthrough, disruptive technology doing what it is meant to do: collapsing the distance between skill and result. In higher education, this transformative technology has created a perfect storm where tools that make cheating effortless have collided...

For too long, merit has taken a back seat in American higher education. Under the banner of DEI, admissions policies at many institutions have prioritized demographic balancing over academic excellence. But the pendulum is swinging back. A growing number of selective universities—including Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale—have recently announced they will once again require standardized test scores for admission. These decisions reflect a broader reappraisal of merit-based criteria, driven not just by partisan pressure but by internal reviews of academic outcomes and fairness. The message is clear: Excellence matters, and the most promising students deserve a fair shot. Increasingly, qualified students...

From the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, this depressing statistic: 34% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have a favorable opinion of communism: To say you like communism, you have to be a moron. And you have to know absolutely nothing about history. And you must be getting your information from ill-intentioned, malicious sources. What sources might those be? The public schools. What other explanation is there for young people developing a fondness for communism? I think we have reached the point where it is a serious question whether, on balance, our public schools do more harm than...

Within academia, there seems to be a growing consensus that the peer-review system—once the backbone of academic scholarship—is broken. But is it irreparably so? Perhaps. At the very least, the breakdown of its current form is worth exploring. However, rather than abandoning the entire endeavor, we believe we have a novel solution. First, though, let us examine where the system went wrong. In the Middle Ages, most scientific research was self-published, as scholars shared their findings among themselves. But, as the profession grew, that became impractical, and the scientific journal was born as a way of disseminating information. A scholar...

Remember these guys? Believe it or not, these are the people who are going to "overthrow our government": D.C. (Nov. 5) — Leftist protesters marched in the communist-organized "Refuse Fascism" direct action in the capital. pic.twitter.com/8IXevTBgyt— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) November 6, 2025I promise I'm not making any of these with AI. MULTIPLE VIDEOS AT LINK!................... Look at all these people! Gotta leave this random speech here too. Pretty sure Trump is doing a better job of overthrowing the federal government than these commies!

For decades, the higher-education establishment was allowed to do pretty much whatever it pleased. That included promoting programs and policies to benefit what were termed “underserved groups.” An array of policies sought to enroll more students from such groups, add curricular offerings aimed at them, spend more money to help them succeed, and hire more minority faculty and administrators. Congress was happy to cooperate with this, and it approved of benefits for various “minority-serving institutions” under the Higher Education Act. In those days, Congress approved of almost everything “progressives” did relating to higher education, and it did not matter that...

@AndrewKolvet on X: Concerned parents just sent us this image of what’s believed to be teachers in @vailschools. in Tuscon, Arizona mocking Charlie’s murder with costumes that read “Problem Solved” and blood down the left side of their shirts. Teachers at Cienega High School in Arizona’s Vail School District have sparked national outrage after dressing up in Halloween costumes that appeared to mock the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk. Photos circulating online show several teachers wearing white shirts splattered with red stains over the left side—the same area where Kirk was fatally shot in September—along with the phrase “Problem...

The University of Houston canceled a course this month on social injustice and oppression that was required for students in the Graduate College of Social Work. “As part of upcoming changes to the curriculum and degree plan, this course will not be offered at this time,” university officials wrote in a message to students, according to Inside Higher Ed. “We understand that this adjustment may raise questions, and we want to assure you that it will not affect any student’s ability to successfully progress through the MSW program or meet graduation requirements on time,” they wrote. The school did not...

In one of America’s most popular novels, seven-year-old Scout has been reading “ever since she was born.” She and her father read the newspapers together every evening. Late in the summer, she realized she would be starting school in a week. “I never looked forward more to anything in my life. Hours of wintertime had found me in the treehouse, looking over at the schoolyard, spying on the children there. ... I longed to join them.” But everything changed by lunchtime! Scout’s older brother Jem asked how she was getting along on her first day of school. “I told him....

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced that the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative (FCDI) will rename its statewide championship scholarship the Charlie Kirk prize in honor of the late Turning Point USA founder’s “zealous advocacy for civic dialogue and freedom of speech,” with Florida recognized as “#1 for high school civics and debate.” "Today, we announced that April’s debate competition winner of the Charlie Kirk prize will receive a $50k scholarship, with runner-up ($25k), semi-finalists ($15k) and quarterfinalists ($10k). We expect more than 600 students in the competition and look forward to awarding the newly-named Kirk prize to the winner,” DeSantis...

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced a reorganization of its Federal Student Aid (FSA) ombudsman’s office into a broader “Office of Consumer Education and Ombudsman.” The aim is twofold: to provide clearer, more proactive information to prospective borrowers and their families before they sign promissory notes and to issue a new “common manual” for loan servicing and collections that standardizes practices across vendors. At first glance, the reform seems sensible. After all, with federal student-loan debt at $1.8 trillion and millions of borrowers delinquent or in default, something must change. Yet a closer look reveals that, while better information...