My former colleague Arthur C. Brooks from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University tells us in today’s Wall Street Journal (sub $ req’d) that the political philosophy of college professors does not have a long run impact on college students’ political attitudes. This is for two reasons: the effects of one’s parents viewpoints and the effects of education on the student’s future income prospects.
What the statistics really show is that higher education by itself doesn't affect political views very much. Rather, in addition to the strong influence of parents, it is higher incomes -- which typically reward a college education in America -- that push people to the right politically.
Erin O’Connor links to a slightly different take on the value of a college education. Evidently while students do not take on the political biases of the professoriat — they don’t seem to get anything else either. She presents a summary of a study from the ISI on what students know about American History, Economics, and Civics and find that students at no-name colleges do better than those at expensive private schools. So … we can’t brainwash them and we can’t (or don’t) teach them. Good thing I am at a lesser know school and thus I am chock full of pride at the way us no-namers do.
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