Public versus Private
Part two in our higher education series.
Many private schools are as liberal as their public counterparts. However, if you are looking for a truly conservative college or university you will be looking among the private schools. As pointed out in part one of this series, modern colleges and universities are a minefield of liberal ideology. Safe spaces and speech codes help snowflake students avoid micro-aggressions from conservative speakers. In class, some progressive professors now teach that America broke from Britain to preserve slavery and white privilege. If a student speaks out against that twisted view of history they often violate school speech codes, commit multiple micro-aggressions, and often are expelled. Pro-life students are routinely shouted down or attacked. This is common for students at public institutions and many private ones. How can parents find a place of higher education that respects conservative and Christian values?
Public colleges and universities are operated by the state where they are located and are funded by taxes. Most students seeking a higher education attend a public college or university. Despite being supported by millions in state and federal tax dollars they are not free to attend but are usually cheaper than a comparable private institution. The University of Washington (UW) and Washington State University (WSU) are examples of public Universities in my home state of Washington.
The oldest private university in the country is Harvard. It began in 1636, as a college to teach ministers of the Christian faith. Even today, Harvard has a divinity school, but today it’s only a tiny part of the university’s enrollment. While private institutions make up the majority of post-secondary schools only about a third of students attend them. Private schools are usually smaller and often struggle to balance the budget. Harvard is an exception with a massive $35 billion endowment and a 209-acre campus serving 20,000 students. Other large, and financially sound, private schools include Yale, Notre Dame, Cornell, Brigham Young, Baylor, and Boston.
The Campus of Hillsdale College
Hillsdale is perhaps the most well-known conservative-leaning institution of higher learning. A liberal arts college founded by Free Will Baptists in 1844, today the school no longer maintains any denominational tie. However, while they are not strictly a Christian school the mission statement declares they are, “a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.”
Edmund Burke Fairfield led Hillsdale from 1848 to 1869. During that time he helped found the Republican Party as an anti-slavery party. The school’s stand against slavery led to Frederick Douglas twice speaking on campus. Many Hillsdale students fought in the Civil War. Hillsdale was the first American college to prohibit discrimination based on race, religion, or sex. In 1956 the football team refused to play at the Tangerine Bowl in Florida because the organizers would not allow Hillsdale’s black players on the field.
Hillsdale was ranked 46th in the 2022 U.S. News & World list of best liberal arts colleges. It was also ranked high by the Princeton Review and Forbes. While all of that is noteworthy, Hillsdale College is perhaps most known for the 1984 Supreme Court case of Grove City College v. Bell. In that case, the court required every college and university to fulfill all federal regulatory requirements if any students received federal aid. Hillsdale College withdrew from all federal assistance. Grove City College followed. Today, Hillsdale strives to provide financial assistance to students through its endowment. Grove City has taken similar action.
Part one of our higher education series is titled College Gone Woke. In part three of this series, we’ll take a longer look at Grove City College and other conservative institutions of higher learning.
Have you or a family member struggled to find a college that aligns with your beliefs? Share your experiences in the comment section below.
