Higher Education

Does Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale have any original ideas anymore? We’re now more than halfway through the second season, and every episode seems to just parrot feminist talking points and overblown fears of the Christian patriarchy. This latest episode just takes it one step further by comparing one of the show's villains to the conservative speakers who face anti-free speech protests on campuses…

Just within the past week or so, some shocking professorial behavior has come to light. In the wake of Barbara Bush's death, California State University, Fresno professor Randa Jarrar took to Twitter to call the former first lady an "amazing racist." Jarrar added, "PSA: either you are against these pieces of s--- and their genocidal ways or you're part of the problem. that's actually how simple…

Drew Cloud was a prolific writer specializing in student loan issues, founder of the Student Loan Report, and “a source for news on the student loan industry, financial aid, and scholarships.” Media relied on him for sensational surveys about student debt issues and quoted him often. Except Cloud didn’t exist.

Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka The Nation's Report Card, was released. It's not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.

A one-sided Wednesday report at CBS News tried to convince readers that University of Tennessee-Chattanooga student Brenna Spencer's "I don't take normal graduation photos" tweet picturing her with a firearm generated significant "backlash." To create a false impression, the network cited critical tweets from two users with a combined eight Twitter followers, ignoring far more significant support…

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that illegal immigrants protected from deportation under former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are not eligible for in-state tuition rates at state universities and community colleges. Press coverage is glossing over the fact that the state's educational establishment unilaterally took obviously illegal…

In “The Free Speech Grifters --Why are some of the biggest public intellectuals so fixated with a small minority of liberal college students?” GQ writer Mari Uyehara downplayed the ongoing attacks on free speech by radical left-wing groups against conservative campus speakers (and um, the ACLU?). The real enemy: Those cynical conservatives who evidently enjoy being silenced on campus and aren’t…

The world of NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is unraveling fast. First, it feels justified in showing a conservative pundit brutally raped. Then, it argues the merits of euthanizing a baby. Now, it’s advocating the “convict first, ask questions later” system of trying college rape cases. Whatever path the show is going down, I don’t want to be a part of it.

During the past several days, the press mentioned Wheaton College in Illinois when a former student was arrested for multiple burglaries, and when there were new developments relating to a football team hazing incident. On the positive side, the college's partnership with a school for children with disabilities got coverage, as of course did Wheaton's most famous graduate, the just-passed Rev.…

On Friday, the College of William & Mary announced that former FBI Director James Comey, a 1982 graduate, will "will teach a three-credit course on ethical leadership" beginning this fall. Establishment press coverage of Comey's assignment, coinciding with being named "an executive professor in education," has mostly avoided the myriad reasons why having him teach such a course is a horrible…

Free speech, free expression, and the simple right to go about your business without being subjected to attempts at brainwashing or the equivalent of a political inquisition have been under attack for years at colleges and universities, and more recently in the workplace. Most Americans don't appreciate the seriousness of the threats because, as Tucker Carlson explained in his opening monologue…

New York Times Education reporter Erica Green picked a bizarre fight against a Trump nominee for being too concerned about anti-Semitic violence on campus -- unless one remembers how hostile the paper is to pro-Israel voices and how accommodating it is to radical pro-Islamic ones: “An Advocate for Israel, Named to a Civil Rights Post, Draws Criticism” was the headline in Friday’s Times. The text…

Alone Together is a new show on Freeform which chronicles depressing Millennial best friends Benji (Benji Afalo) and Esther (Esther Povitsky) living in Los Angeles. The second episode, "Road Trip," aired on January 17 and followed the pair going on a road trip with their friend Jeff (Edgar Blackmon) to celebrate Benji's birthday and we find out how they feel about Republicans in what might be the…

A frequent point I have made in past columns has been about the educational travesty happening on many college campuses. Some people have labeled my observations and concerns as trivial, unimportant and cherry-picking. While the spring semester awaits us, let's ask ourselves whether we'd like to see repeats of last year's antics.