The Patriot Post® · Ben Carson's Educational Policy Is No Friend of Liberty

Big government is big no matter who’s in control. During a recent interview with political commentator Glenn Beck, touring author, er, presidential candidate Ben Carson laid out his policy proposals for education. First, he said he’d do away with federal standards, such as Common Core. But when it came to the bloated bureaucracy known as the Department of Education, Carson wasn’t content to simply shrink or ultimately shutter it. “I actually have something I would use the Department of Education to do,” he told Beck. “It would be to monitor our institutions of higher education for extreme political bias and deny federal funding on that basis.” We in our humble shop often criticize the Left’s politically correct thought police, but what Carson is proposing is similarly dangerous. For example, when he talks about “extreme political bias,” is he just going after liberal extremism, or extremism on both sides of the aisle? Say Carson becomes president and institutes this policy. What’s stopping a future progressive president from using the Department of Education as his own indoctrination shock troops? No, Carson’s policy, as appealing as it sounds, would set a dangerous precedent for a nation of free people. The federal government shouldn’t be in the business of restricting speech, however vile or distasteful we may find that speech.