The Polarization of Higher Education

Graphics by Madeline Barber

With spring comes the beginning of college decision season, where high school seniors take to social media to share their acceptances and rejections. On a particular video that I came across on the account @collegeadmissionstats, a comment from Instagram user @deboergunter caught my eye: “Ivy League schools are left-wing diploma mills.” The decision videos this college season have been accompanied by comment sections filled with similar users who express ire towards the elite universities of America. It reflects an overall shift in the viewpoint of conservatives towards a belief that these educational institutions are only there to indoctrinate students with “left-wing” ideas. More broadly, there is simply a loss of faith in the value or reward of a college education among those of a conservative viewpoint. A Gallup poll conducted in 2023 found that a mere 19 percent of Republicans claimed to have “a great deal” of confidence in higher education, which measures distinctly lower than the Democrats, of whom 59 percent have faith in college education. While there are many reasons why this divide may exist, such as the rising cost of a college education and the perceived declining benefits of holding a degree, it is creating an educational rift between the parties that has the capacity to derail the system of democracy upon which the United States relies. 

The pattern of non-college educated voters electing Republicans came to national attention during Trump’s elections in 2016 and 2020. Trump’s candidacy and presidency were accompanied by a complete restructuring of the Republican party in their main support base and demographic. While the previous GOP catered more towards wealthy businessmen and the elites of the United States, the new GOP is composed of primarily white working-class individuals who are resentful towards the liberal institutions that make up our country and who were drawn to Trump’s wealth, business background, demeanor, and overwhelming promises to “Make America Great Again.” These shifts in the demographics of the Republican party have exacerbated the educational divide between Democrats and Republicans. While Democrats used to be the party for the poor, marginalized, and blue-collar workers, they are increasingly identified with the wealthy and the educated. In the 2020 presidential elections, a Pew Research Center study of white voters found that 68 percent of Republican voters held no college degree in comparison to 53 percent of Democrats. By comparison, a study from Cornell’s Roper Center found that 51 percent of voters with a college degree in the 2012 presidential election voted for Mitt Romney while 47 percent voted for Obama. While this is not a huge disparity between the candidates, it marks a large transition between 2012 and the present in terms of college education and party affiliation. 

Exacerbating the divide between college-educated Democrats and non-college educated Republicans is the fact that Republicans are less inclined to attend college at all. While this trend has multiple causes, one of the most recently publicized is the perceived liberal swing of universities. As indicated by the aforementioned Instagram comment, there is a growing idea among Republicans that higher education is associated with liberal indoctrination and educational elitism. It is most probably correlated with the drop in the number of self-identified conservatives with college diplomas, and will continue to affect the rate at which Republicans opt to attend a 4-year college. In a Pew Research poll from 2019, 79 percent of Republicans cited professors’ personal political views being brought into the classroom as a major issue in higher education. Republicans across the United States are concerned that their children, and their political views, no longer have a place in the university classroom. These fears of liberal indoctrination and the spread of education around critical race theory have trickled into state policy. A recent DEI-related bill passed in Alabama bans higher education institutions from teaching about “divisive concepts” and strips federal funding from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the state. Alabama follows Florida in its process of removing these topics from the classroom altogether, setting a new narrative that will continue to shape the educational policy of the United States. 

The DEI bill comes after a divisive battle between House Republicans and the presidents of multiple Ivy League universities in November that led to the ousting of Harvard President Claudine Gay. The campaign against Gay began following a hearing that discussed the mismanaging of violent protests on college campuses and the alleged rise in anti-semitism as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Her comments on the serious matter of antisemitism on college campuses were deemed unsatisfactory by the general public, with an especially large response from Republicans. She issued an apology and recanted her statement, but the damage was done. Following the hearing and the backlash caused by her comments, Republicans began digging into her past to find any information that could tarnish her position as President. She was accused of plagiarism in her dissertation as well as a couple of scholarly articles from the 2000s. The allegations were first raised in conservative circles before hitting the mainstream media, where thousands of people began calling for her resignation. She obliged in early January, ending the shortest term of any Harvard president yet. While there is no doubt that Gay’s comments in the hearing as well as charges of plagiarism were worthy of admonition and removal, the media coverage surrounding her transgressions is comparable to a witch hunt. Republicans exploited a completely unrelated controversy pertaining to the conflict in Gaza to further their own political narrative, and succeeded. Gay’s ousting is just another example of Republicans targeting these elite universities and their leaders as a result of the perceived liberal lean present on their campuses. 

With the educational divide projected to only expand in the future, this gap has the power to reshape American politics in the long term. Broadly, a less college-educated GOP would have sweeping economic implications. If Democrats increasingly earn 4-year degrees, they will work in higher-paying jobs and presumably send their children to college, which creates a generational path related to both wealth and education. Despite the declining faith in the educational system, the value of a degree is not decreasing, which means that the new affiliation of Democrats as a college-educated party would lead to their becoming more well-off than the average non-college educated Republican. With the correlation between college education and socio-economic class, the ideological gap will only continue to widen between the parties. Republicans will continue to view Democrats as elitist and Democrats will view Republicans as uneducated. Neither of these stereotypes are useful perceptions for the future of the United States. If we want to find a way to work together to solve the policy problems plaguing America, Republicans and Democrats need to search for their ideological common ground and put aside their negative perceptions of one another. This compromise, however, is unlikely to occur if the parties continue on their current educational trajectories. 

Everyone has a role in amending the educational divide. Democrats need to stop countering Republican arguments by leaning on elitism to bolster their points, and Republicans need to stop discounting the value of a college education under the concern that universities are sites of liberal indoctrination. The government could also step in to help make college more affordable for the average American. While this has long been a talking point for the Democratic party, it would help our overall political system to make higher education more accessible and less associated with elitism and exclusion. Alongside this movement, we must reduce the stigma surrounding both obtaining a college degree and not obtaining one. To be college educated is not to be elitist, just as being college educated does not grant you the authority to be elitist towards those who are not.

Republicans also must change their expectations for the university system. The hatred and misinformation espoused by some members of the far-right should never have a place in the college classroom. Those views do not belong in the realm of higher education. What some Republicans think should be included in the college curriculum is actually contributing to the educational divide, as the views that they are pushing to be represented are often unfounded, based on conspiracy, or deeply harmful. As institutions of truth-seeking and research-based learning, accredited universities cannot in good faith remove education on critical race theory or ban discussion of gender. Not only would that be untruthful, but it would be unfair to students who attend college to learn. 

The onus for the educational divide lies partially with the universities themselves. Although Republicans must first fix their conceptions about colleges and the liberalism that they think stems from the campuses, the universities must do their best to show Republicans that they have a place in higher education. A 2022 Pew Research Poll found that 76 percent of Republicans believe that colleges have a negative effect on the country. If this is to change, and if the belief of the GOP in a college education is to strengthen, universities need to ensure that conservative students feel that they have a voice and a say on their college campuses. Rather than suppressing thinking that might run counter to their own, administrators and teachers need to encourage and learn from it. In the long term, it will promote students’ ability to work across the political aisle and have empathy for those whom they might not see eye-to-eye with politically. Students are increasingly selecting colleges based on the perceived political affiliation of the university rather than the quality of the education that they will receive, which helps no one. It is robbing students at all universities of the chance to understand where their conservative or liberal classmates are coming from in a setting that is designed to promote understanding. If we want to create a government of politicians who understand how to hold space for those of differing political ideologies, we must start by exposing them to these counterviews while in university so they may learn to compromise, empathize, and connect with those who do not think as they do. 

Partisanship in America is growing stronger every day. According to a Pew Research Poll, Republicans and Democrats are increasingly identifying with their own parties and seeing less common ground with the other party. Years ago, politicians used to be able to empathize with one another and find the compromises necessary to keep policy decisions moving. Now, however, our Congress is increasingly divided on the partisan line as Democrats and Republicans are being pulled deeper into their own party. Something has to give. The 118th Congress was one of the least effective in the history of the United States, which is at least partially attributed to the inability of politicians to work with members of the opposite party to solve policy issues. If the United States is to remain a global superpower and continue to set an example for countries around the world, it is imperative that we learn to work together. This cannot be done if the educational gap in America continues to widen. With it, partisan tensions will only grow as socio-economic class divides and ideological conflicts become more contentious. Republicans must see the value in a college education, just as Democrats and universities need to foster environments where students may learn from their differences to help create an empathetic, knowledgeable America. Without this, the United States will be irreparably disconnected, and we will lose what little semblance of harmony we have left.