Posted on 01/07/2026 2:06:40 PM PST by karpov
Sir Roger Scruton wrote in How to Be a Conservative that “the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation slow, laborious and dull.”
Conservative higher-education reformers would be wise to remember this. While there is much excitement in ripping down ridiculous, wasteful, and harmful bureaucracies in universities, the real work of improving them takes attention to detail, expertise, and care.
In the past year, Missouri leaders have attempted to balance the exhilarating with the dull when it comes to reforming the state’s higher-education system. On the exhilarating front, the governor published a splashy executive order eliminating all DEI programs in public institutions. This built on previous work from the legislature that sought to kneecap DEI offices in the state’s universities. But it is the dull work that might actually have a longer tail in reshaping higher education in Missouri. Provisions related to credit transfer and career and technical education might be the key that unlocks important improvements.
In February, Governor Mike Kehoe published an executive order “directing all Missouri state agencies to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and ensure compliance with the constitutional principle of equal protection under the law.”
Some may forget that Missouri universities were on the leading edge of racial unrest after the Ferguson riots of 2014. In 2015, the Mizzou football team threatened to boycott its game against BYU unless the president of the university resigned, which he did. Professor Melissa Click made national news calling for “some muscle over here” to try and remove a student journalist from a demonstration. Many of the tactics, rhetorics, and demands that became more widespread in the summer of 2020 were germinating at Missouri universities years before.
The reputational hit that Mizzou took showed up in enrollment figures.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Simply don’t subsidize them with free loans. They need to underwrite their own college loan programs.
That dull work is up to the universities. Back to basics.
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