Free Republic

America has traditionally been known as a haven for free speech. Yes, you can’t scream “fire” in a crowded theater and cause a panic, but you can always stand up for what you believe in. Students, for better or worse, stood up against the government to protest the war in Vietnam. African-Americans marched for Civil Rights. Conservatives advocate for reduced taxes and less gun control. But the issue of free speech on college campuses never crossed their minds. They were free to say what they thought. Our system has been strengthened by that free speech because it brings debates into...

The U.S. government stands to lose more than $400 billion from the federal student loan program, an internal analysis shows, approaching the size of losses incurred by banks during the subprime-mortgage crisis. The Education Department, with the help of two private consultants, looked at $1.37 trillion in student loans held by the government at the start of the year. Their conclusion: Borrowers will pay back $935 billion in principal and interest. That would leave taxpayers on the hook for $435 billion, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The analysis was based on government accounting standards and didn’t...

Calls are mounting among Democrats and progressives for a prospective Biden administration to make “canceling” student debt a top priority.The loudest demands have come from progressive legislators such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Meanwhile, prominent senators such as Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are imploring Biden to “cancel” $50,000 in student debt via executive order. Student loan forgiveness is good, actually — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 16, 2020Student loan debt is holding back a whole generation from buying homes, starting small businesses, and saving for retirement – all things we rely on to grow our economy. Executive...

As with pretty much all problems, more government is not the solution. The Big Government solution of forgiving student loans would just create more problems. Forgiving student loans is unfair; it rewards bad behavior and punishes good behavior. Forgiving student loans is impractical; it would be too expensive and there are too many questions that would have to be answered. And, most of all, forgiving student loans is just a bad idea. There are better solutions. The left will always clamor for more government. Especially in cases like this one where the problems are a lack of responsibility or leftist...

With the presumption that Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021, demands are already being made. The calls for him to forgive student loan debt by executive order are getting louder. This is supposedly some gift to the millennial generation—clearly, the most put-upon generation in all of American history.Schumer saying Biden can cancel first $50,000 in student debt via executive order. And will do so in first 100 days. This will change so many lives. https://t.co/nkWZykLJVE— Tom Winter (@WinterForMT) November 7, 2020Of course, that is a stretch. The millennials are victims of the ruling class’s strategy of managed...

South Carolina is the first Power Five program to make a coaching change in 2020. The school fired Will Muschamp on Sunday night after the Gamecocks lost 59-42 at Ole Miss on Saturday to fall to 2-5 on the season. The loss included Ole Miss QB Matt Corral throwing for a school-record 513 yards and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin celebrating an Ole Miss TD before Corral had even thrown the ball.

Student loan debt continues to surge despite falling college enrollment. In Q3, student loan balances rose by $23 billion from the second quarter, according to the latest Federal Reserve data. Forty-five million Americans now owe $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Total outstanding student loan balances have surged by $54 billion year-on-year. Enrollment in colleges and universities dropped by over 231,000 students to a total of 17.97 million between 2018 and 2019. The drop in enrollment between those two years continued a trend we’ve seen since university enrollment peaked in 2011. That year, 20.14 million students were enrolled in colleges...

Parents frequently share with me their fears surrounding college and their kids. Parents ask, “Is it possible for a young man or woman who is a Christian to survive college, faith intact?” My answer is, “Yes!” Still, I’m not sure it is the right question. Every month a report comes across my desk with stories of students, some of whom came to college with a faith and many of whom did not. These stories usually have plenty of ups and downs, and they often track with someone who has been through a crisis. What they have in common is their...

Who is No. 4? That could end up being the most pressing question for the College Football Playoff committee. If we assume that Alabama, Ohio State and the ACC champion all make the playoff, who will be the fourth team that joins them? The competition for the last spot is more open than it has been in years as five-time defending Big 12 champion Oklahoma is already sitting on two losses. While OU isn’t currently in first place in the Big 12, the Sooners can win out and take a sixth consecutive conference crown. With Oklahoma out of the mix...

Macalester College President Suzanne Rivera is offering to reimburse the bail costs of any student arrested during a protest over the 2020 presidential election. The Minnesota college president wants “to affirm” that students “have the support of Macalester in various ways.”She “cares deeply” about the students, both for their well-being and protecting their right to participate in civil disobedience. She tweeted out her support and included a phone number for students to call for help in paying bail or fines. Any currently enrolled student who participates in civil disobedience and needs help with bail or a fine they cannot...

Racial consideration for college admissions hearkens back to Grutter v. Bollinger, the landmark decision by the Supreme Court in 2003. It held that affirmative action programs can pass muster as long as they are “narrowly tailored” in order to achieve the “compelling interest” of promoting diversity on college campuses. Colleges across the country have since repeatedly cited the ruling as the basis for their use of “holistic” admissions. But the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division isn’t buying that claim from Yale, saying they let skin color play an inordinate role in admissions. It charges that Yale, Harvard, and others are...

Those who have ever doubted the value of a good education will be surprised to learn that 65% of today's college students believe that rioting and looting are justified. A poll conducted by Mclaughlin & Associates surveyed a nationally representative sample of 800 college students and found that nearly two-thirds of those responding felt that riots of the sort that have sprung up after black men have been shot by police are warranted "because racism." The irony and injustice of such beliefs is evidenced by the fact that those most severely harmed by rioting mobs are often black small business...

In this election season it’s almost impossible to find pro-Trump bumper stickers or signs anywhere in my town. The reason is not lack of support but fear of vandalism, or worse: People nationwide have been physically assaulted and even threatened with loss of their livelihoods for no other reason than that they plan to vote as one half of the country does, and political goals are now commonly pursued by violent means. With this our civilization seems to be regressing to a more primitive stage of its development—a time when disputes were settled by force instead of rules, and before...

People that work at universities and newspapers should be the most intellectually free people in the world.” Few would vocally disagree with these words recently said by former New York Times writer Bari Weiss. And yet, despite living in the freest country in the world, it’s become increasingly risky for students, academics, and journalists even to slightly stray from an ever-evolving and insidious ideology that has enveloped American society. The ideology falls under the banner of many names: social justice, “wokeness,” intersectionality, racial justice, etc. Whatever label one assigns to the new ideology, its underlying strategy is clear: Advance the...

They are begging for him to stay in Columbus. They are pleading for him to stick around in State College. They are worried in East Lansing about a contract that’s set to expire in 14 months. Heck, even Indiana is planning on upsizing at their expense. Amid its sixth season, the Jim Harbaugh experience at Michigan has officially flipped. It began with carnival barker attention and overzealous amounts of Big Blue optimism. It teased within inches of national prominence on the infamous J.T. Barrett fourth-down play at Ohio State in 2016. But after No. 13 Michigan’s 27-24 home loss to...

We now know most of the bowl season schedule. ESPN released the dates and times for 35 bowl games on Friday. The list includes a game on Christmas Day and a bowl season that begins as conference championship games are being played. The first bowl of the 2020 postseason will be on Dec. 19. The Frisco Bowl is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET while the ACC, Big Ten and SEC are playing their championship games. As you know, those title games are two weeks later than normal because of the coronavirus pandemic.

On a Thursday morning conference call, Big Ten presidents discussed an exemption request from Nebraska to allow the Cornhuskers to replace Saturday’s canceled football game against Wisconsin with a non-league opponent, the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. It got zero traction, league sources told Yahoo Sports. There was no need for even a show of hands, let alone an actual vote. No one was in favor of granting it. The league’s previously agreed-upon rules — conference games only — was reaffirmed. Also reaffirmed was the belief around the Big Ten that Nebraska, even after nine years of membership, remains a difficult philosophical...

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, a number of colleges have cut back their interactions with local police departments and are redesigning their law enforcement programs. The University of Minnesota (UM) was one of the first to accede to faculty and student demands to cut ties with local police. The university scaled back its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) to provide officers at events and limited its reliance on MPD’s specialized services. The university’s Department of Public Safety was ordered to limit university police officers’ interactions with the city department. UM is one of more than 90...

The Department of Education has completed an investigation into American universities’ compliance with federal law relating to reporting of foreign gifts and contracts. As you might expect, our universities believe that laws are for the little guys: American Universities failed to report $6.5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts, an investigation by the Department of Education found.Federal law requires schools to disclose substantial foreign gifts and contracts to the Department of Education (DOE) twice a year. Many have for years failed to do so, while others severely underreported the income. The deluge of the financial disclosures poured in as...

Just one week into the Big Ten college football season, the conference is now feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, Wisconsin announced that it would be pausing all football-related activities for seven days due to an "elevated number of COVID-19 cases within the Badgers' program," the program said in a statement. Wisconsin's game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday, October 31, will not be played.