College life was once idealized as a place where students not only expanded their intellectual knowledge and pursued an education that would hopefully lead to a good job, but also a place where people learned to think, challenge their ideas, and expand their minds.
Those who oppose democracy are the enemies of independent critical thinking. Would authoritarians want compliance, not challenges?
To empower critical thinkers to challenge their government, they need the right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Since returning to power, Trump has been attacking the First Amendment on college campuses.
The scope and scope of Trump’s attacks only became clear when Senator Bernie Sanders was released a new report on Wednesday.
Here are three examples of what Senator Sanders discovered:
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A Trump-appointed Maryland court judge ruled that the Trump administration “has initiated a sea change in the way the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom behavior, leaving millions of educators with reasonable fear that their lawful and even helpful rulings could lead to them or their schools being punished.”
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A California court judge ruled that “the government and its executive agencies are engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left-wing,’ and ‘socialist’ positions from our nation’s premier universities.”
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A Massachusetts district court judge noted that “basic constitutional rights” provide an “essential protection against authoritarianism.” The judge, quoting George Washington, warned that “if freedom of speech is taken away, we may be led ‘stupidly and silently,’ like sheep to the slaughter.”
The Sanders report also shows that the Trump administration is trying to control higher education.
The story continues below.
