The Last Outpost of Common Sense

Much has been made of the advanced education of the latest would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, whom the suspect described in a manifesto as a “pedophile,” “rapist,” and “traitor.” He graduated from the California Institute of Technology, one of the most selective schools in the country.

As to Caltech, Daniel McCarthy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute writes: “In the most recent City Journal college rankings, Caltech took the top spot for ‘value added to career,’ but languished at a dismal 95th place for ‘student ideological diversity.’

“The rankings noted the school’s ‘disproportionately large Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bureaucracy’ — with ‘roughly ten DEI staff members per 1,000 students’ — and its ‘overwhelmingly liberal’ student body, ’16 liberal students for every conservative.’”

Education, by itself, is not the problem. The problem is something else: ideological certainty reinforced in environments where alternative views are basically not allowed.