Republicans are the Anti-Education Party (and Proud of It)

It’s not just anti-racist curriculum the right opposes — it’s education itself

Image: Olya Humeniuk, Shutterstock, standard license, purchased by author

The modern Republican Party hates education.

A bold statement, I know, but it’s becoming more evident all the time.

Oh sure, they oppose Critical Race Theory and all forms of anti-racist curriculum, comprehensive sex education, and the Common Core standards proposed during the Obama Administration.

But I’m not talking about any of that.

Conservatives’ objections aren’t simply about specific types of instruction — they’re about the very process of schooling itself.

They oppose it and regularly make their disdain for education and the educated evident.

I first noticed it nearly 20 years ago, when then-president George W. Bush joked to students at Yale about having been a C student there. As W explained it, grades obviously didn’t matter; after all, you could be thoroughly unremarkable from an academic standpoint, as he had been, and still go on to run the country.

As bizarre as the moment was — it was odd to see an American president dismiss the importance of academic achievement — at least W’s embrace of intellectual mediocrity came from a…