Quick fact: Six out of 10 college students will lose their religion after becoming indoctrinated by liberal professors.
At least that’s what Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he believes in a Feb. 26 interview on This Week.
Santorum quoted unattributed statistics to claim students lose faith in college, after President Barack Obama said he wants every American to receive at least one year of higher education.
The day before, Santorum told a group of activists for Americans for Prosperity in Troy, Mich., that Obama was a snob for his comment on education, saying not everyone is built for college.
“There are good decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to the test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor trying to indoctrinate them,” he said to the group. “Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image. I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his.”
What Santorum is excluding here is the possibility that the president was meaning all forms of high education. A four-year degree or higher may not be for everyone, but that does not mean technical school or community college would not be beneficial.
Combined with his speech on the effects of education on religion, Santorum seems anti-higher education.
It is ridiculous to think wanting others to obtain further education means wanting them to renounce religion. Experts have come forward since Santorum made his claim, saying there is no indication that religion is affected by education.
In fact, biopsychologist and Psychology Today blogger Nigel Barber said a higher standard of living is what causes a decline in religion.
Coming from Santorum, who holds three degrees, this stance on higher education is fascinating. Obama’s hope for increased education was not a stab at those who are uneducated, like Santorum is taking it to be, nor is it an indicator that Obama wants to make people like him.
There is nothing wrong with a technical career, and Obama’s statement does not claim that there is either. Education helps create better-rounded, knowledgeable people. Americans, as voters and citizens, should be well educated in order to make better-informed decision about the future of our country.
If anything, as a candidate looking to get the vote of the working class, Santorum should be promoting increased education opportunities for the middle class. He has criticized others as elitists before, and his message seems to be received well by the working class. But it is more elitist to believe a higher education isn’t for everyone.
The working class should want a candidate seeking to help them have the best lives they can. This means receiving an education for self-betterment, not just to have access to desk jobs and a retirement package. Santorum needs to re-evaluate his stance on higher education for everyone and think more critically about his words.
After all, if Obama is a snob for wanting Americans to receive a higher education, then we’re snobs too.
