Sydney Williams: “Is Sanity Replacing Wokeism?”
“On Thursday the University of North Carolina board of trustees vote 12-0 to create a new school committed to free expression in higher education.” Editorial, The Wall Street Journal January 26, 2023
As is always true, many problems confront our nation, but one is in the forefront of what divides us: culture. It is the culture wars that strike at the heart of what it means to be an American, a nation of people from every corner of the world, individuals with myriad beliefs but with one common objective: to live freely. But what happens when definitions of freedom are in conflict – when, for example, the wishes of teenagers, empowered by teachers, run counter to the desires of parents? When we disagree as to the founding principles of our nation, or when merit is subservient to racial diversity in college admissions?
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” is a saying attributed to Albert Einstein. It is applicable in the “Woke”[1] world we inhabit: Does it make sense to persist in pouring money into the gaping jaws of public education, in hopes that this time money will cure failing schools? Why do teachers, administrators, and the curriculum escape blame when students score poorly on international tests? Does it make sense to blame the weapon above the one who pulled the trigger in a mass shooting? And why are criminals so often released without bail, even after having committed armed robbery, and why is the mental health of the gunman not considered a cause for the crime. And why were interest rates kept artificially low, even as federal debt expanded exponentially?
These problems and more are of concern, yet there are signs that sanity may be returning. As The Wall Street Journal editorialized last week (and quoted in the rubric above), the University of North Carolina found it desirable to create a new school committed to free expression – a practice that was once considered the norm for universities. Was this an admission that “woke” policies had failed? Hamline University, a small liberal arts college in St. Paul, Minnesota, was in the news recently. Its president Fayneese Miller fired art history instructor Erika López Prater for the sin of having shown two slides of the Prophet Mohammed in her online art history class. One student, the president of the Muslim Student Association, complained that Ms. Prater had violated the rights of students to be protected from seeing or hearing something they dislike. However, the faculty has risen in support of her. Seventy-one of the ninety-two faculty members have called on President Miller to resign.
School choice is gaining momentum, as a Wall Street Journal editorial noted last week. Public charter schools, which typically hire non-unionized teachers, have brought needed competition to traditional public schools. At the end of 2021, forty-three states had charter schools, with demand exceeding supply. They are a political football, though, fought against by well-funded teachers’ unions. A poll released last August by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools found that “seventy-seven percent of parents want more charter school offerings in their area. This is consistent across political affiliations.” As well, eight states have education savings accounts – with a dozen or more now considering legislation – making private schools more accessible to more families, bringing needed competition to traditional public schools.
State tax relief and reform are being considered. Stateline, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts reported a year ago that sixteen states, led by both Republicans and Democrats, had cut taxes in 2021. Admittedly, in part that was due to a surfeit of funds associated with Covid relief. But more states are cutting taxes. A January 30th, 2023 article in The Wall Street Journal reported: “By year-end, nearly half of all states will have cut their income-tax rates within a three-year period,” with flat-tax reforms spreading. The Tax Foundation affirms that returning revenue to taxpayers spurs faster economic growth.
But I don’t want to appear Panglossian. We are not yet in the clear. As an editorial in the February 1st edition of The Wall Street Journal noted, regarding UNC’s new school, “…faculty grandees are outraged that the UNC trustees thought such a school necessary and didn’t even seek the faculty’s permission.” Teachers’ unions, which for years have fought charter schools, are among the largest donors to political campaigns. In 2022, according to Open Secrets, they donated just under $70 million, with 99% going to Democrats. And while interest rates have risen, and inflation has ebbed, rates on Fed Funds (4.5%) and the U.S. Ten-year (3.52%) remain below the current inflation rate (6.5%), benefitting borrowers and inhibiting savers.
And taxpayers have ceded power to government, reminding one of the letter Lord Acton (English historian and politician) wrote to Bishop Creighton (then chair of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge) in 1887, regarding the application of moral standards: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek warned: “We shall never prevent the abuse of power if we are not prepared to limit power in a way which occasionally may prevent its use for desirable purposes.” It is difficult to slow the growth of our leviathan-like federal government: bureaucrats rely on its persistent expansion and dependents count on its continued beneficence.
Looking out ten or twenty years, questions arise: What is in store for our children and grandchildren? Will government exert ever more control over what they do and how they think? Will its workforce continue to expand? Will more people become dependent on its largesse? Will people be free to follow their dreams? Will aspiration, effort, and ability lead to success, regardless of race or gender? Will the Fed continue to print money at a rate that exceeds economic productivity? Or will government revert to its more limited role as servant to the people? I don’t pretend to have answers, but I am heartened by what appears to be indications of people fighting back – parents of public school students arguing to be heard, university trustees assuming responsibility, state legislators who are cutting taxes, and a Federal Reserve that persists in raising rates, even as inflation appears to be ebbing – suggesting a possible return to common sense.
Fingers crossed!
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