Posted on 05/16/2025 3:17:48 AM PDT by karpov
Last spring, I coauthored an AEI report examining the taxpayer-subsidized Truman Scholarship program, founded in 1975 to identify “aspiring leaders” during their college years and encourage “their commitments to careers in public service.” We found an overwhelming left-wing bias. Among the fellows selected between 2021 and 2023, just six of 182 winners expressed interest in even a single conservative issue. Meanwhile, 72 had explicit interest in “woke” areas like “LGBT+” advocacy, DEI, or immigration rights, while dozens more had biographies readily recognizable as left-leaning.
The Truman Foundation recently named its 2025 winners, and nothing has changed. The College Fix reported, when this year’s 54 fellowship winners were announced, that 43 “have worked for Democratic politicians, advocated for progressive causes, or identify as left-leaning,” while just three winners have similar ties on the right. The 2025 fellows include an “abortion doula,” an “abolition feminist,” and multiple students who use “they/them” or other nonstandard pronouns.
That’s not exactly a cross-section of America’s college students. After all, while college faculty may be overwhelmingly left-leaning, the same isn’t true of the broader student population.
In fact, Truman’s leadership has doubled down on its intransigence by scrubbing the bios of past winners from its website, ensuring that no one can replicate the AEI study. Indeed, past press releases of winners are now password-protected. One can view them only via a Truman scholar account. And the program didn’t issue biographies for this year’s winners, either, instead just listing name, major, and degree aspirations. An information lockdown is certainly one response to the problem. Rather than addressing ideological bias, it is easier to hide the evidence. But this isn’t a good solution for the nation, as opacity seems better suited to a felonious enterprise than a taxpayer-funded scholarship.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.