Conservative state lawmakers clash with public colleges, again.
Jon Krause for The Chronicle
Welcome to the rodeo. It's the classic duel between state lawmakers and public colleges. You may have seen the show before.
This time, conservative lawmakers in some states are clashing with institutions over how to teach social-justice issues and privilege. In the backdrop of this face-off, Republicans and Democrats remain divided on how they perceive higher education. Student protests aren't drawing the same attention that they did four years ago, maybe because the coronavirus pandemic has sent most campuses online. Instead, lawmakers are clashing over how colleges teach and remember history. And public colleges, regulated and funded in part by state legislatures, are torn between wrangling or pacifying the big bull (state lawmakers, if you're following the metaphor), given the pandemic and the recession.