The Department of Education released a list last week to help students make smart college choices. The White House calls this list comprehensive, making it sound like it includes all two- and four-year degree-granting institutions in the nation.
“Americans will now have access to reliable data on every institution of higher education,” President Barack Obama said when he announced the Scorecard’s release on Sept. 12.
But that’s not true.
The Department of Education knowingly excluded a number of schools that by many rankings would be the best choice to sharpen some of America’s brightest young minds. In addition to Hillsdale, Christendom College, Grove City College, and Patrick Henry College were all absent from the College Scorecard.
Yet all this omission warranted was a footnote.
After noticing Hillsdale’s absence, the Collegian inquired with the Department of Education about its reasoning for leaving it off the list.
At first, a spokesperson inaccurately stated that Hillsdale is a certificate-granting institution, so it did not fit the Scorecard’s requirements to be included. Though never retracting this explanation, the spokesperson later clarified that the real reason derives from Hillsdale’s refusal to accept state or federal funds—it is not a Title IV institution, and neither are the other three schools left off the Scorecard.
As shown in the Collegian’s Sept. 24 article “Department of Education Scorecard still doesn’t include independent schools,” Hillsdale’s absence hinges on its refusal to collect and report data about students’ races.
Hillsdale College is one of a growing number of institutions that have rejected the Federal line—educationally, culturally, and politically. Some of the smartest choices for students have been left off an ostensibly reliable list. Standing athwart the accepted dogma has cost us, and those like us, the favor of the administration.
But it is not for the sake of favor or recognition that we pursue education.
The permanent things, those things most worth learning, cannot be pursued well unless pursued freely. Accepting government funding compromises education.
It is moments like this when we find this to be most evident.
