A survey from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA shows a 20 percent jump in the number of professors who identify as liberal over the past twenty-five years. In 2014, for example, 60 percent of professors identified themselves as either "liberal" or "far left." In 1990, the number was 42 percent.
Matthew Woessner, an associate professor of political science and public policy at Penn State Harrisburg told The Daily Signal that this shift goes beyond that of the general public, including students. According to a recent Gallup poll, 38 percent of Americans identify as conservative, while only 24 percent call themselves liberal.
In 2014, college professors were 30 percent more likely to identify as liberal then college freshmen. In 1990 the difference was only 16 percent. According to Woessner:
"This raises critical questions of whether students are getting a balanced education – not because there's some conspiracy to block out conservative ideas, but merely because the people who are teaching are either not familiar with or don't embrace conservative ideas."
His concerns are borne out by 2009 data from the Higher Education Research Institute which shows that the number of students who called themselves "liberal" or "far left" went up over 9 percentage points from freshman to senior year.
You can read The Daily Signal's story here.
H/T: Salvo
