Glenn Grothman Asks Linda McMahon How To Counter An 'Overwhelming Left Wing Bias In Universities'

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At a House Education & Workforce Committee hearing last week, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon about a "left-wing bias" in universities.

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00:00Ladies and gentlemen from Wisconsin, Mr. Grothman.

00:02Yeah, first of all, I'd like to comment on a statement made by our newest member here.

00:07In Wisconsin, I felt one of the things we did to improve education the most

00:12is stand up to the teachers' union and allow some of the worst teachers to be let go.

00:20And I think it's disappointing we have people who think the key to improving education

00:24is unionizing the schools, and unionizing the schools inevitably means

00:28you can't get rid of the worst teachers.

00:31So just a little bit of my personal experience in Wisconsin.

00:35Second thing, people here mention the GED.

00:38And at least in Wisconsin, we weren't allowed, even as a state legislator, to see the GED.

00:44But somebody released it to me anyway, I guess breaking the law.

00:47And I was shocked at how easy those tests were.

00:51It was almost comical.

00:53I'm going to ask you, will you do what you can to at least for some states,

00:57I don't know if it's a nationwide thing or a state-by-state thing,

01:00release some of these GED exams, even if they're four or five years old,

01:04so the public can see what they mean?

01:08Well, thank you for your question.

01:09I'm not sure that's under my jurisdiction, but I would like to look into it

01:13and get back to you on that.

01:14Okay, next thing, just covering Workforce Pell, just a second.

01:20I know it sounds good.

01:22At least in Wisconsin, when I talk to trucking firms, I toured a manufacturer last week

01:30who was paying for the tech school degrees for its employees,

01:36even before the people were employed there.

01:38Same thing with construction firms, paying for the education.

01:42So I kind of felt a little bit that this Workforce Pell is we're driving in

01:46and paying for stuff.

01:48The private sector is taken care of already, so I'll just ask you to look into that.

01:52Now, as far as bias and the anti-Semitism in universities,

01:57to me it's part and parcel of a larger problem.

02:01Anybody who's been involved in Republican politics for a while

02:04has met students who have to lie routinely on tests

02:09to feel they have to get a good score.

02:10And it's because you have this monolithic left wing

02:14that has got almost all in some disciplines of the teaching jobs.

02:23And to me this anti-Semitism is increasingly part of the left wing zagiste

02:29that's everywhere in the universities.

02:32Global warming, greatly exaggerated amount of bias in the universities,

02:38that sort of thing.

02:39What do you think, and I honestly know the answer to this,

02:42what do you think we can do about the overwhelming left wing bias

02:46in so many disciplines at the universities?

02:51Well, I think that's one of the things that I've been talking about

02:56is doing some vetting on how the courses are being taught

03:01and to make sure that we have, you know, equal and diverse viewpoints.

03:06I mean, when Harvard will, through its own Harvard-Crimson,

03:10say that only 3% of the faculty are conservative,

03:15I don't think we have diversity of viewpoints in that case.

03:18And even in hiring, we're looking at Harvard, well, you know, Harvard had the standard case.

03:28It was students versus Harvard.

03:31And it was Harvard's not hiring, you know, through merit.

03:34And it's decreasing those populations of students from, you know,

03:39it's against a lot of Asians in the community.

03:43So all of those things have to be taken into consideration.

03:47I agree with you that we have a shortage of people going into skills-based learning programs,

03:54be they tech schools, be they trade schools, what have you.

03:57I think part of the answer is to disseminate the statistics showing how much better, say,

04:04a plumber or an electrician or a welder does than people with a communication arts degree

04:11or a business marketing degree.

04:13And it's a very difficult thing to know what to do because, of course,

04:16under our Constitution, education is not really something that we think of as a federal thing.

04:20But I think you could disseminate that.

04:21Would you try to do what you could to, during your term, educate the public

04:28as to how much better financially people do with a skill

04:32as opposed to a general education degree?

04:36I certainly would like to make sure that everyone does understand that.

04:41Would you publicize it?

04:43I guess that's what I'm looking for.

04:44Would you publicize how much better up?

04:46I think those stats are available.

04:47All you have to do is have a plumber come to your house.

04:49Boy, I can tell you that I'm going, I might be in the wrong business sometimes.

04:53I hope you use your position.

04:55My final question is, one of my colleagues here talked about so-called difference by income level.

05:04And I always think that's not where they should be looking.

05:06I think they should be looking by family background.

05:09Would you collect data, unlike for income level, family background of students and see,

05:15by that I mean family structure, and see how that affects educational test scores?

05:22Would you do that for us?

05:23I'd really like to get back to you and understand a little bit more

05:26of what you would like us to look into, but I will get back to you on that.

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