Restoring Excellence, Merit, and Free Thought in American Schools

America’s schools and universities were once the envy of the world. As the Carnegie Corporation noted, “For most of the 20th century, the U.S. had the best higher education system in the world.” Students traveled from every continent to study here, producing generations of innovators, scholars, and leaders.

Today, those same institutions have tragically deteriorated into centers of anti-American indoctrination, ideological conformity, and politicized curricula. We intend to reverse this decline.

The Queens Village Republican Club is launching the Academic Freedom Committee to restore freedom of thought, remove political activism from the classroom, and bring back excellence, merit, critical thinking, and intellectual honesty—core American values that built the greatest education system in history. We dedicate this mission to the children of America who are our future.

How We Got Here: From Street Radicals to “Tenured Radicals”

The rise of the radical Left in American politics—seen today in the Democratic Party’s takeover by Bernie Sanders, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and socialist elected officials like Zohran Mamdani—did not appear overnight. It began more than 60 years ago.

During the upheaval of the 1960s, revolutionary leftists believed they could topple America through violent insurrection—bombings, riots, campus seizures, and street warfare. Radical groups demanded the destruction of America’s institutions, stormed the 1968 Democratic National Convention, burned down buildings, and instigated chaos in cities and college campuses.

Their violent revolution failed. So they changed strategy. Unable to overthrow America from the streets, they decided to infiltrate it from within. Leaders of radical groups got haircuts, suited up and moved quietly into academia, education, journalism, and cultural institutions. They became professors, administrators, curriculum designers, museum curators, and union leaders. Over decades, they reshaped the worldview taught to generations of American students.

This was the true “long march through the institutions.” The radicals who once waged war on society became the ones teaching its children, training its journalists, molding its lawyers and judges, and influencing policy from the inside. The result is visible today in the radicalization of American politics, media, and education.

In 1963, FBI agent Cleon Skousen warned Congress of these communist goals: “Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism … Soften the curriculum… Get control of teachers’ associations… Put the party line in textbooks.” And as Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” The Left understood this long before conservatives did.

Bill Ayers: From Domestic Terrorist to Distinguished Professor

A leading example of this transformation is Bill Ayers, former leader of the Weather Underground—a domestic terrorist group responsible for bombing the Pentagon, Capitol, and other government buildings. Ayers once declared: “Kill all the rich people… Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents.” Although he escaped prosecution on technicalities and never taught in a K-12 classroom, he became a distinguished education professor at the University of Illinois. His radical “Teaching for Social Justice” philosophy dominates colleges of education nationwide. It trains future teachers to view America as inherently oppressive, capitalism as evil, and political activism as the central mission of schooling. Ayers openly promotes instilling a “social commitment to the values of Marx” in teachers-in-training. This ideology now permeates American public education from kindergarten to the university.

We Don’t Have 60 Years to Undo This

The Left took six decades to capture American education. Restoring it must not take another six. One immediate solution is the federal Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which forbids viewpoint discrimination, protects religious liberty, and insists that colleges maintain a true marketplace of ideas and does not permit a “heckler’s veto” of violence, intimidation, or disruption. This applies to K-12 public schools on the local level as well. There’s no diversity of thought today in America’s public schools and colleges, with the teaching staff 95% liberal or progressive.

Despite its commonsense protections, several universities immediately rejected the Compact, and the media falsely claims it forces conservative doctrine onto campuses and chills free speech. It does no such thing. Americans must challenge these lies wherever they appear.

The Tipping Point: The 2023–24 Campus Antisemitism Hearings

The intellectual and moral decay on our campuses was exposed nationally during Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s interrogation of the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT in December 2023. Their refusal to condemn calls for the “genocide of Jews” as harassment under their own conduct codes revealed a stunning moral bankruptcy. Two of those university presidents ultimately resigned. Their downfall was a turning point—but accountability must go much further, because the decay is pervasive throughout our school system.

A Proven Solution: The Academic Bill of Rights

We have tools to reclaim academic freedom. Twenty years ago, the David Horowitz Freedom Center launched the Academic Bill of Rights, which protects students and faculty from ideological discrimination and ensures intellectual diversity in K-12 and higher education.

The Academic Bill of Rights affirms that:

• Students should be graded on the basis of their course work, not political conformity.
• Faculty hiring and promotions must be free of political or religious discrimination.
• Students deserve exposure to multiple serious scholarly viewpoints, not just one ideological narrative.
• A grievance process must exist to hold violators accountable.

This framework was introduced in two dozen state legislatures—including New York—and adopted in several states, most notably Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania resolution created a Committee on Academic Freedom to investigate violations, hold hearings, and pressure universities to adopt stronger protections. Its impact was immediate. Students and faculty felt empowered to speak freely, and state universities, for the first time, formally adopted policies protecting intellectual diversity.

We can do the same today.

The Road Ahead: What We Must Do Now

To Make Education Great Again, we must be bold, united, and strategic:

1. Reintroduce the Academic Bill of Rights in New York State: Our club and fellow patriots should lobby local legislators to revive this bill and ensure academic freedom protections extend to every college and university in the state, and local public schools.

2. Support the Compact for Academic Excellence: This national initiative must gain traction, despite predictable resistance from radicalized institutions.

3. Encourage young conservatives and centrists to enter education: If the 1960s radicals could infiltrate the teacher pipelines, so can we—but with the mission of restoring merit, truth, and patriotism. Get involved in local school boards and PTAs. The schools belong to the public.  

4. Create accountability mechanisms for administrators and faculty: Taxpayer-funded institutions must uphold basic standards of fairness, neutrality, and free expression—or face consequences.

5. Expose and challenge media disinformation: When universities or journalists misrepresent reform efforts, Americans must respond swiftly and relentlessly.

Conclusion: Restoring American Greatness Begins in the Classroom

We can reclaim our schools. We can rebuild excellence. And we can ensure that future generations grow up in an environment that values truth, merit, open inquiry, and love of country—not ideological indoctrination.

The Academic Freedom Committee will be at the forefront of this mission. We dedicate this committee to our communities, our parents, our children, and to the dedicated teachers and all Americans who are fighting to restore greatness to America’s classrooms and Make Education Great Again.

For those interested in joining the committee or for further information please email info@qvgop.org.