Parents across America have been sounding the alarm for years about what’s happening on college campuses.
They’ve watched their hard-earned tuition dollars fund institutions that seem more interested in silencing conservative voices than educating students.
And a bombshell new study just confirmed what millions of families already suspected – but the specific findings will make your blood boil.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Drops a Truth Bomb
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression just released their annual College Free Speech Rankings, and the results paint a terrifying picture of American higher education.
Out of 257 colleges surveyed nationwide, a staggering 166 schools – including some of the most prestigious institutions in the country – earned failing grades for protecting free speech.
That’s nearly two-thirds of America’s colleges getting an "F" when it comes to the most basic constitutional right.
But here’s the part that’ll really get under your skin: students at these taxpayer-funded institutions are increasingly supporting violence to shut down speakers they don’t like.
The study found that shouting down speakers, blocking entry to events, and even using violence to stop campus speeches all hit record-high levels this year.
Harvard Gets Dethroned by an Even Worse Offender
For two straight years, Harvard University held the shameful distinction of being America’s worst college for free speech.
This year, they got knocked off the bottom spot by Barnard College in New York City – a private liberal arts women’s college that makes Harvard look like a bastion of intellectual freedom.
Get this: Barnard’s "Administrative Support" score was just 6.52 out of a possible score, while the national average sits at 11.32.
That’s not just bad – that’s four standard deviations below average, meaning they’re actively hostile to free expression.
And what topic do these enlightened academics find most difficult to discuss openly? The Israel-Hamas conflict, with over half of all students saying it’s impossible to have honest conversations about it on campus.
At Barnard, a whopping 90% of students admitted they can’t discuss this topic freely.
Pennsylvania Schools Join the Race to the Bottom
If you’re a Pennsylvania parent paying college tuition, you might want to sit down for this part.
The entire state of Pennsylvania earned an average grade of "F" for speech climate – matching the dismal national average.
Out of 15 Pennsylvania schools ranked, only three managed to crack the top 110 nationwide: Gettysburg College at 91st place, Carnegie Mellon at 98th, and Penn State’s main campus limping in at 109th.
Even worse, schools like Drexel, Lafayette, Villanova, and Haverford all earned "red light" ratings, meaning they maintain written policies that clearly restrict protected speech.
Only two Pennsylvania schools – Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg – bothered to adopt basic free speech principles. Just one school, the University of Pennsylvania, even pretended to support institutional neutrality.
The Violence Problem Gets Worse
Here’s where this story takes a truly dark turn, and parents need to understand what they’re sending their kids into.
The study found that students are increasingly willing to use physical force to silence opinions they don’t like.
More disturbing yet, this isn’t just a liberal problem anymore – conservative students are joining their leftist classmates in supporting censorship tactics.
FIRE President Greg Lukianoff put it bluntly: "Rather than hearing out and then responding to an ideological opponent, both liberal and conservative college students are retreating from the encounter entirely."
Think about what that means for a generation that’s supposed to be learning critical thinking skills. Instead, they’re learning that violence and intimidation are acceptable responses to disagreement.
Follow the Money Trail
Look, here’s what’s really going on behind all this academic double-talk about "safe spaces" and "inclusive environments."
These colleges are taking billions in taxpayer funding – through federal student loans, research grants, and state subsidies – while systematically destroying the constitutional principles that built this country.
They’ve created an entire generation of students who think the proper response to hearing something they don’t like is to shout it down, block doorways, or worse.
And the administrators? They’re either too cowardly to stand up to the mob or they’re actively encouraging it.
When 53% of students say they can’t discuss major world events openly on campus, that’s not education – that’s indoctrination.
The Taxpayer Scam Exposed
You want to know what should really make you furious? These same institutions that are crushing free speech are demanding more public funding every year.
They cry poverty while paying administrators six-figure salaries to implement "diversity, equity, and inclusion" programs that are really just thought-control mechanisms.
Meanwhile, conservative students and faculty get pushed out, threatened, or silenced if they dare question the leftist orthodoxy.
The few schools that actually protect speech – like Claremont McKenna College, which topped the rankings – prove it can be done. But they’re outliers in a system that’s become fundamentally corrupt.
What This Means for Your Family
If you’re a parent looking at college options, this study should be required reading. Your kids aren’t just getting a subpar education for your money – they’re being trained to reject the very principles of free inquiry that make America great.
The violence statistics aren’t just numbers on a page. They represent a generation that’s learning to solve disagreements with force rather than reason.
And when these students graduate and enter the workforce, corporate America, and government positions, they bring these authoritarian instincts with them.
That’s how we end up with adults who think it’s acceptable to destroy people’s livelihoods over political disagreements, or who support government censorship of social media platforms.
The rot starts on college campuses, but it doesn’t stay there.
¹ Lauren Jessop, "Many colleges deserve a failing grade when it comes to protecting speech, report warns," The Center Square, September 14, 2025.
² Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, "College Free Speech Rankings," September 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Jessop, "Many colleges deserve a failing grade when it comes to protecting speech, report warns," The Center Square, September 14, 2025.
