Rick Santorum: Left uses college for "indoctrination"

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks at the First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012.

/ AP

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Wednesday that "the left" uses universities to indoctrinate young people for the purpose of "holding and maintaining power."

After saying "we've lost, unfortunately, our entertainment industry," Santorum told a Naples, Florida, audience that "we've lost our higher education, that was the first to go a long time ago."

"It's no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go to college," said the former Pennsylvania senator. "The indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination. If it was the other way around, the ACLU would be out there making sure that there wasn't one penny of government dollars going to colleges and universities, right?"

He continued: "If they taught Judeo-Christian principles in those colleges and universities, they would be stripped of every dollar. If they teach radical secular ideology, they get all the government support that they can possibly give them. Because you know 62 percent of children who enter college with a faith conviction leave without it."

Santorum went on to encourage his audience not to "give money" to colleges and universities that he said are causing harm to the country.

"I'll bet you there are people in this room who give money to colleges and universities who are undermining the very principles of our country every single day by indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology," he said. "And you continue to give to these colleges and universities. Let me have a suggestion: Stop it."

Santorum said at the same event that he is leaving the Florida campaign trail this weekend - ahead of the state's January 31 primary - to go home and retrieve his tax returns, so he can release them.

A new CNN/Time/ORC International poll showed Santorum at 11 percent in the Sunshine State, far behind rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. 

With reporting by CBS News/National Journal off-air reporter Lindsey Boerma.

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Rick Santorum on the campaign trail

[woz172]

Many young people, even old conservatives today were once left leaning and why? it's because they were indoctrinated by college. Please watch Indoctrinate U you can find it on youtube.

[aerial_cirque]

Wow...what a load of baloney!!! Has Rick Santorum ever BEEN to a public university?! I understand that his family was albe to afford for him to attend a private institution, where presumably less so-called "Indoctrination" occurs, but the rest of us can't be so lucky. If it weren't for GOVERNMENT FUNDED public universities, I wouldn't be in college now and would be missing out on one of the BEST times of my life. To be able to discuss current issues, past issues, different academic fields, etc. in a place where you CAN have whatever opinion you want is liberating. Far from indoctrinating students, I think that public universities are the best way to teach people to think for themselves and consider other positions.

I for one will NOT be held beholden to the "faith based politics" of someone like Mr. Santorum. If he wants to get rid of government funding for public education at higher levels, he sure as HELL better figure out some other way for me and others like me to continue to be able to afford a university education.

[chinneths]

Pure idiocy!! Send your children bible school where they are taught to do as they are TOLD!!! And stay under the boot-heel of the powers that be... It's such a shame that people are taught to think for themselves!!!

[stusass]

Yes, college students are being indoctrinated, Rick. To reality. A long lost friend of yours that wonders why he hasn't seen you in so long.

Rick would like to instead indoctrinate them into his fantasy land where blind belief and loud, belligerent hate speech is the way to run a free country. I can already hear the jack-booted thugs goose-stepping in the streets!

I'll take option A - even though most of the colleges are now owned by corporations that have their own agendas ( mostly PROFIT).

[skier_rick]

Santorum is a National Security Risk at the highest level and a traitor to country and the constitution which mandates a free and appropriate education for all.

[joanno10]

Education is about learning to think about any content trotted out for consideration. Looking at Santorum's content, it is obvious that the only schools he is comfortable with are Christian schools. To take that idea into a presidential campaign suggests he supports the US becoming a theocratic state of which he could be minister in chief.

[bluetruckinla]

Crunch time is here conservatives need to get behind Newt Gingrich. I am surprised Santorum has not thrown already his weight behind Newt Gingrich with the understanding it is for Florida only. It is hopeless for Santorum in Florida. Santorum will only guarantee a Mitt Romney victory in Florida. Mr. Santorum you never have a chance against Mitt Romney's money. If you let Newt Gingrich take on Mitt Romney on a equal footing in Florida you would stand a much BETTER chance against Newt Gingrich later. Mr. Santorum if you are not the nominee who would you rather pick the next 2 supreme court justices Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich? Do you have a conscious Mr. Santorum or are you vain? No insult intended Mr. Santorum surely the logic is inescapable, cede Florida to Newt Gingrich in a temporary strategic alliance which would allow you and Newt Gingrich to live to fight another day !!!

[RobAla]

Most people who have been to college, and then worked in the real world afterward, know that college professors are notorious for being out of the mainstream. It took years for me to earn my undergraduate degree, and I attending seven colleges in the process. In all but one college, I found the professors to pretty liberal. This doesn't mean that educated people are liberal, it just means that many in the teaching field are. Once I began working with very educated people in the workforce (some with PHDs), I saw that most of them were less liberal than the educators.

At one major university in the south (many would think southern universities would be conservative), I had a college professor who advocated that the institution of marriage be done away with. He wrote books stating that all children should be taken away from families and placed in institutions where "professional child raisers" would rear them. This man was about 60 years old and two PHDs, one in philosophy and one in psychology. He was an educated nutcase.

Even elementary and high school teachers lean very much to the left, because so many state education systems are controlled by unions. Santorum is absolutely correct on the subject.

[boballen3]

The problem is, who is on "the left?" Santorum does not give any definition of what the left is, and as far as I can tell it is just anybody who does not agree with him. He complains that higher education does not push Judeo-Christian values, but this is not true- there are many well-established universities that adhere to a certain religion. Can't these schools teach whatever religious values that they want? If they are not teaching these values, then there must be a reason. Perhaps much of this reason lies in the fact that universities are about EDUCATION and LEARNING, and religion has, throughout history, oppressed education and learning. Perhaps in the REAL WORLD, there is no demand for students who are educated in Christian religious principles, while there is a large demand for students who are educated in the sciences. This necessitates teaching sciences, and not teaching religious values. Perhaps it is the MARKET that santorum and other conservatives speak so highly of that determines the college education students today receive, instead of some mass conspiracy on the part of the left (especially since we do not even know who "the left" is beyond it being anybody who disagrees with Santorum).

Fortunately, much of this will become irrelevant if current education policies (pushed by both Democrats and Republicans) continue to be effective, slashing spending on education for young people while increasing spending for old peoples' medicare and social security. At the rate we are going, most young people will not receive higher educations in a generation or 2, thereby removing any opportunities to 'indoctrinate' them.

[hsinco-2009]

You are so full of sh*t that your eyes are BROWN!

[prohb]

Republicans don't want an educated electorate.

[mryoubrian]

WOW!! Ayatollah Santorum has the SAME thinking as the Iranians do. Something tells me we are going to see a resurgence of the Crusades in the middle east if this guy is elected.

At least if it was 1770, Ricky would be a Puritan rounding up villagers to tell us which ones he thought were the witches!