Our country and state are at a crossroads. In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s brutal assassination, we’ve seen professors and educators at taxpayer-funded universities mocking, excusing and even celebrating his death. That kind of hateful rhetoric has no place in our classrooms or on our campuses, especially at the expense of the taxpayer.
For far too long, our universities have been hijacked by far-left ideologues. Radical professors, many of whom are shielded by tenure, have turned classrooms into platforms for indoctrination rather than education. Instead of teaching critical thinking and preparing students for success, they push anti-American rhetoric and contempt for the very values that make our state and country great. That must end.
South Carolina is a right-to-work state. In our state, no one should be guaranteed a job for life. Regardless of industry, employees who work for businesses throughout our state don’t get ironclad job protections. And neither should professors. Tenure is a shield for radical rhetoric in lecture halls, an impediment to innovation and a hindrance to free thinking. If you abuse your position to spew hate and push your personal agenda in the classroom, you should be fired — just like anyone else.
Let me be clear: The First Amendment protects your right to speak freely. However, it does not protect you from the consequences of your speech. If professors or teachers use their taxpayer-funded platform to mock or celebrate the death of a fellow American, attack family values or turn the classroom into a pulpit for radical agendas, then consequences must follow.
South Carolina taxpayers will not fund indoctrination. Our students deserve an education, not leftist propaganda. No students should fear retribution for expressing their beliefs, and no parent should have to pay for a college that pushes politics instead of knowledge. If a school promotes indoctrination instead of education, families deserve a refund. Education is a service for students, not a soapbox for activists.
The radicalization of our universities is nothing new. It’s been pushed through bureaucratic diversity, equity and inclusion programs. DEI is nothing more than a leftist slush fund that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars while dividing students by race, ideology or grievance. These programs don’t unite or enlighten students. Instead, they divide and indoctrinate them. It’s time to defund every DEI office in every public university and return those resources to what education is supposed to be about: merit, excellence, truth and opportunity.
This fight is bigger than policy. It’s about principle. Parents need to trust that their children are receiving a high-quality education rooted in hard work, accountability and freedom. Too many teachers and professors create an environment where students are pressured to think and write in line with their professor’s personal beliefs, rather than their own — and that culture must change in our classrooms. If we fail to act now, we risk losing the very foundation of who we are as a state and country.
That is why I am making a pledge: As a mother, the lieutenant governor and your next governor, I will work with the General Assembly to end tenure so no professor is beyond accountability. We will take back our classrooms, so parents and students never again have to fund or endure political indoctrination. And we will end every DEI and woke program that wastes taxpayer dollars and undermines our values.
South Carolina belongs to the people, not the radical left. And together, we will take back our schools and secure the future of our great state.
Pamela Evette is the lieutenant governor of South Carolina and a Republican candidate for governor.