I hope it wasn't Mark!
Occupy Democrats
BREAKING: West Virginia Republicans humiliated after only ONE STUDENT joins their new $3 million MAGA indoctrination program!
West Virginia Republicans spent years attacking colleges as hotbeds of liberal ideology. Then they used the levers of state government to force West Virginia University to create their own taxpayer-funded academic program devoted to teaching "civics, culture and statesmanship."
So how many students signed up? One.
According to WVU, just a single student had enrolled in courses offered through the Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship as of late June, despite state lawmakers directing millions of taxpayer dollars into the project and Gov. Patrick Morrisey personally appointing its director (photo, left).
The center was created by Republican legislation and promoted as a corrective to what conservatives describe as "woke ideology" on college campuses. Morrisey said last year that the program would help "push back on the woke ideology that has infected our schools and help return higher education to its true purpose."
Darn that woke ideology, creating a campus full of socialistically-communist antifa-loving radical students spray painting “Free Palestine” on the statues.
The only problem is that West Virginians are paying handsomely for the experiment. Lawmakers have already allocated $3 million to the center over the last two years, including funding for scholarships and a director's salary of more than $300,000 annually.
All this at a time when the university was otherwise slashing its budget, eliminating dozens of academic programs and hundreds of jobs.
"There is a question about whether or not this is the best use of public funds," skeptical Political Science professor Erik Herron pointed out. "The Washington Center, ironically, seems to be exactly what it complains that higher education has become – created in [state capital] Charleston and imposed on the university, so it's a big government mandate."
Oof.
Republican leaders insist the enrollment problem is temporary and argue that participation will increase once the courses can be applied toward academic majors and minors.
Maybe so, but for the moment, the scoreboard is brutal. Three million taxpayer dollars; a director making more than $300,000 a year; 18 courses available this fall; one student.