The Trump administration’s latest move to reshape higher education – its so-called Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education – is a dangerous overreach, even if parts of it sound appealing at first glance.

Yes, freezing tuition; expanding science, technology, engineering and math education; and promoting conservative voices in academia are worthy goals. But using the power of the federal government to pressure universities into political compliance sets a precedent no conservative should support.

As a lifelong conservative, a former Republican legislator and now a professor at George Mason University, I have long argued that conservatives should engage with, not retreat from, our institutions of higher learning. But this is not engagement. This is coercion – an attempt to remake higher education through executive fiat and financial threat.

Let’s be clear: This “compact” is not a voluntary partnership. It’s a federally imposed ideological checklist. Sign on, and your institution gets favorable treatment. Decline, and you risk losing vital research funding and federal support. That’s not conservative reform. That’s an abuse of power.

The

© USA TODAY