DeVos Warns of Threats to Free Speech on College Campuses

Speaker shout-downs and backlash toward politically conservative students have spun out of control, according to experts

A woman stomps on a free speech sign after conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos spoke to a crowd of supporters on the University of California– Berkeley campus on Sept. 24, 2017. JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Freedom of speech is increasingly under threat in many college and university campuses throughout the country, according to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Speech suppression in schools is a “very timely and serious issue” that needs addressing, she urged.

A college “should be a place where we explore other opinions and ideas,” but today “that possibility is more and more controlled,” she said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 22.