Maybe Rick Santorum Should Have Studied Some History in California's UC System

Impact

Editor's note: Earlier this week, Rick Santorum officially ended his bid for the Republican presidential nominee after a long and bruising campaign with Mitt Romney. Shortly before dropping out of the race, Santorum made headlines by saying California's public university system does not teach history. "And the California universities, I think it's seven or eight of the California system of universities, don't even teach an American history course. It's not even available to be taught. Just to tell you how bad it's got in this country, where we're trying to disconnect the American people from the roots of who we are, so they have an understanding of what America should be," said Santorum. Here's the video: 

Santorum may be out of the race, but his legacy will continue to live on. As such, Camira Powell, a California college student who attends Stanford University, wrote this letter in response to Santorum.

Dear Mr. Santorum,

After listening to your “revelation” that students do not have access to history courses at a public collegiate institution in California, I too shared your same fear and frustation.  I was completely terrified by that idea … for about :33 seconds, until I realized that fortunately for you, me, and thousands of other students in the University of California and California State University system, what you said is utterly untrue. 

Let’s take a moment to just look at the facts: Every college within the CSU system and UC system not only offer Bachelor's degrees in history, but require students to take at least one course as well. Now to be fair, there is one school in the UC system that does not offer history courses, University of San Francisco, and that is only because it is a medical school that has dentisty, medicine, nursing and pharmacy programs. Even still, your statement, “I think it’s seven or eight of the California system of universities don’t even teach an American history course” is irrevocably false.

This is not to say that California doesn’t have problems with its educational system. The UC and CSU system struggles with tuition increases and the cutting of classes have been well-documented.  Like every other public school system, California's public schools are underfunded and overpopulated. Yet, that is no reason to assume that a student is receiving an inadequate education in history, or that a school lacks a fundamental part of any university curriculum. That is insulting to anyone who has ever taken a history class at one of these schools, especially to any student that identifies him or herself as conservative (that was one of your potential supporters in case you were not sure).

Oh Rick, and you wonder why your are not the Republican party candidate for president? Try again next time.

Sincerely,