Author Profile

George Leef

George Leef is director of external relations for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Carroll College (Waukesha, WI) and a juris doctor from Duke University School of Law. He was a vice president of the John Locke Foundation until 2003.

Prior to joining the Locke Foundation, Leef was president of Patrick Henry Associates, a consulting firm in Michigan dedicated to assisting others in advocating free markets, minimal government, private property, and individual rights. Previously, Leef was on the faculty of Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, where he taught courses in economics, business law, and logic. He has also worked as a policy adviser in the Michigan Senate.

A regular columnist for Forbes.com, Leef was book review editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, from 1996 to 2012. He has published numerous articles in The Freeman, Reason, The Free Market, Cato Journal, The Detroit News, Independent Review, and Regulation. He writes regularly for the National Review's The Corner blog and for SeethruEdu.com.

Articles by George Leef

Mar 9, 2016 ·

Politicians Eyeing Those Supersized University Endowments

Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Representatives Kevin Brady of Texas and Peter Roskam of Illinois wrote a letter on February 8 to the presidents of 56 private colleges and universities, who all hold endowments of more than $1 billion. In the letter, the Republican committee chairmen wrote, “Despite these large and growing endowments, many colleges and universities have raised tuition far in excess of inflation” and said they want to hear officials explain to their committees “how colleges and universities are using endowment assets to fulfill their charitable and educational purposes.” The presidents have until April 1 to reply. It will be interesting to see how many defend against the letter’s implication that they don’t properly use their endowments as they keep increasing tuition. Of course, the politicians don’t just want to satisfy their intellectual curiosity; they’re looking for a justification to change the law.

Mar 2, 2016 ·

What If Federal Regulations for Colleges Are Themselves Illegal?

We’ve created a serious problem by allowing federal bureaucrats to dictate education policies nationwide, K-12 through college. Many rules that appeal to ideologically zealous regulators would never be adopted by school and college officials who are in the best position to weigh costs versus benefits.

Feb 24, 2016 ·

The Ten Worst Colleges for Free Speech (But Why Are There Any?)

Just how bad colleges have become when it comes to free speech and toleration for anyone who disagrees with those who hold power cannot be underestimated. Many Americans who think back fondly on their college days decades ago are shocked to learn the truth. Toward that end, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has just released its Top Ten list—the worst colleges and universities in the country last year when it came to freedom of speech.

Feb 12, 2016 ·

Should Elite Universities Have Preferences for Low-Income Students?

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has just launched the latest offensive in the war over admissions to the supposed elite of America’s colleges and universities. In its report entitled True Merit, the Foundation advocates economic preferences so that smart students from relatively poor families can have their fair share of the small number of spots at schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. But admission preferences, whether based on race or income, are clumsy tools for achieving social or educational ends. A much better approach is to identify academically sharp but lower-income students, then help them to find the best college and assist them through to their degrees.

Jan 15, 2016 ·

College Leaders Improving the Link Between Education and Employment

Many students and their families are starting to wonder about the value of going to college at every expense only to come back home afterwards and settle into a mundane job that high schoolers could do—a growing problem that Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa examined in their latest book, Aspiring Adults Adrift. That being the case, colleges that can point to successes in preparing students for careers and helping them land jobs that actually call for higher education have a big advantage over those that can’t. As a result, the last decade has seen a surge in college programs intended to integrate study and work.

Jan 8, 2016 ·

A Nearsighted Visionary

Rarely have I read a book about higher education that is so varied as Michael Roth’s Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters. As I’ll explain, it is by turns intriguing, annoying, and challenging.

Nov 18, 2015 ·

Academia Shrugs: The Destabilizing Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement

A new report by the National Association of Scholars, “Inside Divestment: The Illiberal Movement to Turn a Generation Against Fossil Fuels,” is welcome because it shines a light on the excesses and especially the anti-intellectual nature of this campus phenomenon. Students, parents, alums, professors, and administrators should pay close attention to the report, just as miners needed to pay attention when their canaries started going unconscious.

Nov 13, 2015 ·

“Public Service” Loan Forgiveness Will Inflate the Cost of College

It is extremely wasteful to lure students into high-cost degree programs with easy-to-get government loans, then saddle the taxpayers with the unpaid balance when the student later defaults or manages to qualify for loan forgiveness. That artificially inflates the demand for college credentials and helps to accelerate the constant increase in the cost of higher education.

Nov 4, 2015 ·

Stop the Presses! Or, At Least, Stop Their Subsidies!

University presses exist to publish scholarly books and journals that might not be published by a for-profit publishing house due to the small market for most academic books. Therefore, they require subsidies from willing donors and/or presumably less willing taxpayers and students. But as Milton Friedman often pointed out, “No one spends other people’s money as carefully as he spends his own.” That applies just as much to book publishers as to everyone else.