The arrest of a graduate student for the gruesome murders of four Idaho college students has attracted worldwide attention. Reports suggest a DNA match to that of the suspect, Bryan Christopher Kohberger, whose own attorney said the suspect was shocked merely “a little bit” by his predawn arrest 2,500 miles from the crime scene.
The media portray this crime as an isolated deranged act by one loner whose true motive remains unknown. In fact, the suspect was enrolled in graduate school and employed by nearby Washington State University, where he was working as a teaching assistant at the time of the murders.
Kohberger should have been more closely vetted before he was accepted into a publicly funded Ph.D. program. Without the support of Higher Education and its pipeline to public funding, he would not have killed in Idaho.
A professor at his prior university described him as a “brilliant” student based on a course she taught him over Zoom. Kohberger also pursued studies under another professor known as a prominent expert on the notorious Dennis Lynn Rader, who confessed to committing 10 murders in Kansas and referred to himself as BTK for “bind, torture, kill.”
Kohberger was living alone in an apartment complex among other graduate students in Washington State, not far from the Idaho crime scene.
Liberals cannot blame guns for this crime, which the police believe was committed with a long, heavy hunting knife. People familiar with that type of knife say its blade quickly becomes dull with use, requiring the killer to use enormous force to bludgeon his victims.
Kohberger was apparently supported by government subsidies common for most graduate students in Ph.D. fields of study, even useless ones. This able-bodied 28-year-old was embarked on a multi-year path of higher education that offered him plenty of idle time now and doubtful future employability.
A 28-year-old man needs a real job to stay on track toward becoming a productive contributor to society. Yet higher education consists of many programs that do not teach a marketable skill or put students on a responsible career path.
The system of handouts for those who pursue higher education enabled Kohberger to develop oddities such as reportedly preferring not to eat a meal that was cooked in pots or pans previously used to cook meat. Meanwhile, drug use among many grad students is generally prevalent, as has been mentioned on the Reddit website.
The taxpayer bailout of Higher Ed will come under scrutiny on February 28 when the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Biden’s plan to stick Americans with potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid student loans. Two lawsuits challenge Biden’s debt forgiveness program: one brought by a half-dozen states, while the other by former students who were partially or completely excluded from the relief.
In addition to its dubious graduate program in criminology, in which Kohberger was enrolled, Washington State University features advanced degrees in many fields lacking enough jobs in the private sector. Anthropology, athletic training, educational psychology, and experimental psychology are among the fields that should not be awarding advanced degrees at taxpayer expense.
Most graduate programs are funded by government largesse, even to the point of giving graduate students a generous stipend for living expenses. Kohberger was likely funded by taxpayers as he allegedly went on a killing spree a few miles away from his campus.
Nationwide, more than 1.75 trillion (not just billion) dollars in student loan debt has piled up. Students who go on to graduate school are typically unable to pay down any of this debt, and the longer they stay in graduate school the longer they can typically postpone being held in default on that crushing debt that their unwillingness to work causes.
We don’t know if this particular grad student stands to benefit from Biden’s massive debt forgiveness plan. But if this young man had been compelled to get a regular job, instead of being encouraged to postpone life by going to graduate school, then this horrible crime might not have happened.
Phyllis Schlafly worked a 48-hour-a-week job, commuting an hour each way, in order to fully pay her way through college in the 1940s. Almost no students do that today, and with Biden promising to waive loan obligations there is little reason for students to work to pay for what they can obtain for free.
This suspected killer reportedly had an addiction to heroin while in high school, and his gaunt look with his spacey stare prompted some to wonder if he was still on drugs. Few would be surprised if the murderer was high on drugs that desensitized him to this allegedly horrific violence, reminiscent of how the shocking drug-related Charles Manson murders of 1969 ended the hippie era.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
