Are there any universities where students learn about laissez-faire capitalism, the harms of government intervention, and where no government money is accepted, there is no affirmative action, and no tenure?
Yes — Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala, which is the subject of this story in today’s LA Times.
The piece is quite fair, but does give a bit of ink to leftist gripes that the school indoctrinates the children of the wealthy in order to perpetuate the dominance of the ruling oligarchy. That’s a very hollow attack, though — the standard mistake of confusing free-market thinking with special pleading for business. The university’s founder Manuel Ayau Cordon, makes it clear that he favors a policy of no governmental favors of any group. He argues that a pure laissez-faire policy would help the poor and would be detrimental to rich people if their wealth depends on government monopolies or other benefits.
Wouldn’t it be good to have some schools like FMU here? Yes, but accreditation would be an enormous hurdle. American accrediting agencies would say that the way FMU operates just doesn’t match up with their model of how a university should be run.
