Mike Rowe wonders why we give federal money to colleges who refuse to fly the American flag

The Facebook page of former host of Dirty Jobs Mike Rowe is always an interesting place to stop by for solid opinions and "folksy wisdom," as one Daily Dot writer put it. As he was posting his latest episode of "Hot Under the Blue Collar," Rowe wanted to wonder out loud — or in text as it were — about something interesting he had seen while channel surfing.

As he was flipping through the channels, he came across images of college students burning the American flag, and making remarks about how Old Glory made some of them "fearful," and others "disgusted." He then recalled how President of Hampshire University Jonathan Lash had recently taken down the American flag because students expressed "fear and discomfort."

“Removing the flag permanently from our campus will better enable us to focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors,” explained Lash in a statement on the University's Facebook page.

For Rowe, not flying the flag to combat these problems makes zero sense, seeing as how this is the nation where these kinds of problems are dealt with head on. Other countries are not so lucky. Furthermore, Rowe finishes with an interesting point about where these schools are getting their dollars.

As I dropped one of those giant round ice cubes into a tumbler of Whistle Pig, I couldn’t help but wonder if President Lash was unaware that billions of people around the world are routinely subjected to horrific levels of racism, misogyny, and bigotry that far exceed any injustice in modern-day America. Furthermore, I was curious to know if President Lash really believed that removing our flag is a better way to assuage the fears of his frightened students, than simply educating them about the undeniable fact that no country on the planet affords its citizens more liberty than this one? Finally, I found myself wondering as to why the President of Hampshire College would allow his students to pay for their tuition with federal dollars – federal dollars provided by the same government whose flag was no longer suitable to fly at his school.

Rowe then breaks out some math, and lays out the reality of what's really happening at this college plainly.

Here’s the problem. Tuition at Hampshire College is about $60,000 a year. That’s not a problem because it’s expensive – it’s a problem because 85% of Hampshire students qualify for some form of federal financial aid. https://bit.ly/2gsZxnk. That means that We the People are enabling schools like Hampshire to sell a liberal arts degree for approximately $250,000. With $1.3 trillion dollars of student debt currently on the books, I found myself thinking how nice it would be to hear a more persuasive argument from those who will happily take money from a country whose flag they despise.

In other words, taxpayers are paying stacks of money to Universities and colleges who then turn around and spit on the country — and those who uphold its values — that pays for that education through federal grants.

To many an taxpaying American who appreciates the country they live in, this may be more than bothersome, and worth generating some buzz about.

Rowe himself has created a scholarship program through his foundation "Mike Rowe Works" to reward those with good work ethic with the education necessary to get a good paying job in the workforce. Not a white collar job that many look for nowadays, but real industrial jobs that pay well, and where workers are desperately needed. He's not looking to send someone to a university that will burn the American flag, but to trade schools that will teach actual skills that apply to a solid job.

"I’m not interested in subsidizing the pursuit of your dream," Rowe said of his program during an interview with RedState. "But I am interested in getting more plumbers, steam fitters, HVAC operators, and electricians out in the work force, because those are the people that I depend on to keep the lights on. Plus the opportunities are there, and they’re real."

You can read the whole of Rowe's Facebook post, and subsequently watch episode 11 of "Hot Under the Blue Collar" below.