In their ceaseless efforts at denigrating anything that isn’t “progressive,” leftists have recently claimed that professors are fleeing states where the politics aren’t to their liking. In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Joseph Knippenberg debunks that idea.

He begins, “Last week, American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chapters and faculty unions in four Southern states released the results of a survey purporting to reinforce the notion of a higher-ed ‘brain drain’ prompted by state legislative action and the generally conservative political climates in Florida, Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina. As the headline of one article based on the survey put it, ‘In These Red States, Faculty Are Eyeing the Exits.’”

Nice, catchy headline, but is it true? Knippenberg pokes holes in the survey. The numbers are low, and the conclusions are dubious. And even if some left-wing zealots leave, so what? They can easily be replaced from the huge pool of academic wannabees.

Read the whole thing.