Several universities in Texas qualify as conservative, but Baylor tops the list, according to the Niche college survey out this week -- and the editor of National Review says conservative schools are good.
Niche is an online publication that specializes in connecting colleges and universities with students and families, and it annually profiles and assesses higher educational institutions.
The Top 100 colleges in America in its current list is MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by Yale and Stanford, but those are general institutions -- what about conservative colleges?
The number of colleges where faculties lean (often far) to the political left is so large that "conservative college" can seem like an oxymoron, but Niche says Baylor University in Waco is tops among such institutions.
It's the 19th strongest college on the general list, followed by Texas A&M University, 28th on the general list but second place among conservative universities.
Why are conservative colleges separate from liberal schools?
One reason is what we always hear, that conservatives aren't well tolerated at liberal universities, but another reason is a kind of intellectual laziness, that it takes a lot of effort to diversify educational approaches and philosophies, according to National Review Editor Ramesh Pannuru.
"You have to make a conscious effort to make sure that other points of view are being represented on campus."
But conservative college approaches are unique and make for perhaps a better education, he says.
"The goal is not to make people graduate as conservatives, though there's nothing wrong with that, but as people who are capable of thinking through these questions."
Punnuru made the remarks at not long ago at the University of Minnesota.