Democrats in the House of Representatives are far more likely to have been trained at elite, private schools than their GOP counterparts. Following up on a graphic from the U.S. Senate last month, a new graphic put together by College Raptor shows marked differences in educational backgrounds.
With the smaller body of 100 senators, specific schools rose to the top, the Deseret News noted last month. "Harvard tops with the list with seven senators as alumni, while BYU, Dartmouth, Stanford and Yale tie for second with four each. Missouri and Georgetown each have three."
It's harder to pinpoint specific schools in the House, though Harvard, Michigan and Stanford stand out as the top three. But in terms of school rankings, 56 percent of Democrats in the House attended private colleges, while 54 percent of Republicans attended public schools. Seventeen Republicans did not earn a bachelor's degree, compared to 7 Democrats.
The differences in media college ranking are even more stark. The median college attended by a Democratic representative was ranked 121, while the median for Republicans was 262.
The numbers run counter to the old stereotypes of the GOP as being the party of the country club elite. In fact, Pew reported in 2012 that "whites without a college degree now tilt decidedly toward the Republican Party the GOP now holds a 54 percent to 37 percent advantage among non-college whites, who were split about evenly four years ago."
But the GOP does have a long tradition of deprecating elite pretentions. Conservative mega-icon (and Yale graduate) William F. Buckley once famously summed up the Republican position on elite education and governance: "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory," he said, "than to the faculty of Harvard University."
The current frontrunner in the early GOP 2016 White House nomination, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, fight didn't graduate from college, leaving Marquette University, where he was often tardy to his French class, near the end of his senior year to take a job with the Red Cross.
Will the lack of a college degree damage his odds of getting the GOP nomination? Not if a recent New Hampshire poll of likely primary voters is accurate. The NH1 News Poll found that 85 percent of likely primary voters see Walker as qualified.
With the smaller body of 100 senators, specific schools rose to the top, the Deseret News noted last month. "Harvard tops with the list with seven senators as alumni, while BYU, Dartmouth, Stanford and Yale tie for second with four each. Missouri and Georgetown each have three."
It's harder to pinpoint specific schools in the House, though Harvard, Michigan and Stanford stand out as the top three. But in terms of school rankings, 56 percent of Democrats in the House attended private colleges, while 54 percent of Republicans attended public schools. Seventeen Republicans did not earn a bachelor's degree, compared to 7 Democrats.
The differences in media college ranking are even more stark. The median college attended by a Democratic representative was ranked 121, while the median for Republicans was 262.
The numbers run counter to the old stereotypes of the GOP as being the party of the country club elite. In fact, Pew reported in 2012 that "whites without a college degree now tilt decidedly toward the Republican Party the GOP now holds a 54 percent to 37 percent advantage among non-college whites, who were split about evenly four years ago."
But the GOP does have a long tradition of deprecating elite pretentions. Conservative mega-icon (and Yale graduate) William F. Buckley once famously summed up the Republican position on elite education and governance: "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory," he said, "than to the faculty of Harvard University."
The current frontrunner in the early GOP 2016 White House nomination, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, fight didn't graduate from college, leaving Marquette University, where he was often tardy to his French class, near the end of his senior year to take a job with the Red Cross.
Will the lack of a college degree damage his odds of getting the GOP nomination? Not if a recent New Hampshire poll of likely primary voters is accurate. The NH1 News Poll found that 85 percent of likely primary voters see Walker as qualified.
