Manhattan Institute

Working to keep America and its great cities prosperous, safe, and free. Follow @CityJournal for more.

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Traditional, prestige-focused college rankings don't accurately help students and families decide which schools are worth their time. City Journal's College Rankings do. ⬇️

We compiled 95 distinct measures that evaluate institutional performance across four broad categories:

Governance Quality: Assesses administrators' focus on academic standards, free expression, and meritocracy.

Educational Experience: Recognizes institutions that prioritize intellectual pluralism in faculty hiring, strive to recover core learning in Western civilization and civics, and prevent shallow and trendy political movements from taking over academics.

Student Life: Rewards institutions that foster viewpoint diversity, freedom of thought, and resistance to political radicalism on campus.

Outcomes: Recognizes schools that prepare students for successful careers beyond what would have been expected given their students’ socioeconomic and academic backgrounds—measuring the real impact schools have on their graduates, and not just whether they happen to enroll students who were likely to succeed anyway.

No school scored better than an 80 on our 100-point scale. https://t.co/0LDc8RI84J

[City Journal @CityJournal]

College rankings are broken.

We're doing it the right way.

Introducing: City Journal's 2026 College Rankings! https://t.co/AAbZFylfXe

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Do Columbia students know who's funding their university? @DanielDiMartino went to campus to find out.

"It's something I'm very worried about....the cognitive warfare that is happening within our country is really scary. I think there's a lot of Chinese influence and a lot of Russian influence and Qatari money."

Among the 115 schools in the City Journal College Rankings, Columbia is the fifth most susceptible to foreign influence.

Columbia students react ⬇️ https://t.co/TPOSufs5Xc

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

The DSA's connections to communist countries are quite extensive. To give just one example: Members of the DSA’s National Political Committee members (including both co-chairs) went to Cuba in 2025 and met with the regime’s deputy foreign minister.

The DSA then established the Venceremos Fund to finance future delegations, asking donors to “support the struggle to dismantle U.S. empire.”

That's nowhere close to the full extent of the DSA's ties to hostile foreign nations, but it gives you an idea of where the group's loyalties lie.

H/t @thestustustudio & @CityJournal https://t.co/FDBkKmaDP9

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Full articles via @CityJournal @thestustustudio ⬇️ https://t.co/Pkzwt1EFN5
https://t.co/Lsugzkb2ID

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Excellent work from the FL Attorney General here. @thestustustudio has written extensively about the DSA’s ties to hostile foreign nations, @JamesUthmeierFL is right to take action.

[Attorney General James Uthmeier @AGJamesUthmeier]

Today my office issued a subpoena to the Democratic Socialists of America. We’re examining foreign contributions—including from Cuba and China—tied to their delegations and travel fund solicitations.

FL law requires transparency. We will hold those who break the law accountable.

[John Stossel @JohnStossel]

Politicians promise to protect us from life's risks.

But with too much protection, "there is no prosperity. There is no growth," warns economist @AllisonSchrager @ManhattanInst.

America’s economy grew faster than Europe’s because some of us embraced risk:

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

The average score of an American school of higher education was an abysmal 50/100 in the 2026 @CityJournal College Rankings.

This assessment might sound harsh, but most Americans now seem to share it. Confidence in U.S. higher education has plummeted, dropping from 57% in 2015 to only 38% today, according to polling from Gallup.

More strikingly, only 31% say that a college education is “very important,” the lowest portion since Gallup first asked the question in 1978.

[City Journal @CityJournal]

We scored 115 of America's most prominent colleges and universities based on what actually matters.

On our 100-point scale, not one of these schools scored above 80. Only seven earned a 70 or higher. Eighty-seven received scores below 60.

The average score of an American school of higher education this year was an abysmal 50/100.

City Journal’s 2026 College Rankings are here, and they answer the ultimate question: Are America’s colleges and universities delivering the education that students and the country need? https://t.co/G5OWiDQHL6

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

"How did so many schools outrank the Ivies?"

Okay, let's say you go to Harvard. If you even get in, that is—it may depend on your race. Grades are so massively inflated that it's not clear how much you're even learning. When they try to end grade inflation, your classmates revolt. You walk to your remedial math class, dodging the tents your classmates set up to protest Israel. After class, you turn on the TV and see @EliseStefanik ask your university's president, Claudine Gay, if calling for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment; she says it depends on the context. Later, you check @christopherrufo's Twitter and see that Gay plagiarized her Harvard dissertation. @FreeBeacon finds even more plagiarism. After a few years, you get a degree—you graduate top of your class. So does everyone else.

Is this really providing the rigorous education students are promised? Is this preparing graduates to be productive members of society? Was this a worthwhile investment?

Is this how we want to shape our country's future?

Parents, consider this: Perhaps there's a better way to decide which schools are deserving of your time, your money, and, most importantly, your trust.
https://t.co/Mb8tWuJ33O

[City Journal @CityJournal]

College rankings are broken.

We're doing it the right way.

Introducing: City Journal's 2026 College Rankings! https://t.co/AAbZFylfXe

[City Journal @CityJournal]

College rankings are broken.

We're doing it the right way.

Introducing: City Journal's 2026 College Rankings! https://t.co/AAbZFylfXe

[Colin Wright @SwipeWright]

The @ManhattanInst has just released their 2026 College Rankings!

Looking for a college with a strong curriculum that encourages genuine debate, prioritizes education over activism, and actually prepares students for real-world success?

First place: @UTAustin
Last place: @oberlincollege

See the full list:
🔗https://t.co/Xwluon8Zi2

[Daniel Di Martino @DanielDiMartino]

America has an *under* incarceration problem. More career criminals need to be in prison, for longer.

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Over 30 states have opted into the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Program, but teachers' unions are still fighting it.

Rather than informing members about the program and helping them get dollars to their students, the largest teachers’ unions have tried to stop the flow of money. They keep insisting that the program is a “voucher” and refuse to explain to their members that it could benefit their students.

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Teachers' unions have spent months fighting the new federal scholarship tax credit, which could fund tutoring, special-ed services, books, and uniforms for students—despite the fact that most teachers support it.

Over 30 states have opted into the tax credit, including bright-blue New York. The question remains: when will the unions get on board?

@dany_egorov's latest: https://t.co/7lCMeQOeTn

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

"Charlie Kirk was a political man who embraced the ambiguities and compromises that a political life demands. At his best, he was also a patriot and an idealist who wanted the best for his country. That is the legacy he left behind, and one we should honor." — @christopherrufo

[City Journal @CityJournal]

"That week, many felt that the tragedy might have a silver lining, that Charlie’s death might move people to set aside petty differences and come together for the good of the country. That was his mission and, for a moment, it seemed that everyone was trying to honor it.

Instead, his death marked the shattering of the American Right."

@christopherrufo's powerful account of Charlie Kirk's assassination and how to honor his legacy: https://t.co/AQGf2aVMuS

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

In 2002, David Westerfield kidnapped 7-year-old Danielle van Dam from her bedroom in the middle of the night and murdered her. He was convicted and given the death penalty.

Gavin Newsom just commuted his sentence.

Now, Danielle van Dam's neighbor is speaking out: "I've waited 24 years for him to die"

WATCH: @buttonslives on @KatiePavlich ⬇️

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Charlie Kirk's death was devastating to the American Right.

Everyone should read this.

[City Journal @CityJournal]

"That week, many felt that the tragedy might have a silver lining, that Charlie’s death might move people to set aside petty differences and come together for the good of the country. That was his mission and, for a moment, it seemed that everyone was trying to honor it.

Instead, his death marked the shattering of the American Right."

@christopherrufo's powerful account of Charlie Kirk's assassination and how to honor his legacy: https://t.co/AQGf2aVMuS

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Americans want walkable, small-town downtowns—but we're rarely building them anymore. Regulations are making it nearly impossible.

Some of the regulations developers have to contend with include minimum-parking requirements, front and side setback rules, single-use zoning that separates homes and retail, minimum lot sizes, lot coverage maxima, minimum unit sizes, curb radii requirements, two-staircase rules that make small mid-rise apartment buildings uneconomical, and stormwater regulations that favor big retention ponds over compact blocks.

A determined developer can usually negotiate around one of these, but working through all of them at once is nearly impossible.

[City Journal @CityJournal]

Americans are flocking to walkable small-town downtowns on the edges of big metros, but regulation has made it nearly impossible to build new ones.

Via @bhargreaves https://t.co/kFyUbTuevW

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

.@christopherrufo on rebuilding the Republican party after the midterms: "You have to do the things that voters were mad about."

"You have to address those concerns...and then rebuild that trust. That's not easy to do, but it is absolutely possible to do. You have to get prices down...[there are] a lot of things you could do to make it easier to build houses, to make it easier to afford groceries, easier to afford gas—get people feeling like the economy is moving in the right direction."

Chris Rufo joined @AndrewKolvet & @BlakeSNeff on the Charlie Kirk Show:

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

This infamous X post from Bo French got almost 55 million views, sparking a heated debate about demographic change back in September.

For some, after the midterms, the obvious cause of Republicans’ comprehensive defeat was the demographic change that had alarmed French in the first place.

The trouble with this argument, @CharlesFLehman writes in @compactmag, is not just that it is wrong on the facts (which it is)—the trouble is that their theory absolves Republicans of responsibility for their historic loss. https://t.co/raxWlpmljp

[Charles Fain Lehman @CharlesFLehman]

The nativist right has invented its own way to put its ideological predilections over actually winning.

Me for @compactmag: https://t.co/Z3M3lHzyaB

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Uh...is this a call for land-based voting?

[Matthew Kolken @mkolken]

Rural conservatives in deep-blue states are effectively governed without consent. In New York, Republicans win most counties yet still lose statewide by 20 points because dense urban and suburban voters in New York City and its suburbs cast the decisive ballots and vote overwhelmingly Democratic. The result is that rural and upstate communities pay the taxes, live under the regulations, and absorb the costs set by politicians they consistently reject. Same story in California and Illinois. Population density has become a veto over the rest of the state.

[Manhattan Institute @ManhattanInst]

Want to win an election? TikTok might be more important than ideology.

"It's going to be important to be able to use CapCut and and create a TikTok of yourself, or at least have a staff that can do so. I think you've got to figure out how to be ever-present...that's actually more important than even any given candidates's ideological profile."

Political analysts @Jesse_Leg & @yemisi debrief the midterms on @TheFP: