A poll of students taken at Phillips Academy, Andover gives a snapshot of the environment inside one of America’s most elite private schools, and a concerning glimpse into our future elite.
Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts is perhaps America’s most prestigious private school. Founded in 1778, the academy has a yearly endowment of over $1 billion.
The nation’s oldest incorporated boarding school costs $66,290 for boarding students and $51,380 for those who only attend the school during the day. The median American worker makes roughly just over $54,000 a year.
Both former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are among the institution’s notable alumni, as are Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox News, former Supreme Court Justice William Henry Moody, Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart, and a wide range of other leaders in business, politics, finance, media, and other powerful sectors of society.
The elite institution is associated with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), which has a history of pushing both critical race theory and “queer inclusive,” transgender ideology on young students, as Breitbart News has revealed.
Poll Results: Religion, Sexuality, and Political Views
A poll conducted at the end of the 2021-2022 school year gives us an insight into the current state of America’s most prestigious private school, which is sure to continue producing members of our nation’s elite class.
The poll, which was featured in a May 2022 edition of The Phillipian, the school’s newspaper, is titled “State of the Academy.” It asks students their opinions on a number of different cultural and political issues, as well as personal demographic questions.
The poll, which received responses from 80.5% percent of the student body, recorded the religious affiliations of the students, who were allowed to select more than one option. More than one-fifth of the students, 22.7 percent, self-identified as atheists, while another 20.5 percent identified as agnostic. Another 20.8 percent identified “none” as their religious affiliation. Meanwhile, 6.5 percent identified as Protestant, 18.2 percent as Catholic, and 22.6 percent as Christian.
One particularly noticeable aspect of the poll surrounded gender identity and sexual orientation, which saw 9.4 percent of female students identify as “queer” and 11.1 percent say that they were “unsure.” Only 60 percent of female students said that they were heterosexual, while 24.2 percent said that they were bisexual. Another 1.9 percent identified as demisexual, while 3.1 percent identified as homosexual, 2.2 identified as asexual, and 3.5 percent identified as pansexual.
When male students were asked about their gender identity and sexual orientation, 86.1 percent said that they were heterosexual and 4 percent said they were homosexual while 7.5 percent identified as bisexual.
Students also provided their political affiliations. Just 9.8 percent said they were conservative, and another 3.4 percent said they were libertarians. A plurality of students, 36.2 percent of them, said that they were liberal. Another 7.7 percent self identified as socialists and 2 percent called themselves communists.
Another 2 percent identified as “other,” while 12.4 percent identified as independent and 26.4 percent said they were unsure.
Unsurprisingly, 96.6 percent of conservative students said that they have engaged in self censorship, while only 33.7 percent of liberals, 33.3 percent of socialists, and 55.6 percent of communists said that they have done so.
Students were asked whether or not their political beliefs had changed in the past year. Though 61.2 percent said their beliefs had stayed the same, a commanding 27 percent noted that their beliefs had shifted to the left, while only 11.7 percent said that their beliefs had moved to the right.
The top five news sources of students, in order, were the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.
An overwhelming majority of respondents, including an overwhelming majority white respondents, said that they don’t believe white people can experience racism. A full 92.3 percent of Indigenous students, 90.9 percent of black students, 77.9 percent of white students, and 75 percent of Asian students said that they do not believe that white people can experience racism.
In total, just 31.6 percent of respondents believed that white people can experience racism. Meanwhile, 90.9 percent of respondents said that they support the Black Lives Matter Movement and 83.3 percent of students said they support affirmative action policies.
Meanwhile, only 18.2 percent of Andover students think that the school’s “anti-racist work” is sufficient. But the institution boasts of its elaborate diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) plans.
Meanwhile, the students held overwhelmingly leftist beliefs on issues like gun control and abortion. A whopping 84.3 percent of students said that gun laws in the United States should be stricter, with only 4.7 percent saying that they should be more lenient and 11 percent saying that such laws should stay the same.
A full 77.8 percent of respondents said that women should always be able to receive abortions. Only 2.3 percent said they should not be able to, and another 19.9 percent said they should be able to in some circumstances.
An overwhelming 88.4 percent of women said that abortions should always be available as opposed to 63.4 percent of men. A total of 70.4 percent of respondents identified themselves as feminists, however there was a massive split between male and female students.
A full 86.1 percent of women at the school said that they were feminists, while a slim majority of men, 50.6 percent, said they were not feminists.
While the majority of students, 62.4 percent, said that the American prison system should be reformed, a small but significant 10.9 percent said that it should be “abolished” altogether.
A Glimpse Into Our Future Elite
These startling poll results aren’t just evidence of indoctrination in elite schools. They also provide us with a useful glimpse into America’s future elite. Not only does the school have a history of producing influential leaders in government, entertainment, finance, and media, it also continues to send large numbers of students to prestigious universities, especially those in the Ivy League.
A report from the academy shows that, out of the 300 students from the class of 2022 attending college, five will go to Stanford, nine to Princeton, 14 to Yale, 12 to Harvard, three to Dartmouth, seven to Brown, ten to Tufts, five to the University of Pennsylvania and six to Georgetown.
In addition, 14 will go to the University of Chicago, seven to New York University, two to Duke, six to Columbia, eight to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and three to William and Mary.
If the students at Phillips Academy, Andover truly do give us a preview of a future elite, then the most powerful classes of our society will be significantly less Christian, more agnostic and atheistic, and much more likely to be “non-binary” or “queer” than past generations of our ruling class.
They’ll also be significantly more hostile to gun rights and measures to protect the unborn. Meanwhile, efforts based in Critical Race Theory, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) campaigns and affirmative action policies that discriminate against white and Asian applicants could garner even more support.
Certain aspects of the woke agenda, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality, have taken the center stage at Phillips Academy, Andover, as well as other prestigious, NAIS-affiliated schools.
The institution, which U.S. News reports has a minority enrollment of 59.6 percent, has taken at least 10 “anti-racism” measures since 2020, according to their “Anti-Racism Task Force” executive summary.
The academy has, for example, approved a “Native American Land Acknowledgement,” declared Juneteenth a holiday, created a “bias reporting system,” and created an “Athletic Diversity Board,” and established a “Committee on Challenging Histories.”
Faculty have also received “restorative justice training” as well as “increased DEI training.” The academy also created a “student conduct task force.” In addition, the academy created a 45 page “Andover Anti-Racism Task Force” report.
In addition to the focus on race, the academy also pushes leftist conceptions of gender. In fact, the institution even has a “Brace Center for Gender Studies,” which exists “to advance the institutional efforts towards intersectional gender equity and inclusion.”
A picture from the website shows a group of students protesting in favor of abortion, with signs that say “Bans off our Bodies,” and “Protect Safe Abortion.”
In fact, the very purpose of the center is to turn students into woke activists. The site reads, “As we educate students to be activists for equitable policies and spaces, we also lead adults towards humble, honest, lifelong learnership.”
Some future Senators and New York Times columnists might be passing their time at the academy by playing “Vulva Cornhole” with the school’s student sex positivity club.
A covert network of concerned parents called Undercover Mothers has formed to fight back against the indoctrination of students by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), America’s largest private school accreditation service.
Undercover Mothers describe indoctrination in the private school system as a form of “elite capture,” specifically pointing out the long-term effects that will come as a result of elite private schools being governed by woke ideology.
They note the critical importance of the issue in an article called “America Captured,” which explains that, despite only 10 percent of American children attending private school, such children grow up to have a disproportionate place in the ruling class. Roughly 25 percent of the 115th Congress, for example, was made up of individuals who attended private schools. This influence extends far beyond government, into media, finance, tech, and entertainment.
Following exposés by the Undercover Mothers, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) pledged to investigate NAIS if the Republicans retake the majority in Congress. Banks specifically scrutinized the organization’s role in political advocacy given its 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit.
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com.