Megyn Kelly’s recent sit-down with Matthew McConaughey boiled down to a blunt, commonsense point that will make a lot of hardworking parents nod: she wants her kids to go to college not to be ladled indoctrination or to chase an expensive prestige paper, but for the social formation and life-building that still happens when young people leave home. The clip comes from Kelly’s episode with McConaughey and reflects a larger conversation about parenting, values, and what we actually want higher education to deliver for our children.
McConaughey himself spent the interview explaining that his first obligation is raising independent, well-formed kids and that political ambitions will wait until his children are “out of the house as healthy as possible.” Kelly’s focus on practical outcomes — character, faith, and finding the right life partner — fit into a conservative blueprint for parenting that puts family first, not bureaucratic higher-ed fads.
This isn’t a new worry for Kelly. She’s long pushed back against the idea that schools and campuses are neutral training grounds, stressing that schools must serve kids’ social and moral development, not warp it. Parents who’ve watched the campus culture wars unfold understand why a mother of three would say bluntly that the point of college isn’t to be re-educated, it’s to grow into an adult with judgment and convictions.
Let’s be clear: conservatives should cheer this kind of clarity. For too long elites have treated university as a sacrament that excuses failure at basic civic education and common sense. Megyn’s straight-talk — that you don’t send your kids into institutions that will harden them against the country that raised them — is the kind of no-nonsense parenting defense this moment in history desperately needs.
We also need to be honest about the economics and rewards of modern college. Kelly has been no fan of asking taxpayers to underwrite elite credentialism or bailing out generations who choose ideological echo chambers over real skills, and that message resonates with millions who pay taxes and save for their children’s futures. The debate over student loans and who benefits from elite degrees isn’t abstract; it’s about fairness, opportunity, and whether families get a return on the sacrifice they make.
If conservatives are serious about rebuilding a country that puts family, faith, and work first, the response can’t merely be outrage. We should offer real alternatives — apprenticeships, trade schools, strong community colleges, and military service — and double down on parenting that teaches judgment before handing kids over to institutions that too often reward conformity. That’s practical patriotism, and it’s exactly the kind of message Kelly and McConaughey were trading in their conversation.
Megyn Kelly and Matthew McConaughey didn’t deliver a flashy political slogan; they reminded parents of a simple duty: raise kids with backbone, then send them into the world prepared to choose rightly. In an age when universities tilt left and credentialism rules the roost, that plainspoken conservatism is both refreshing and necessary — and it’s time we reclaim parenting as our nation’s first and best line of defense.
