by Jacob G. Hornberger

February 13, 2026

The Democrat-controlled legislature in Virginia is threatening a total cut-off of state funding for Virginia Military Institute, from which I graduated in 1972.

Among the reasons for the threat is their concern that VMI has not dismantled “the lost-cause narrative” of the South.

Apparently the removal of a statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson from the VMI parade ground wasn’t enough to satisfy these people, nor the removal of his name from Jackson Arch, the main entrance into the VMI barracks.

My hunch is that many of these people are still chafing over the fact that VMI cadets broke a stalemate between Confederate and Union forces at the Battle of New Market, routing the Yanks and causing them to run for the lives in fear.

Well, to that, I say to those pro-war Democrats: Get over it — Lincoln’s war of aggression ended a long time ago. Anyway, Lincoln’s army got its revenge by burning down VMI, which, of course was a war crime, even if it didn’t match the severity of other war crimes committed by Lincoln’s forces in the Shenandoah Valley as well as in Sherman’s March to the Sea.

During my first week at VMI in August 1968, we were required to memorize the names of the brave VMI cadets killed in the Confederate victory at New Market. Why was remembering those young men such a bad thing? After all, let’s not forget that the reason that Lincoln initiated his war of aggression and invaded the South was not to free the slaves, as many pro-war advocates falsely maintain, but rather to prevent secession, which is not exactly the most glorious cause for which to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of people, commit grave war crimes, and destroy civil and monetary liberties (e.g., jailing critics and enacting legal-tender laws).

The fact is that VMI, like all other colleges and universities, should have the right to run its affairs any way it wants. If a college wants to adopt DEI, it should be free to do so. If it wants to reject DEI, that’s fine too. If it wants to have a black-studies program, great. If it doesn’t, that’s great too. If it wants to honor Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, John Archibald Campbell, and other people who fought for their country and for the right of secession, so be it. If it wants to instead honor Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and other war criminals, so be it as well.

The problem, of course, is that VMI is on the state dole. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Once VMI or any other college or university goes on the dole, it loses its independence. By going on the dole, the school subjects itself to the arbitrary dictates of state officials. Moreover, it places school officials and their supporters in the humiliating position of obsequiously beseeching state officials to please not terminate the school’s dole.

Hillsdale College in Michigan learned this lesson a long time ago. It does not accept any state funds at all. Some years ago, the feds tried to control Hillsdale’s admission department by arguing that students were taking government grants and loans. Hillsdale responded by prohibiting its students from doing so. The state grants and loans were entirely replaced with voluntary donations. Today, Hillsdale is totally free of state and federal control. It can run its school the way it wants, which is how it should be.

The real question is:  Why should the state be funding any college or university, including VMI? Why shouldn’t every college and university be required to subsist entirely on voluntary support, including tuitions and donations? After all, that’s the way churches operate. Why not colleges and universities also?

Some might argue that VMI and other colleges and universities could not survive without state funding? In other words, they’re saying that they couldn’t secure enough in donations to replace the state’s funding.

But doesn’t that point demonstrate the political stealing that undergirds the entire state-supported system? Let’s say that VMI would receive through voluntary support only 60 percent of the amount it gets from the state . That means that the school is essentially using the coercive apparatus of the state to steal the other 40 percent from people who would rather not donate voluntarily. From a moral standpoint, such political stealing is problematic for every state-supported college and university, but it’s especially so for VMI, whose strict cadet-enforced Honor Code expressly prohibits stealing, lying, and cheating.

The best thing the Virginia legislature could ever do is lead the nation to the separation of higher education and the state by terminating state funding not only for VMI but also for all other colleges and universities in Virginia.