Obama and Higher Education
Just what we need, the Obama tenacles reaching into higher education. In typical style, Obama points to a problem -- the high cost of higher education -- and proposes a solution that has nothing to do with the problem and actually will likely make the problem far, far worse than it is now. This has been the pattern with the economic rescue plan, with the 'affordable' health care act, with wind and solar initiatives, and on and on. Every problem that Obama has inherited has become a much bigger problem under his leadership.
What is wrong with higher education? Mainly the government, as in most other things. Federal funding for research grants and student loans has made higher ed less interested in scholarly pursuits and more interested in the pursuit of federal largesse. Students are borrowing huge amounts of money to maintain a college lifestyle that for prior generations was simply unavailable. Who could spend that kind of money on beer and fitness centers in the good old days?
Education itself doesn't cost much to provide; less today than a generation ago thanks to the advent of the digital age. But 'higher education' is no longer in reach for middle income Americans unless they are willing to bankrupt themselves and their children to enrich university bureacrats and aging academics (and they are aging thanks to tenure). There is a growing gap between 'education' and 'higher education.' More and more these two concepts are separate and distinct -- perhaps, incompatible.
Obama is going to measure the inputs to higher education to figure out what the outputs are -- a completely absurd approach to measuring the effectiveness of an education program. Why not measure the difference between a student's life chances when entering the institution with the life chances when leaving the institution. The 'elite' colleges would not fair very well using a measure like that. But, if only inputs are measured -- the Obama plan -- then the elite colleges will do very well indeed (that's why they are called 'elite'), but the community colleges, who fare much better using my measure will not do well under the Obama plan.
Once more, under Obama, the rich get richer and the poor and middle class will be left holding the bag.
What is wrong with higher education? Mainly the government, as in most other things. Federal funding for research grants and student loans has made higher ed less interested in scholarly pursuits and more interested in the pursuit of federal largesse. Students are borrowing huge amounts of money to maintain a college lifestyle that for prior generations was simply unavailable. Who could spend that kind of money on beer and fitness centers in the good old days?
Education itself doesn't cost much to provide; less today than a generation ago thanks to the advent of the digital age. But 'higher education' is no longer in reach for middle income Americans unless they are willing to bankrupt themselves and their children to enrich university bureacrats and aging academics (and they are aging thanks to tenure). There is a growing gap between 'education' and 'higher education.' More and more these two concepts are separate and distinct -- perhaps, incompatible.
Obama is going to measure the inputs to higher education to figure out what the outputs are -- a completely absurd approach to measuring the effectiveness of an education program. Why not measure the difference between a student's life chances when entering the institution with the life chances when leaving the institution. The 'elite' colleges would not fair very well using a measure like that. But, if only inputs are measured -- the Obama plan -- then the elite colleges will do very well indeed (that's why they are called 'elite'), but the community colleges, who fare much better using my measure will not do well under the Obama plan.
Once more, under Obama, the rich get richer and the poor and middle class will be left holding the bag.
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