See Thru Edu is a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation
Thomas K. Lindsay, Ph.D., Editor in Chief and Director, Center for Higher Education, Texas Public Policy Foundation
The hoopla over Prof. Wax goes on and on. It started with an op-ed where she dared suggest that the end of “bourgeois values” from the 1950s—e.g., marriage, hard work, patriotism—had disabled and disadvantaged present-day cultures, and that all cultures weren’t—are you ready?—equal.
But things had changed, irremediably so in his opinion. He quit the class. It was cancelled. No more of this, he said, in spite of appeals made by the administration to him to stick it out. It didn’t matter that his superiors backed the professor.
Why do universities permit this abuse? It is because they can get away with it. The university system throughout this country is an understood cartel: University A can raise tuition each year because they know universities B through Z will raise it. There’s safety in numbers.
We have two broad problems to solve. What do we do about existing loans—particularly for those who are stuck in default or delinquency? and, how do we avoid the debt trap in the future?
Many students who would be otherwise disinterested in higher education force themselves to attempt college with the hope that it will help them get a foot in the door to a good job. Now, a new company, Strive Talent, is offering some of those reluctant students an alternative path to employment.
The idea that college after high school should be the norm is now so entrenched that one state (New Mexico) is considering a bill that would force high school juniors to apply to college.
“A Tale of Two Columbia Classes,” written by undergrad Coleman Hughes, compares two philosophy classes he took in his second year: “Methods and Problems of Philosophical Thought” and “Philosophy and Feminism.”
The idea of higher ed reinventing itself in response to changed realities truly excites – and even inspires.
The bottom line is this: If a public institution takes government funding, it must comply with the First Amendment and free speech.
It’s early yet for most state legislative sessions, but Wisconsin, Michigan, California, West Virginia, and Nebraska lawmakers, to name a few, are considering proposals to protect free speech on college campuses this year.
