Elitists, crybabies and junky degrees

[applegrove]

Story by Kevin Sullivan, Mary Jordan at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2017/11/25/elitists-crybabies-and-junky-degrees/?utm_term=.138b2d62b318

"SNIP.........


“Why does a kid go to a major university these days?” said Antenori, 51, a former Green Beret who served in the Arizona state legislature. “A lot of Republicans would say they go there to get brainwashed and learn how to become activists and basically go out in the world and cause trouble.”

Antenori is part of an increasingly vocal campaign to transform higher education in America. Though U.S. universities are envied around the world, he and other conservatives want to reduce the flow of government cash to what they see as elitist, politically correct institutions that often fail to provide practical skills for the job market.

To the alarm of many educators, nearly every state has cut funding to public colleges and universities since the 2008 financial crisis. Adjusted for inflation, states spent $5.7 billion less on public higher education last year than in 2008, even though they were educating more than 800,000 additional students, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

In Arizona, which has had a Republican governor and legislature since 2009, lawmakers have cut spending for higher education by 54 percent since 2008; the state now spends $3,500 less per year on every student, according to the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Tuition has soared, forcing students to shoulder more of the cost of their degrees.

.........SNIP"

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

1. Or, maybe institutions of higher learning tend to be progressive because

the more you know, the more progressive ideas are supported. Maybe a lot of conservative ideas are the result of ignorance.

[applegrove]

2. Exactly.

[Solly Mack]

3. The dumber the better for the GOP

[Alice11111]

7. For sure. Otherwise, they might be contaminated by facts.

They resent educated people.

[Solly Mack]

9. And a big dose of denial. If denial came in a bottle, republicans would dose themselves hourly.

And it would be the one thing they'd happily pay for as a health care plan for all.

[Alice11111]

12. They get a pretty good dose on Foxaganda.

[Solly Mack]

13. Excellent point.

[MadDAsHell]

4. Saw a recent article that 1/3 of millennials regret going to college.

Politics aside, colleges are turning out a terrible product at an exhorbitant price.

They’ve got to get their shit figured out.

[Alice11111]

10. $100,000 in student loans, which the House Plan won't

allow to deduct. However, the weathy, whose kids don't need no stinking loans, get to deduct the prep school bills.

[Irish_Dem]

14. Kids today are swamped with debt. It is so unfair to them.

What should happen is that college is affordable to all.

[Afromania]

5. How many of their "leaders" are college graduates... Probably all of them, who in turn tell their

supporters they don't need a secondary education, or really any education at all to survive in the modern economy. They do this while simultaneously, and covertly, moving the entry level bar from high school to community college graduation.

Republicanism cannot survive without people cradling ignorance around themselves like a shield. Their "leaders" (bastards) know it and encourage it at every turn. It's why they are steadfast in their desire to continue their unfounded war against teachers and the education system in this countryas a whole.

[loyalsister]

6. Unintended consequences of expanded student loan financing

When parents who feel their money was wasted because their debt is still crushing them are skeptical of sending their kids to college, maligning education becomes as easy sell. It's no accident that the GOP twisted the goal of a highly educated populace into a liability for Democrats. Will making it more affordable will take the elitist sting out of it? I don't know, but reduced access is going to be disastrous for us all.

[Girard442]

8. No way this is a grassroots thing.

In my opinion the Kochs, et al want to turn this country into a paler version of Haiti -- a handful of obscenely wealth elites governing a mass of people so desperately poor that they can't revolt because they have to concentrate on getting through each day.

[Alice11111]

11. !!!

[applegrove]

16. +100

[WinkyDink]

15. Universities aren't Vocational-Technical schools.