Governor Walker vs. the Eggheads

It's a curious thing. Higher education in the US has expanded dramatically since WW II. About 2.3 million Americans were enrolled in 1947 compared to 20.6 million in 2012. In terms of the percentage of total US population, a move from 1.6 to 6.6% (National Center for Education Statistics). But this expansion seems to have done little to reduce anti-intellectualism in this country--what Richard Hofstadter called a “...resentment of the life of the mind, and those who are considered to represent it; and a disposition to constantly minimize the value of that life" (Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, 1963, p. 7). We could add a resentment of scientific findings that contradict cherished beliefs and material interests. Another strain is the campaign, with us since the creation of land-grant colleges in 1862, to confine higher education to churning out better workers, managers, and technicians to staff our economy.

Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin, and his allies are proponents of that campaign. In the latest budget for the Wisconsin university system, Walker proposed a cut in spending by $300 million over the next two years, the equivalent of a 13% cut. Quite a hit, though not really surprising given Walker's anti-public sector stance.

Cagle.com

More disturbing, to me anyway, was that the budget proposal also included new language in the state code governing the university system. Here's how Inside Higher Ed summarized the proposed change:

In that draft of the governor's budget, gone from state code was the commandment that the university “search for truth.” Gone was the exhortation to “improve the human condition.” Gone was the charge to “extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campuses.” 

Instead, Walker, a Republican, inserted a new benediction: “meet the state’s workforce needs.”

At https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/
wisconsin-on-verge-of-blowup-due-to-tea-party-ignorance/

Way back when, we're talking about a century ago, there were many Wisconsin Republicans associated with the Progressives (such as Robert La Follette)--a movement to make government cleaner (that is, refashion government and politics to make them free of early 20th century equivalents of the Koch brothers), and make government more effective. This "Wisconsin Idea" meant that one of the central missions of the state's university system was to produce "specialists in law, economics, and social and natural sciences [who] would produce the most effective government" (Wisconsin Historical Society).

This Wisconsin Idea in the realm of academia, the notions of a constant search for truth, and that government should and could improve the lot of all under its purview, is what Governor Walker tried to quell. But he's backed off, after much pushback, One of his spokespersons said it was simply a "drafting error," though Walker had previously touted his revisions (see Politifact on this reversal).

Why is reducing the overall mission of the Wisconsin university system's mission to “meet the state’s workforce needs" ill-advised? In pragmatic terms, it implies the eventual transformation of institutions like the University of Wisconsin-Madison from a top-tier research universities to vocational mills. Moreover, it disregards how many graduates of the system will leave the state for jobs elsewhere (common in the Midwest), and the number of out-of-state or international students enrolled its system. State academic systems are not isolated. They are interwoven with regional, national, and international patterns of university or college enrollment. To say that the state's higher education should be about the "state's workforce needs" reveals an ignorance (perhaps willful, or feigned) of the nature of academia today.

At http://www.tildee.com/UlwKij

On idealistic grounds, well, we're back to the old argument of the purpose of higher education (there's a nice summary of this debate here). Is it to focus on skills associated with current labor market demands, or improve the cognitive abilities of students, or is it to produce critical thinkers with the capacity to keep on questioning and learning after graduation? I don't think these are mutually exclusive missions.

For example, my university requires students to take general education courses, trying to ensure that students get exposed to a variety of inquiries, content, and approaches to learning. A while ago I worked with GVSU alum who had majored in Spanish. He recalled taking a philosophy class, and thinking at the time that it was a waste of his time. He now was glad he had taken it--it had made him more aware of the social and intellectual origins of his own beliefs, and also more understanding of those who might not share his beliefs. Most of the students in my introductory course on Latin American Studies are majoring in pre-professional programs (Biomedical sciences, Engineering, etc.). And we have surprisingly lively and thoughtful discussions about the poetry of the Aztec ruler Nezahualcoyotl, 19th century paintings of trains in Mexico and what they might be telling us about notions of progress and modernity, about movies dealing with Argentina's traumatic "dirty war," topics that may be distant from their future careers. I have no idea of how much of this material will stick with them after graduation (I'm musing about all that I don't remember from my undergraduate days). Hopefully, though, work in my course has carved some new cognitive pathways in their brains that may used for learning about the cultural heritage and historical foundations of different peoples (with an assuredness that such learning is crucial).

Back to Governor Walker. Why would he have such a narrow vision of higher education? There is his instinctive hostility to the public sector, noted earlier. And he is part of a GOP faction inimical to the production of knowledge that doesn't sit well with its predispositions--such as former Senator Jim DeMint, who worked to cut funding to National Public Radio, or Senator John Cornyn's repeated efforts to slash National Science Foundation funding for social science research.

At http://ianchadwick.com/blog/anti-intellectualism-the-new-elitism/

Perhaps he is also working out issues from his own college experience--an acrimonious campaign at Marquette for student government president his sophomore year, ending in defeat. And then dropping out with a year to go, with an unremarkable GPA of 2.59, and never finishing his degree. Maybe he shouldn't have attempted a triple major in political science, philosophy, and economics. Maybe it was an acute case of senioritis (Politifact).

Lord knows I'm aware of the many problems in US academia, from skyrocketing tuitions, or the exploitation of adjunct professors, to its apparent function of replicating rather than reducing socioeconomic inequality. So we need to continue this conversation about university reform. Unfortunately, it seems Governor Walker doesn't want a conversation, just a radical reduction by fiat of higher education's complicated mission.

Those Scary Three Rs

Blog Song for the Moment

Don McLean, Everybody Loves Me, Baby (American Pie, 1971).

Heard Jack Lessenberry's commentary last week about opposition in the Michigan State Legislature to adopting the Common Core.  He called this opposition, to my surprise, the "lunatic fringe."  Lessenberry's a pretty moderate guy, so for him to label it this way was strong stuff.

What's the Common Core?  Basically, it's what they, way back when, used to call the "Three Rs." Reading, 'riting, and 'rithametic.  According to the Common Core website,

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt. The standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit bearing entry courses in two or four year college programs or enter the workforce. The standards are clear and concise to ensure that parents, teachers, and students have a clear understanding of the expectations in reading, writing, speaking and listening, language and mathematics in school.

In other words, this is a pretty conventional attempt to assure that high school students are better prepared to enter the workforce or higher education.  The standards try to ensure, given the now wild mobility of Americans, and that some states were cheating on their report cards, that college admission officers and employers across the country can have some sort of solid expectation of what a high school diploma actually means.  It's also an effort to make the US education system more competitive in the global arena.

But this Common Core has run into the localism that has long prevailed in US education.  Michigan adopted it back in 2010, but renewal of its funding comes up in August.  A Republican faction in Michigan opposes that, and a Tea Party Republican on the Michigan House Education Committee, Tom McMillin, took the lead, slipping some lines into the budget bill that erase funding for Common Core initiatives.

In an op-ed, McMillin presents the Core--what some right-wing wits are calling "obamacore"--as a federal takeover of education, an opportunity for the Feds to steal student data, but what really has pissed him off was the lack of transparency around the development of the Core.  At the Statehouse hearings, he badgered  Department of Education officials, repeatedly asking about the process by which the Common Core was adopted, to such an extent that a chair, a fellow Republican Tim Kelly, cut him off.

After the hearing, Kelly said it was "unfortunate when you have some members that aren't listening to the answers that are beingprovided. You may not like the answer, but that doesn't mean you keep repeating the question."

Other legislators (both Republican and Democrat) wondered whether the federal government would use Common Core implementation to gather data on individual students.  There are more hysterical critiques out there, too.  Predictably,  Glenn Beck has labeled it "an extreme leftist ideology," connecting the dots of Obama, Common Core, and a retinal scan kerfuffle in a Florida school district.

It's odd that McMillin focuses on the process rather than the content of the Common Core.  No questions about whether the Core will improve educational outcomes, just veiled unsupported accusations that the Michigan officials lied about public input in the development of the standards, and that they represent a massive federal intrusion in local governance.  He bases his argument on two members of the Common Core Validation Committee who refused to sign off on the final version, neglecting to mention that there were 27 other members who did sign off, along with a bipartisan executive committee of six governors and four state superintendents.  This is a very centrist, technocratic policy proposal that only in feverish minds constitutes a left-wing conspiracy.

But there are good reasons to question the Common Core.  It is a top-down effort, orchestrated by governors, top education officials, academics, and funded by an array of organizations, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the NEA to the Aspen Institute and the New American Foundation.  So I suppose one could dismiss the Core as yet another elitist effort that is not in touch with the daily grind of education.  In other words, how capable are school districts of implementing the Core, and will it ameliorate or exacerbate the growing inequality in our country's educational system?  Also, The No Child Left Behind Act has already incentivized 'teaching to the test,' and will the Common Core standards turn into goals that teachers end up mechanistically trying to realize?

As well, the Obama administration made a political mistake, I believe, in contributing funds to the Common Core initiative, and in compelling states bidding for "Race to the Top" education grants.

But, heck, I'm just sniping here.  There is faction of Americans that will criticize the Obama administration for whatever it does, and I'm glad some people with expertise and money have tried to do what so many local school boards have failed to do--raise the bar on education outcomes.