Links for 12/1/15 | National Catholic Reporter

Links for 12/1/15 | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: While there is a lot we can do for Puerto Rico and a lot that will be done by the inevitable Control Board, changing the minimum wage for the poorest of their workers is not one of those things (any more than ending rent control was required to fix DC's economy - a bullet I helped it dodge when I was in DC government in a control period). Few people change their vacation destination based on price and I would rather not vacation with those who did.



As far as the Goveror of Illinois and his cronies, his kind are not Jacobin, they are New Rich (neuveau borgoisie).  We have seen their kind before, sometimes for the good - like our founding fathers, and mostly for ill.  If the voters which to retain this insanity, they deserve everything they don't get, like safe roads, good schools and satisfied public employees - whose pension contributions are likely protected by law.



The issue with universities is not cost, it is price.  Universities love cutting costs but won't cut prices if they can avoid it - and the only way for them not to avoid it is for employers to hire people at the start of their junior years and pay their tuition - at a much lower price.  That includes future public employees.  As for the four recommendations: administrative costs - or support costs - I suspect that many of these employees are rewarded for bringing in non-tuition revenue or come from another sector where costs are higher; the year round school year is an old canard (as is Fridays off) - as this is when facilities are improved and dorms painted after a year of wear and tear by young adults who are not gentle with the campus - and Friday lets out of state students go home on occassion - and even in state students - and still have time for a weekend with the girl or guy back home; two courses per term is not enough and I agree that published research is not worth anything, but it is not only assistant professors who do it - full profs who have a good textbook need that time to keep it current; as for general education, it should be at institutions which go from junior year of high school to sophomore year of college.  After that, students would focus on their major, perhaps in concert with a graduate degree.



The counter-points by Drezner are interesting.  The first point about student debt bombs being from for-profit schools is true and why the first two years of college should be free as part of public education - with the opportunity to end school after that last year and get a job where education is helpful, but not essential.  Of course, much of student debt is capitalized interest from programs allowing borrowers to suspend payments.  Capitalization should stop with the interest forgiven.  The second point is obvious, that these services are necessary.  The third point, that journal articles going uncited is old is probably valid - we probably need to have Doctors of Education in specific academic subjects who learn both subject matter material and how to teach - and requiring this new degree on an expanded basis.  Then if people really want to do research, it will mean something.  Fourth, the STEM craze is why employers should pay for the last two years of school - there is an industrial policy component to higher education - although for civil servants having both sociology and political science would seem to meet a need.  The ultimate victory in education as industrial policy would be requiring pre-meds to get an RN first.