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Discussion Membership
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Citizens to government: Butt out!
The underlying and mistaken presumption of the federal Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education is that someone put government in charge of "fixing" college education. It never has been their job. It isn't their job. It shouldn't be their job. They don't need the job -- but that won?t stop them from trying to manufacture one. Government has no successful track record of fixing anything. Trains don't run on time, Federal health care and Social Security are, respectively, mired in bureaucratic and financial messes, Congress cannot hold itself up as a paragon of anything, and "SNAFU" originated with the military. The only justification the Secretary of Education offers for meddling is that a large chunk of citizen's tax revenue is passed on to colleges. Okay. Either return the taxes to the taxpayers and let them invest it where they feel it would best serve education, or pass it to parents of college age students to put toward tuition as they see fit. But, grade college education, as if one size fits all? That's a bad idea with its hand deep in your wallet. Commissions like the one for "Higher Education" are where pre-conceived notions go for bureaucratic facelifts. Commissions have the nasty habit of challenging the status quo simply because that is what they are paid to do. Commissions could undermine the integrity of Mother Theresa simply by raising questions. "You mean to tell us, Mother Theresa, you don't have standardized measures for how successful you are at saving those homeless and destitute? Surely, the government should set standards for compassion for the downtrodden to demonstrate that ours is a good and a pro-active government." It will be a cold day in hell when a commission advises: Higher Education has its problems, but they are no more than any dynamic system faces dealing with constant change. We believe that throttling higher education with federal control would do more damage than leaving it to market forces to repair. While not all market force changes are good, on the whole, we put more faith in them than we do in over-managed collectivist central control. Never will we go down the same path that brought so much pain to the Soviets. Besides, the dynamo that drives our economy is the freedom to experiment and the freedom of others to judge with their wallet and their persons. To do anything else but leave well enough alone would be un-American.The kind of wisdom our students need cannot be measured by standardization. It is the ability to recognize a sound idea from a silly one -- like this silly one. Since the federal Education Department's Commission for Higher Education seems not to know the difference, it would be a mistake to follow their advice. Tell them, "Thank you. Go home. Butt out!"
[Note: For a calmer opinion, see No College Left Behind?.]
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