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Privatizing Americas Public Universities as Shock Doctrine (or Not)
Posted on June 11, 2014 by Lambert Strether
By Lambert Strether of Corrente
You mean charters arent the whole story of privatizing education? What fresh hell is this? Ive got to say my jaw dropped when I read this in Bloomberg; I hadnt thought that privatization rot had gone so far:
From Pennsylvania to Oregon, the number of top public universities bidding to shake off government control keeps growing.
How exactly does public university shake off government control? By letting the administrators cut their own checks?
The universities want more control over tuition and academic programs as they become less dependent on public subsidies. Some state systems have resisted because, without their flagships, they lose premier faculty and students as well as clout in legislatures that set funding.
Pennsylvanias West Chester University, the fastest-growing of 14 state-owned campuses and the one with the highest SAT scores, could break away under legislation filed this year. Its departure would deepen a divide between independent haves and tightly controlled have nots plagued by dwindling funding and enrollment. Pennsylvania State University and three other public institutions already operate autonomously.
Plagued by? Note the lack of agency. Whos doing the plaguing, and why? And what does autonomously mean?
After gaining greater independence, many public universities have increased tuition, raising fears that West Chester would follow suit.
For any university that leaves the state system, tuition and fees will likely go up creating an added burden for students and their families, Frank Brogan, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, said in a statement opposing the bill when it was introduced.
The independence drive is analogous to the rise in K-12 education of charter schools Like charters, breakaway universities want less red tape and more freedom to experiment with academic programs.
Whatever less red tape and more freedom means, other than open season for executive looting. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/06/privatizing-americas-public-universities-shock-doctrine.html
daleanime
(17,796 posts)greatlaurel
(2,004 posts)Shock Doctrine is right. They have been so successful is stealing public tax dollars from K-12. Now they want to finish off our university system.
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Warpy
(111,657 posts)Privatized state colleges will be more expensive and will eventually be allowed to go under completely to remove competition for a decreasing student body. We'll go back to the system of "gentlemen only" higher education, the 99% having to make do with community college/vocational education that will get them educated enough to do the jobs but not educated enough to want something better.
ladym55
(2,577 posts)Administrative salaries are booming, administrative staffs are growing wildly, while academic departments and programs are slashed to the bone to "save money." Students pay higher and higher tuitions to be taught by underpaid adjuncts. These instructors earn poverty wages and have no benefits, but VPs, associate VPs, and assistant VPs all collect healthy 6-figure paychecks and nice bonuses.
The students are in a lose/lose situation. The adjuncts are often working on multiple campuses to earn enough to survive, so aren't readily accessible. The adjuncts are treated like dirt by the administration, so often don't have access to information about programs and services that benefit students. Adjuncts also have no voice in university decisions.
As student debt rises, the quality of education decreases. Full-time faculty are just TOO expensive in the corporate model.
d_r
(6,907 posts)over the past couple of decades, states have dramatically dropped public university funding.
it is pretty typical then for the universities to want to raise tuition to make up their loss of budget from state funding.
then the state legislatures hear from angry parents.
then the state legislatures that have been cutting the university budgets pass laws that the universities can not raise tuition.
then the stage legislators go back to the constituents and brag about holding down tuition raises.
So now some of the universities that have a strong reputation feel like they are getting so little funding from the state and are so hemmed in by the state regulations that they would rather just drop the small amount of funding that they receive from the state and cut loose and make the difference up in tuition raises that the state legislators won't allow.
this causes a dichotomy between the more prestigious state universities who would rather just go it alone and the less prestigious but serving tons of students in the state who can't make it alone.
eppur_se_muova
(36,338 posts)when the state may provide less than 10% of funding. If this continues to its logical conclusion, the result will mirror the effect of charter schools in K-12: The elites will prosper while charging tuition only the upper classes can afford (without massive student loans) while the open-admission campuses will sink ever lower into underfunded mediocrity. Equality of opportunity in education is an endangered species.