MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
public higher education
A new documentary, "Starving The Beast," goes all in on the real political crisis on campus.
We must take on the naysayers directly, wrest the machinery of government from their dead cold hands, and make the necessary investments in our public colleges and universities. Only then will we be standing up for the original intent of California's path-breaking Master Plan for Higher Education.
As the need for education has grown, we have placed higher burdens on those who can least afford it: students and working families. Many students are leaving college with debt levels that would have financed a home mortgage in previous generations.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
It may not be a teacher appreciation gift like the ones the kids get their instructors, but having students able to recall the important lessons, and have some fond memories of their academic experiences, can be just as good.
I am a professor of philosophy at a public university. What is the value of philosophy to the taxpayers who subsidize my teaching? Philosophy is an abstruse and difficult field.
Accountability is a hallmark of public higher education. In our commitment to student success, we will need more accurate and comprehensive measures of student progress--both as a yardstick for institutional improvement and to assure external accountability.
In short, the societal benefits of higher education far outweigh the benefit to any individual, and investment in higher education is easily repaid to the nation many times over.
Higher education in America fails mostly for the same reason people get fat. It takes a lot of hard work to be successful no matter how you go about it. But there are options.
