It is not fair, intellectually we know otherwise or we should, but the state of Alabama gets a bad rap. Many jokes have been told and now Alabama can have a little sweet revenge.

Meet the [Alabama] family who sent six kids to college by age 12

Continue reading

On Wednesday, the Chicago School Board voted to close 49 elementary schools, "in what is believed to be the biggest single mass shutdown of schools in U.S. history"

Fifty-three schools were originally scheduled to be shut down.  The closures come as part of Chicago's plan to deal with it's massive $1B deficit. The schools were shut down for "failing to meet academic standards."

Continue reading

In response to Could the Koch Brothers Save Higher Education?:

If we want to save education, then we should start at the high school level, or lower. Those students and parents who demand more, because they understand the nature of the demand and are vested in it will change the system over time.  A higher institution can't easily indoctrinate a student with a good foundation.

Continue reading

There's been a lot of talk about the possibility of the Koch Brothers buying the Tribune Company (which owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and others).  However, Minding the Campus has another idea:

Leaving aside the obvious arguments about buying dinosaurs and whether the brothers could ideologically re-shape these papers, let me suggest a better investment--establish an undergraduate college heavy on the humanities and social sciences (including economics) that recruits only top students. (David Koch took a step in this academic direction in 2007 when he gave $100 million to MIT for the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research). In a nutshell, it's better to create an elite alternative to today's left-leaning academy than to exercise the owner's droit de seigneur to write weekly op-eds on the evils of Washington's regulation. The Koch boys surely must appreciate how innovation can destroy the old economic order and higher education is no exception. Moreover, creating a college via a 501(c)(3) foundation would provide huge tax savings, perhaps even making the enterprise "free." 

I am not advocating "Libertarian U." America hardly needs another politicized, indoctrination-minded university. Rather, and perfectly consistent with libertarian values, today's higher education could benefit from a top-notch undergraduate-oriented college unfettered by political orthodoxies, a true marketplace of ideas where, at least in principle, the  brothers' cherished laissez-faire could get clobbered. Surely Charles and David will agree--no ideological litmus tests, and may the best ideas win.

Continue reading

If college and universities want to survive, they should follow the Brooklyn Law School's lead.  From the TaxProf Blog:

Brian Leiter (Chicago) reports that Brooklyn Law School's Board of Trustees has adopted rules permitting the termination of tenured faculty for "adequate cause," defined to include "demonstrated incompetence" -- "including but not limited to, multiple unsatisfactory performance reviews or complaints from supervisors; multiple complaints from students or multiple unsatisfactory student evaluations; sub-standard academic performance; lack of collegiality.”

Continue reading

In a 2004 Townhall column titled “Up From Atheism,” UNC-Wilmington Professor Mike Adams wrote, “Ever since I became a columnist, people have been asking me to explain exactly how I abandoned atheism. I think it would be better to talk about how I could have avoided it. I also think that the right reading list for high school seniors would make a lot of teenagers less susceptible to the anti-religious influences they encounter in college.”

In his latest book, Letters to a Young Progressive: How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Protesting
Things You Don't Understand, Adams writes to a student (a composite of several students he's taught over the years) about progressive views and policies.  Adams is also the author of two other books on higher education, Feminists Say the Darndest Things and Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel.  I asked Adams what sets this book apart from his others. He told me, "I think it's different in that it hammers home the idea that if you reject the Biblical view of human nature (which is not pretty) you get everything wrong. Also, it strays from the political into the sociological - crime-related issues. etc - moreso than my previous musings."

Continue reading

In response to Melissa Harris-Perry Wants Us to Spend More Educating 'Our' Children:

The crimes of a few can certainly affect a whole community. Melissa Harris Perry and progressives state collective responsibility but never take collective accountability. Responsibility are words to them whereas accountability requires actions followed by positive results and if not corrective steps.

Continue reading

Melissa Harris-Perry has one of those MSNBC spots in which hosts "lean forward" into progressive verities. In this case, the need for more education spending. The problem as Harris-Perry sees it is that our view of parenting isn't sufficiently collectivist:

Continue reading

In response to Coming soon to the University of Colorado: the "White Privilege Conference":

There's sanity in the universe, just not enough of it.

Continue reading

In response to "(white) privilege" a socialist vision of equal outcome:

Pursuant to your post about "white privilege" wristbands, David, it turns out there's going to be a whole "White Privilege Conference" on April 14 at the University of Colorado.  At first I thought maybe they were getting together to design a stylish new look for the white-privilege wristbands - maybe a Celtic pattern stamped into the rubber this year - but no, they've got more on the agenda: government-guaranteed jobs.

Continue reading

In response to "(white) privilege" a socialist vision of equal outcome:

I've not heard of these wristbands before, David.  Thanks for the eye-opening post.  It's not easy to break the heavy crust of cynicism from my eyelids and blow them open, but you managed nicely.

Continue reading

I have warned Americans for two decades plus about a reverse racism that has now become institutionalized and here is the evidence for all to see. 

This is the true goal of the Americorps - VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) - program that encourages white students to wear a white wristband “as a reminder about your (white) privilege.”

Continue reading