A reader informs us about Florida Governor Rick Scott’s plans to transfer the destructive ideas of K-12 to the higher education sector. Last fall, Governor Scott memorably said that Florida doesn’t need more people with anthropology degrees, that presumably being an unusually useless area of study; his daughter has an anthropology degree:
| The university system is already under attack in Florida. Our governor wants professors to be judged by student evaluations. They want professors to give up tenure in exchange for the opportunity to earn bonuses for research and such. They want to rate education schools based on the VAM scores of their graduates and admissions profile. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why doesn’t he wait to see if his K-12 initiatives actually worked?
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That’s an easy one. Because our children (and college students) can’t wait!
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Man, you’ve gotten their “lingo” down!!!!
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Fine as long as the professors can bend/break the rules the way Scott did in the business world, where he ripped off the government for more than a billion dollars.
Oh wait, that’s only for the big fish, not for ordinary people, who if they don’t strictly follow rules that have no meaning except as a means of control and belittlement get slammed with criminal penalties, loss of careers, etc.
Are we still a democracy?
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Putting one more brief comment because I forgot to check the box to remind me of folloup comments, and I do want to see the reactions of others.
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Here are some additional details about the plans that were proposed in Florida.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-08-22/news/os-scott-higher-education-reform-20110822_1_higher-education-college-boards-rick-scott
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Amazing, everyday it seems as if the high tide wave of public education deformer insane, unproven, ludicrous, etc. . . , ideas has morphed into a tidal wave morphing into a tsunami. Will it never end? “When will we ever learn?” to quote Peter, Paul and Mary.
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One day this tidal wave will crash on the shore. Lots of collateral damage until then. But it will happen.
You can’t fool all the people all the time.
Lots of people looking foolish, with egg on their face (to mix the metaphor).
And naked, with no one to admire their faux-designer outfits.
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We (teacher educators) must step up and take the first volley. The reformers are coming after teacher education first and we must do all we can to protect the academy. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/teacher-education-policy_b_1000306.html)
However, all higher education faculty need to recognize that they’re not only coming for teacher education programs. They are coming for all programs on all campuses. It would be wise to help out your brothers and sisters in schools and colleges of education. Whatever happens to them will happen to you.
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RI just abolished the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education and the Board of governor’s for Higher Education and created an 11-member board to oversee elementary, secondary, and higher education with virtually no stakeholder input.
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Bad idea, but I’m sick to death of reading about college professors pushing their marxist ideology on the students. Another reason I refused to pay for my kids’ college education if they chose schools/classes with that nonsense.
“Women’s studies”? Seriously? Who pays for that garbage.
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“MOMwithAbrain”, you’re a sad, sick woman. And quite delusional.
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