Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, has written an outstanding analysis of the Obama administration’s shockingly uninformed plans to redesign higher education.

McGuire notes that Arne Duncan has an annoying habit of trying to marginalize critics by calling them “silly.” If there is anything silly, it is his ill-conceived program to make college more affordable by gathering more data. Excuse me?

She points out that Duncan listens to no one with any experience in the field (sound familiar?) and plans to hold hearings where knowledgeable people will have five minutes to speak. It is just plain silly to think that these “hearings” will change anything.

As she notes,

“This arrogant view that most critics are silly has led the U.S. Department of Education to devalue any challenging input on the higher education proposals. On very short notice, the Department announced that it would hold just four one-day hearings at public university campuses around the country where people who wanted to make comments would get five minutes to do so. This is a cynical way to block thoughtful participation in the regulatory process. The proposals are serious and complicated, requiring far more than a cursory five minutes of analysis. This administration has a huge credibility problem these days; saying it wants input but then providing only the most superficial input method adds to the perception that there’s no real interest in sincere dialogue and exploration of any ideas other than those the administration already proposes.”

The administration claims that it wants to control costs and increase access, but its proposals are contradictory. McGuire sees a train wreck ahead, but no one at the US DOE is listening.

If you care about higher education, read this article.