Breitbart News reports that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has entranced some conservatives with his success at crushing labor unions, but has tried to distract their attention away from his incoherent position on Common Core and Common Core testing. Some Republicans–like Jeb Bush and Susanna Martinez–are strong supporters of Common Core. Others–like Bobby Jindal–once supported it but now oppose it. But Scott Walker has everyone confused. He is both for the Common Core standards and against them. He is in favor of the federal tests and against them.
But on one issue, Republicans appear to be united. Many are eager to cut the funding of higher education to balance the budget, and to avoid raising taxes on the rich. (There may be some Republican governors who are supporting higher education; I invite readers to tell me their names.) Scott Walker (who dropped out of Marquette University) has proposed slashing $300 million from the University of Wisconsin, which is one of the finest higher education systems in the nation (or has been until now). UW campuses are preparing for the worst, with some planning to eliminate entire majors or to reduce faculty by as much as 25%. In Illinois, newly elected Governor Bruce Rauner, a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School) has proposed a $400 million cut in higher education funding. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (a graduate of Brown University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar) wants to cut higher education funding by $200 million in a state that desperately needs more intellectual capital. Doug Ducey, the new Republican Governor of Arizona (a graduate of Arizona State University), proposed (and the Legislature passed) a $99 million cut to the state’s universities, as well as eliminating all state funding from several community colleges.
This is a display of free-market fundamentalism at its most extreme. These governors (and there are undoubtedly others) would rather cut the funding of colleges that educate the professionals and brainpower of the state’s future than raise taxes on the wealthiest in their state. Or is this just an example of someone who succeeded and then decides to pull the ladder up so that no one else has the same opportunities unless they are born rich?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Exactly the plan. As I wrote to you recently, ‘higher ed’ has been the target for a very long time.
I met ProfessorJoel Shatzky on line, (he wrote at Huffington about the shenanigans going on in academia) and years ago, I read and reviewed his satiric novel on the destruction ongoing at the college level: “OptionThree.” ( READ MY REVIEW HERE) “http://www.amazon.com/review/R2ON30EMFGAYHI
You should read his book, Diane. ( it is so well-written and it would be hilarious if it weren’t so very true!)
Many of my friends, once working full-time as professors are now adjuncts, just as so many veteran teachers in public schools are hanging on as substitutes.
This conspiracy is vast, but it is no longer hidden, and you are exposing the destruction, here. Now if we can only ensure that the national media tells the story… I wonder if the new HBO VICE, might be a place to tell the story.
Someone should write a documentary script for them.
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Susan,
ABSOLUTELY…BINGO! Thus, this ridiculous College and Work Force Ready…doo-doo. Slot them (not the !% kids) when their young so that the will do the bidding of the rich. I love Downton Abbey, but OY…can ya imagine living like that (Edwardian times in England) and not questioning their privilege? Of course not, questioning would demand they look at themselves. Heck look at congress…with all their perks and money from the rich to enact laws that promote the rich and their agendas.
What does Arne’s limosine driver cost us?
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Scott Walker is just following Rick Scott’s lead here — in other words, ALEC-written legislation they have been trial-ballooning for a few years now.
Scott suggested, unsuccessfully, that colleges and universities needed to be held accountable for the tax dollars they receive by eliminating departments and majors that don’t produce profits for the school. Athletics and business? Shoe-ins. Modern Languages and social sciences? Time to say bye-bye to them!
The USDOE, by forcing NCLB/RTTT-type reforms on schools of education is playing its part too. By tying funding to test scores and ‘performance’ of graduates they will be able to starve the schools of education out of business.
The Friedman Dream seems to be eliminating liberal arts and other non-profitable studies that tend to produce liberal-leaning graduates with programs that have only one goal: preparation for making money for the 1% and narrowing who can actually afford that new version of education.
A friend of mine likened what is happening to public education in the USA now to the Cultural Revolution of China. I don’t think they anticipate having to resort to violence to achieve the same goals here that they achieved in China. They own the media and the Congress/White House/Judiciary.
I still argue that unless and until we are willing to agitate and engage in civil disobedience and real fighting, like the LGBTQ community did with ACT-UP during the AIDS crisis, we will have no chance of defeating this juggernaut.
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Excellent and powerful insights, Chris.
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This efforts involves more than balancing budgets and privatization. NC governor McCrory plainly stated that the survival of the UNC university system is dependent on compliance with his political & economic ideology. Professors & administrators who disagree will lose their funding, positions, and academic freedom of research in areas that don’t meet his purity standards. From the New Yorker ” A Political Crackdown at UNC” Mar 19, 2015
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/new-politics-at-the-university-of-north-carolina
“McCrory also had a warning for faculty members whose subjects could be understood as political: “Our universities should not be used to indoctrinate our students to become liberals or conservatives, but should teach a diversity of opinions which will allow our future leaders to decide for themselves.
On February 27th, the board, which had conducted a five-month-long review of all two hundred and forty centers and institutes at U.N.C., voted to eliminate three of them. Although the board has legal authority to govern U.N.C. as it sees fit, university policy and tradition had reserved this sort of decision for the schools. One of the closed centers was dedicated to the environment, another to voter engagement. The third, which many faculty members describe as the real target, was the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, run by Gene Nichol, a law professor and a vituperative critic of the Republican legislature.”
We are afflicted with wealthy, powerful right wing ideologues who make no secret they want our public schools & universities turned into extreme free-market systems- purged of non-believers. Independent, peer reviewed research is a liberal plot. Look at their think-tanks – such as The Beacon Center in TN- do they realize that in any other place they would be laughed out of the room?
To the Democrat’s shame, Arne’s DoEd empowered a small cadre of men to rewrite federal regs. that embed privatization, secrecy, and corruption into national policy. Duncan, DFER, & CAP’s entire strategy was to mislead progressives into believing they were working for civil rights and “accountability”. Do they (or any Dem) feel any sense of responsibility for enabling these wing-nuts?
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AMEN to your post, But, remember WHO appointed our Dunce of Education.
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I’d say those members of the Church of the Blessed Ayn who see free market beliefs as a religion, ARE funding higher education. By cutting taxes on the rich and shifting the burden to the middle class and poor, our nation has decided to subsidize private, elite colleges available to a wealthy few. It is classic income redistribution – upward.
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” It is classic income redistribution – upward.”
It’s been that way, at least more out in the open since Unca Ronnie’s Pissed-on Trickle up Voodoo Economics.
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These so called Governors are the “climate deniers” of education. They ignore the evidence and research on teaching and learning and the evidence that the “reform” strategies are failing and damaging children.
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Yep, Jeb Bush, his ignorant cronies and shepple followers (in both parties) have no clue. “Just call it FloriDENIAL” by the Miami Herald’s Jim Morin:
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GOP national racketeers following an evil genius’ game plan named ‘Operation: Scott-Stalking’ on public education.
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University of Wisconsin budget for 2014-2015 is 6.1 Billion. Reduction of state contributionby 300 million is a 5%reduction from the total and will not result in 25% reduction in the faculty. Please stop making these unsupportable statements.
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Your argument is valid only when solid amount of budget covers the entire body of faculty –instead of football stadium, basketball court, and board of regent.
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Your phrasing referring to Louisiana is priceless: “a state that desperately needs more intellectual capital.”
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Everything that has been happening to education here has also been happening to education in England.
See: “The war against humanities at Britain’s universities: Higher education is stuffed with overpaid administrators squeezing every ounce of efficiency out of lecturers and focusing on the ‘profitable’ areas of science, technology, engineering and maths. Are the humanities at risk of being wiped out?”
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/29/war-against-humanities-at-britains-universities
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The GOP is also blocking Elizabeth Warren’s effort to stop the crushing burden of student loan debt on 40M Americans. Please sign the petition:
http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/
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Could it be that eliminating funding for higher ed. opens the door for foundations (i.e. Gates, Koch, Walton, etc.) to fill the gap with their money – which of course, comes with strings attached to promote their ideas and ALEC’s legislations????? This is very frightening. Another example of money buying ideology.
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