Higher education in America continues to fail us. Colleges and universities have priced themselves out of the market by raising tuition at twice the rate of inflation, saddling many graduates with crippling student loan debt. From taking no responsibility for the quality of their graduate "product" to being indoctrination camps for liberalism, academia has gone over the cliff.
A study by education expert Sandra Stotsky for Renaissance Learning concluded that average college freshmen now read at about a seventh-grade level. Or, as the Obama education department probably reported it, "Seventh-graders now read at a college level."
Ron HartNothing better demonstrates just how out of control this situation has become than the recent lunacy at the University of Missouri, where trumped-up, scant-to-nonexistent "facts" led to left-winged hysteria that resulted in a spineless university president's resignation. Led by faux hunger-striker and veteran of the Ferguson protests Jonathan Butler (an African-American Mizzou grad student whose father made $8.4 million last year as an executive with Union Pacific Railroad), Concerned Students 1950, an activist group, made a list of silly demands. One of them was that UM President Tim Wolfe acknowledge his "white male privilege." Wolfe then became a sheep.
In liberal academia, everything is seen as a sign of oppression, especially when you constantly drum into students' heads how they have been so wronged. Using the Democratic Party as the model, the dubious "victim" status has been used as a weapon to bully others. Crybullying has replaced rational persuasion. When leftist adults supposedly in charge cower instead, kids take over. It is not much different from parenting.
Ironically, all the fake racial battles at Mizzou really began with graduate students who were mad at President Wolfe for cutting their health care coverage. The reason he tried to cut this cost? Obamacare. If the students had been educated properly, they would be able to see the facts here.
Even at a renowned journalism school like Missouri, teachers routinely violate the First Amendment and intimidate the Fourth Estate. Melissa Click, a communications teacher who looks like she still brags about composting (I'd put the over-under on how many cats she owns at 5), personified this practice. She called for "muscle" from other demonstrators to remove a student photojournalist covering the students' little sit-in show.
Instead of playing the football game with the team members who were committed, the wimpy losing Missouri football coach folded like a cheap stadium seat. Can you imagine Coach Nick Saban of Alabama allowing that?
This is another issue of public colleges' accountability to taxpayers. The Wall Street Journal reported that college presidents and their lobbyists have worked to stop a plan to rate colleges on affordability and outcomes. It could have been the only good thing Obama had done for education. But by schmoozing politicians and D.C. educrats with their stadium skyboxes and taxpayer-paid budgets, college presidents recently worked together to stop this important accountability initiative.
The way we treat kids today has led us further into the "wussy-fication" of America. These kids oppose rapist regimes like Nigeria's Boko Haram with Twitter hashtags. The Greatest Generation risked death to liberate Europe, but these coddled kids think that if they tweet about something, they deserve congratulations.
This also explains why we are being beaten up by Islamic extremists. Today's college kids think Shariah Law is a daytime reality TV show featuring a no-nonsense lady judge.
Employers, if you are thinking about hiring one of these kids, think again. Evaluate the school, the education it provides and the values of the kid you are considering. Missouri should be in the penalty box for now.
The takeaway: You can send your child to Missouri, or to most liberal arts colleges. Alternatively, you can save time by calling your family out into the backyard and burning the kid's tuition money in front of them.
Contact Ron Hart at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.