Wall Street Journal editorial on UW System cuts

[lutefisk]

This strikes me as misrepresenting what Walker is up to with the budget and UW System. But this is how the story is crafted for WSJ readers' consumption.

Scott Walker’s School Days
Wisconsin’s Governor takes on higher-ed costs. Faculty horror ensues.

Colleges are usually at the forefront of radical politics, but when it comes to their own privileges they become feudal empires. Behold the revolt in the Wisconsin state university system over Governor Scott Walker’s appeal for modest accountability.

In Mr. Walker’s recent biennial budget proposal, he joined the national debate on higher education. The Governor and potential presidential candidate wants to extend a 2013-2015 tuition freeze at the University of Wisconsin for two more years, and then slightly reduce state aid in exchange for more independence for the system....

...The demonstrators even object to Mr. Walker’s suggestion that UW’s “Wisconsin idea” mission include a goal “to develop human resources to meet the state’s workforce needs.” This is supposedly anti-intellectual, though perhaps authority figures should tell the kids majoring in social justice to prepare for the jobs they’ll need in the real world....

...Mr. Walker has already infuriated the professoriate by proposing offhand that they cut costs by taking on an extra courseload a semester. If UW refuses to find this or other savings, he should next try to abolish tenure.

LINK The link worked fine when I read the article, but when I tested it in the preview it asked for log in. At least you can get the "idea" of how this budget bill is being spun by reading this excerpt...

[elleng]

1. 'Modest accountability,' right.

[Scuba]

2. Yeah, $300 million in cuts is 'modest accountability'.

[ladym55]

3. Rethugs don't support education

Educated people can THINK, and that is a no-no.

Rethugs want higher education to be "workforce development." All coursework should train the little cogs to be skilled little workers and consumers who don't question. And WSJ, a Murdoch rag, will support this view of education with shoddy writing and even shoddier thinking.

College faculty, like their K-12 teacher counterparts, are straw men. Faculty are lazy, all liberal, blah, blah, blah. They need to teach more. Who needs research? Again, Rethugs don't get that. Doesn't make immediate profits, so why have it? And the expensive part of higher education isn't faculty, it's the administration. How many academic vice presidents does it take to educate a freshman? Lots more of them than faculty in a classroom.

The attacks on UW are breaking my heart. I'm not a graduate, but I get the Wisconsin Idea, and it is awesome. The UW system has done a great job for a long time EDUCATING the people of Wisconsin. Watching it all get smashed to pieces by a congenital liar with a high school diploma is hard to handle.

[Still In Wisconsin]

4. Sure Republicans support higher Ed.

They just believe that only the ultra-rich should be able to afford a decent one.

[lutefisk]

6. "congenital liar" more accurate than pathological liar

But either way, our governor is a liar.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

5. Like with the whole act 10 thing - they just totally mischaracterize and miss

key points of issue. For example, this passage:


...The demonstrators even object to Mr. Walker’s suggestion that UW’s “Wisconsin idea” mission include a goal “to develop human resources to meet the state’s workforce needs.” ...

WRONG! The UW admins stated they were open to ADDing the goal - what was objected to was REMOVING phrases like "search for truth" and perhaps the one that most defines the WI idea, which is bringing education to the people ie the boundaries of the University are the boundaries of the state.

Before 2011 I had no idea just how truly awful the state of news reporting in this country has become - just totally missing key points of information, reprinting without questions flat out lies from Walker et al (like the supposed 7 million dollars in damage to the capitol).