Emmer’s proposes cutting $400 million or so from higher ed.
Listening to the left’s caterwauling, you’d think this was all coming out of student’s pocketbooks.
But Emmer also proposes shutting down one of our extra MNSCU schools. Minnesota is overstocked with them; we could do without one of them.
And a note here – while the media has been carping about Emmer’s need for budget “details”, the Dayton “plan” includes no details on higher education spending of any kind. Horner’s plan calls for a tab of nearly three billion, plus abou$360 million in “investments”, minus something in “redesign”. Government is fun for wonks, isn’t it?
It’s been said that the reason they are opening up a new 4 year college in Rochester (even though they have problems paying for the existing schools) is to get people in that area to support unlimited funding for higher education. “Hey, a lot of that money will be spent in Olmstead county”. These people aren’t stupid.
Serious question. Have any of you out there in your professional lives, had a boss say “we need someone who has a 4 year degree in GLBT Studies”? I am really not quite clear why the taxpayers are funding some of these majors.
You are not seeing the big picture, Chuck. Companies will be required to document and implement a “GLBT Awareness and Impact Plan”. Who else will be able to oversee such a plan other than a GLBT Studies grad?
You could cut this amount as well by requiring four year state colleges to end remedial courses–fully 1/3 of incoming freshmen at “the U” require them, and only 17% of them graduate in six years. they would be far better off learning a trade and not getting into debt doing so…..
It’s kind of arcane knowledge, but most state colleges were originally land-grant institutions. States founded them in order to give the children of common citizens a shot at a college degree. I believe the phrase ” children of farmers and mechanics” was typically used to describe their targeted student body.
I am not sure that the state of MN (or Hawaii for that matter) serves this constituency well by giving a middle-class student a degree in an impractical subject.
It is entertaining, in a sad sort of way, to read the liberal arts grads’ bulletin boards. A common theme is “my institution and my professors encouraged me to spend eight years of my life and several hundred thousand dollars getting PhD in (name if lib arts program here) and the only job I can get is barista at Starbucks — and the longer I’ve been out of grad school, the worse my academic job prospects will get”.
Terry,
Good points.
As I look at my own children, one of which got a BA and one still at it, I questioned their choices of career path – theater. They chose that path and, as they are experiencing right now, have to live with the consequences, i.e. not being able to find work in a very crowded field. Fortunately, they both understood that before taking the plunge and are working in other industries while they pursue their primary goal.
With all reverence to King, higher ed is long overdue for right sizing, elimination of duplication, elimination of nonsense majors like Women’s Studies, outsourcing, …
By the U’s own admission, they have no idea what to do with the St. Paul campus, for example. Close it and sell it!