Over Invested and Over Priced - American Higher Education Today

The prevailing view among leaders in the university community is that America is not investing enough in higher education. A recent survey of the American economy by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) echoed that concern. After all, college graduates are dramatically more productive than those without higher education preparation, and America is falling behind other nations in the proportion of the adult population with college degrees. National competitiveness and economic well-being are at risk, or so it is argued. The conventional wisdom downplays the concerns about rising costs, particularly soaring tuition fees.One argument is that the cost explosion is an illusion: "net tuition fees" (sticker tuition prices minus scholarship aid and loans) have risen less dramatically than gross tuition fees (published rates). Americans think college costs are greater than they really are. Besides, the rate of return of a university education remains high, since the earnings differential associated with college has risen over the past several decades in tandem with fees, maintaining a high return on the financial investment. Yet I think most of these arguments are flawed, even downright wrong. An excellent case can be made that we are over invested in universities, that too many students attend school, that much of our investment is wasted. Moreover, the rise in costs -- to society, to taxpayers, and especially to consumers -- is excessive, and has been made more so by well meaning but inappropriate public policies. The law of unintended consequences looms large in any discussion of America's colleges and universities

Leisure and Liberal Education: a Plea for Uselessness

A liberal education informs a person in the proper use of leisure. Liberal education, as the word liberal suggests, is intimately connected with the idea of personal freedom. The central role of the liberal or liberating arts is to free us, if only for short periods of time, from mundane affairs, from the need to subordinate our lives, wills, and intellects to external demands, from the need—whether real or merely felt—to place ourselves under the sway of the marketplace in order to make a living. After all, human excellence requires more than the material ends that are procured through labor, however important such ends may be in their own right. The article discusses the challenges posed by the three divergent interests of the modern university which are teaching, research and professional training, in the age of technology. It explains that since society places a high premium on utility, even scholarly works must be dedicated to production. The article asserts that while modern university is confronted with conflicting goals, it should seek to circumvent the tension by proffering the idea that the university is free from the demands of the marketplace where usefulness is the measuring stick

The Frailty of Economic Reforms: Political Logic and Constitutional Lessons

Why are efficiency-enhancing reforms often frail and subject to being undermined over time? Two theories are examined: public-choice theory, which explains this as the possible result of a need, from time to time, to wipe the slate clean in order to retain productivity in the distribution of favors to interest groups, and a theory which acknowledges that politicians may implement reforms for ideological reasons but still, as time passes, be influenced by the logic of the political and media systems to abandon their initial aspirations. In any case, the demise of reforms is partly a function of the constitutional setting: rules which encourage shortsightedness and easy satisfaction of interest-group agendas make it difficult for decision-makers to withstand pressure for legislative change. Avenues to mitigate these problems through constitutional reforms are explored.tax reform; political incentives; constitutional reform

The School Finance Redesign Project: A Synthesis of Project Work to Date

Highlights the School Finance Redesign Project's early findings on the funding needed for all students to meet academic standards, promising ideas for focusing funding on promoting learning and rewarding educators, and the current system's constraints

For Benevolence and for Self-Interest: Social and Commercial Entrepreneurial Activity across Nations

We conceptualise social entrepreneurship as a source of social capital which, when present in the environment, enhances commercial entrepreneurship. We also argue that social entrepreneurship should be recognised as a second form of Baumol's (1990) productive entrepreneurship and that it will therefore compete at the individual level for resources with commercial entrepreneurship. Unlike institutional void theory, we see social entrepreneurship as conditional on institutional quality, but consistent with the institutional void perspective we see it as filling the gaps where government activism is lower. These arguments motivate our hypotheses that we test and largely confirm applying multilevel modelling. Our analysis is based on population-representative samples in 47 countries (the 2009 GEM dataset).social capital, social entrepreneurship, institutional theory, resources, socio-cognitive theory

Legal Classics: After Deconstructing the Legal Canon

The debate over the canon has gripped the University in recent years. Defenders of the canon argue that canonical texts embody timeless and universal themes, but critics argue that the process of canonization subordinates certain people and viewpoints within society in order to assert the existence of a univocal tradition. Originating primarily in the field of literary criticism, the canon debate recently has emerged in legal theory. Professor Francis J. Mootz argues that the issues raised by the canon debate are relevant to legal scholarship, teaching and practice. After reviewing the extensive commentary on the literary canon, Professor Mootz criticizes the polemical structure of the debate and asserts that an appreciation of classical, as opposed to canonical, texts opens the way for a productive inquiry. He defines a classical text as one that both shapes contemporary concerns and also serves as a point of reference for revising these concerns. Classical texts enable critical perspectives rather than submitting to them, he continues, because they provide the arena for debates about issues of public concern. Using Hadley v. Baxendale as an example of a legal classic, Professor Mootz contends that the power of such a classical text is its ability to shape hotly contested legal debates. Our time . . . seems unpropitious for thinking about the question of the classic, for . . . it seems to be a simple either/or that requires merely a choosing of sides: for or against? back to the classics or away from them? Our time calls not for thinking but a vote. And it may well be too late for thinking about the classic in any case, for the vote is already in, and the nays have it

Dean Ashenden\u27s proposal for restructuring teachers\u27 work: a junior primary school perspective

This report documents the findings of a study on Dean Ashenden\u27s proposal for radically restructuring schools. Dean Ashenden is a highly influential educationist in Australia. Over the past twenty years he has written and talked extensively on equality of educational opportunity, the nature of teachers work\u27, and Award Restructuring; his counsel has been sought by key decision makers in education systems throughout the country; and in 1988 he was a facilitator on several occasions during negotiations between the W.A. Ministry of Education and the State School Teachers Union

Lost conversations: finding new ways for black and white Australians to lead together

It\u27s time for a game-changer in how black and white Australians relate.   The difficulties we have in coming together—to talk, to work, to lead change—are core to our challenge to reconcile, as a country. But if we want to shift the status quo, if we want to lead change on entrenched Indigenous disadvantage, we don\u27t need another program, initiative or money to try and \u27fix\u27 the problem. We need to start having a different conversation.  The result of two years experience working together as part of a Social Leadership Australia initiative, Lost Conversations brings together the diverse perspectives and personal stories of five Aboriginal and four non-Indigenous authors, all with first-hand knowledge of what happens when black and white Australians come together to try and work on change.  Lost Conversations asks the questions and starts the conversations that we daren\u27t have in Australia ... until now:  What is \u27black\u27 power? What is \u27white\u27 power?  What qualifies someone to lead in this cross-cultural space?  Why is this so hard to talk about?  Can we start to name these things and try to shift the status quo?  Can we change?  Should we?  &nbsp