Why Can’t Conservatives Be Serious About Education?
By Matt Zeitlin - Nov 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pmThe California State University system, which serves 460,000 students and is the backbone of California’s legendary public universities, is, for the first time ever, going to turn down students who meet its admissions requirements. Due to a $215 million shortfall, the system is going to have to reduce its enrollment by 10,000.
So, how does John J. Miller, of National Review’s Phi Beta Cons, respond propose we fix this distressing situation? By getting rid of school diversity organizations (LGBTQ centers etc) and cut Gender Studies programs. Now, put aside the merits of these centers or of Gender Studies as a discipline–I think we can all agree that even if you got rid of everything Miller objects to, you wouldn’t get close to covering up the shortfall.
Miller’s post is indicative of the fundamental lack of seriousness many conservatives have in discussing college education. They are so wrapped up in resentment and bitterness towards an institution they see as an incubator for the worst type of radicalism, they can really only resort to mocking hoary stereotypes of academia as opposed to actually thinking about higher education in a constructive way.
One could also say that National Review’s approach to politics is pretty similar, but I think we can let up on pointing out the utter absurdity of The Corner for a few days.
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