It's been said that necessity is the mother of invention. As we have shown in our first three posts in this series on higher education, there is much necessity. This necessity has spawned "inventions" and innovations ranging from system changes at the federal, state and local levels to individual initiatives. In this final post, we provide a Whitman's sampler of some of the approaches that are being discussed or are underway in the areas that we analyzed in our prior posts: costs; graduation … [Read more...]
Donald Trump, Statesman of the Year?
No, it's not a skit for Saturday Night Live -- at least not an intentional one. On August 26, on the day before the Republican Convention officially begins in Tampa, Florida, the Sarasota Republican Party will honor Donald Trump as its Statesman of the Year in an award ceremony in Sarasota. In making the announcement of the award on July 9, Joe Gruters, the Sarasota Republican Party chair, said to Jim Meyer of Newsmax "He is a very sage, skillful, and respected leader. Jobs and the economy … [Read more...]
Lessons from the Olympics
The Olympic Games in London opened on July 27 with a sense of playful wonderment and closed on Sunday evening August 12 with a raucous and irreverent celebration -- participated in by many of those who competed and contributed to making this an awe-inspiring event. As always, these Olympics -- in their 17 days -- taught many lessons. Here are our major takeaways. Great Britain Is Great! Mitt Romney may have had his doubts about whether London and Great Britain were ready to host the … [Read more...]
It’s Time for Customer-Centered Reform of Education: Part 1
In our August 7 post, we called upon the national Commission on Educational Attainment to bring forward new "business models" and actionable approaches to enable higher education to do a much better job in creating value for its customers -- i.e., students. In this post, we provide our analysis and thoughts on why it's time -- past time, indeed -- for customer-centered reform of higher education by examining the following areas that impact the value equation for students: college costs; … [Read more...]
It’s Time For Customer-Centered Reform of Higher Education: Part 2
In our earlier post, we analyzed four critical areas that impact the value equation for higher education customers/student: college costs; graduation and placement, return on investment; and career education and skill development. In this post, we examine three additional areas to determine their impact. Teacher Preparation: A Crisis in Competence. The quality of teacher preparation and certification has been a concern in educational circles for some time. Arne Duncan brought the issue front … [Read more...]
Higher Education, Student Loans: Victors and Victims
As June drew to a close, after much wrangling, Congress passed a transportation bill that included extending the current 3.4 percent interest rate on government subsidized student loans for one year. This was clearly a short term but much-needed victory for students. That's because, based upon two reports that came out in July, it appears that the primary victors over the past decade have been some of the institutions making these loans and the victims have been many of the students who … [Read more...]
Stand Your Ground
About half of our states have stand your ground laws, which permit individuals to use their own weapons to defend themselves when there is a reasonable belief of a threat without retreating first. Unfortunately, there is no stand your ground requirement for those who would propose any meaningful legislation for gun control. For a variety of reasons, they are in full retreat and either unwilling or unable to stand their ground. As a result, in spite of the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colo., the … [Read more...]
Trust-busting
In the early 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt engaged in "trust-busting" -- eliminating the powerful control of a few robber barons over the country, its citizens and our democracy. That was a good thing. In the early 21st century, we have a different form of trust-busting going on -- inept, illegal and amoral acts engaged in by some businesses, politicians and individuals that are destroying the bonds of confidence and faith in each other that bind the nation together. That is a bad thing. A … [Read more...]
The Skilled Worker Shortage Fallacy
America has a serious shortage of skilled workers and that is a primary cause of our lack of job creation. Right? Wrong! We have been bemused for the past few years as an ecumenical group of business leaders, academics and experts have put forward the argument that training and developing a more skilled workforce would help drive job creation. It seems to us that this is a basic misunderstanding of cause and effect. We can have a philosophical debate about which came first -- the chicken … [Read more...]
Auctioning Off Democracy
On June 22, George Washington's personal annotated copy of the Constitution including the Bill of Rights was auctioned off for almost $10 million. Just three days later, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed its Citizen's United ruling which gave corporations the right to unlimited "independent spending" to support candidates to federal election office by summarily reversing a decision by the Montana Supreme Court that had upheld a state law limiting independent political spending by … [Read more...]