TAKING ON HIGHER EDUCATION:

There is still a lot of respect in the country for the hard sciences and the people who teach them, but with the partial exception of economists and business school professors, much of the public has been losing its veneration for social science professors and humanities professors for some time.

What we are likely to see is a steady and long term pressure against the ‘research university’ model outside of the natural sciences, with politicians (often supported by voters who want cheaper tuition) pushing to increase teaching loads. Teachers would be paid to teach, not to write critical gender study analyses for peer reviewed publications of little interest to the average voter.

About time. Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s governor, is taking the lead, and I’d like to see what Carly Fiorina (another potential candidate to my liking) has to say.