Perry and the Profs - He picked the right fight

Weekly Standard ^ | 9-19-2011 | Andrew Ferguson - Commentary

[sunshine state]

Thanks for posting this.

[pallis]

Good! I haven’t decided on Perry, but I’m sick to death of leftist academics guiding the destruction of this country and culture. I welcome all conservatives to the fight.

[TEXOKIE]

bttt

[Zhang Fei]

The bottom line is that Texas, which has some of the lowest (publicly-funded) college tuition rates in the nation, for both in- and out-of-state students did not maintain that distinction by accident or by spending a lot of taxpayer money. Perry made sure actual costs stayed low, instead of letting them balloon as in other states.

[D-fendr]

That the money spent and quality of education are not directly related has been shown many times.

[spawn44]

Perry, the anti-obama. That’s all I need to know.

[casinva]

Thanks for getting this info out, smoothsailing!

I really like what Rick Perry has been doing for higher education.

I LOVE the Western Governor’s University where he worked with other governors to propose and implement a low cost educational alternative to higher ed students and to those already in the work force. I have never seen a university set up like that either, distance learning or otherwise.

Here is a youtube video of Rick Perry announcing the start of Western Governors University of Texas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRSlRXikEbQ

Here is the website for Western Governors University Texas:

http://texas.wgu.edu/

I also like the “College Credit for Heroes” program Rick Perry put into place in Texas which, I haven’t forgotten smoothsailing, I learned about first from you here at FR! LOL

Thanks to this program, military men and women don’t have to spend additional time and money getting re-educated (or better educated) to re-enter the private workforce. With Texas colleges and universities offering quicker routes through a degree based on military experience and courses or classes taken while they were serving our country, this program is a sensible way of keeping college costs down for military active duty, veterans, and retired military people. It just makes sense. Plus, I like it personally because it’s just another note of military support which Rick Perry has always shown (the ONE area where I associate him very much with G.W. and his love for military men and woman). Can you tell we are retired military? LOL

I know you know about this, smoothsailing, but if anyone else was interested and wanted to know more about this program, here is Rick Perry’s announcement of the College Credit for Heroes Program:

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/16375/

Here’s a direct link to the youtube video where Rick Perry announced the College Credit for Heroes Program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzfw3lYPI-E&feature=player_embedded

[smoothsailing]

ping

[9YearLurker]

Yep, Perry may have been a bit ham-fisted about it, but he sure picked a good issue here.

[shield]

Perry Ping....

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[ExTexasRedhead]

Perry/Rubio would be tough to beat, IMO.

[keats5]

Thanks. That’s helpful as I’m still undecided.

[shield]

Something I didn’t know about Governor Perry. Very very impressive, to say the least.

[hinckley buzzard]

Very interesting. Adds a dimension to Perry that has not been publicized. It takes courage to poke the educrat establishment, much less see concrete results.

[dusttoyou]

Very good! Now if this could be started across the nation.

At least so far the PDS coyotes have not crawled from under their rock, then again how could you knock Perry for this?

[Carry_Okie]

To keep a school from lowering its standards to increase its graduation rates, he suggested giving an exit exam to all students receiving a B.A. Students wouldn’t have to pass the exam to get their degree, but the information yielded by such a test​—​how much learning is going on around here?​—​would be useful, mostly to reformers. The proposal was seen, correctly, as a threat to the status quo, which has so far successfully fought it off.

No kidding, because it was a STATE exam. Here is what they should do, and if you want to hear the educrats howl, this would really do it. It's also why Perry won't do it.

To: TigerLikesRooster

The principal reason Americans support public education is to prepare children to find employment as adults. All that stuff about literacy, roundedness, or good citizenship pales compared to the overwhelming need to acquire the credentials with which to find a job. Parents deprive themselves for decades, only to send their child to a college or university, with nearly half the coursework being unnecessary or even counterproductive and a substantial fraction more soon forgotten. Why?

Credentials. This entire system is built around the power to control who gains credentials. And who controls that game but a claque of hardened socialists committed to destroying the foundations of Western Civilization! With all that cost, all that work, and all that time spent for a rotten product, do they provide a guarantee?

No.

There is a very simple solution to this problem, one that could bring the entire edifice crashing to its knees: A competitive system of private credentials.

Envision a small shop in a strip mall: "We Test." We Test tests, and how. We Test tests are no joke, indeed; they're hard. REALLY hard. We Test guarantees that any person who can pass their tests can perform as specified with an insured guarantee. If the person you hire fails to perform to those specifications within the term of the guarantee, We Test pays the cost of hiring and training a replacement.

Any human then could use any means imaginable to acquire the necessary knowledge to pass We Test tests. Any school would do, no accreditation required. The Internet is loaded with coursework and curricula, libraries and lab-simulators. Any human with the drive and intelligence to learn on their own could then qualify for a job. No saving for decades, no brainwashing, completely transferable work, at any pace one can withstand. Any employer could then simply select from a menu of We Test specifications instead of a diploma, at any level. We Test tests.

One would think that this should have happened a long time ago, but in fact there is one thing standing in the way that makes the realization of this seeming inevitability a matter of now or never.

State licensing requires degreed credentials obtainable only at said profligate, bureaucratic and unaccountable institutions charging outrageous fees and demanding excessive time as only a State monopoly could command. Why not just amend the legislation specifying education for state licensure by adding the simple words, "or equivalent"?

As an example of how little it would take, consider my wife. She just passed her board certification exam as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. She walked into H&R Block, sat at a computer, took a three-hour exam harder than anything she'd endured in her Masters' Program at Cal State San Francisco, and within five minutes after completion had her passing grade. If the private system can handle a test that specialized, why can't it test arithmetic, algebra, US history, or college chemistry? Instead of bricks and mortar, it would be e-books in quarters. Why not?

12 posted on Sunday, May 29, 2011 7:30:37 AM by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to manage by central planning.)

I repeat: State licensing requires degreed credentials obtainable only at said profligate, bureaucratic and unaccountable institutions charging outrageous fees and demanding excessive time as only a State monopoly could command. Why not just amend the legislation specifying education for state licensure by adding the simple words, "or equivalent"?

The reason they don't do it is that even "reformers" like Perry are still STATISTS at heart, power freaks all, regardless of objectives, and therefore not to be trusted.

[smoothsailing]

Thanks Cas, for posting the links about th College Credit for Heroes program.

That was the thing that really got me interested in Governor Perry.

[smoothsailing]

...even "reformers" like Perry are still STATISTS at heart, power freaks all, regardless of objectives, and therefore not to be trusted.

So even though Governor Perry is making some headway, but it's not good enough for you, we should just cast him aside and wait for some perfect savior who has yet to arrive?

[dennisw]

I really like what Rick Perry was trying to do here. To make the spoiled rotten university .edu establishment more accountable and more efficient with money. These effin profs thinks they are gods and don’t have to be held accountable for their course load and what they do to earn their salary paid for by the Texas taxpayer