The Democrats Retake the House; Now What for Higher Ed?

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | November 14, 2018 | George Leef

[reaganaut1]

Back in the summer, it seemed that the Republican/conservative vision for higher education reform was building momentum. A House GOP bill called the PROSPER Act was on the verge of moving toward passage and education secretary Betsy DeVos was implementing regulatory changes meant to undo some Obama-era policies such as the “Gainful Employment” rule and aggressive Title IX mandates.

Then, the landscape of higher education policy was dramatically changed in the 2018 midterm elections with the House of Representatives going to the Democrats. Politicians with a completely different approach to higher ed will now have a loud voice. The Republican/conservative ideas will face powerful opposition and Democratic/liberal ideas are back in the game.

For starters, PROSPER is dead.

Writing for the Martin Center at the end of May, Jenna A. Robinson explained that the bill would eliminate outdated federal regulations, encourage innovation, and simplify the student loan system. But the bill never came to a vote, mainly due to stiff opposition from Democrats and their allies in the higher education industry. They don’t want less government control, but more.

The Democrats’ proposal for higher ed reform, introduced in July by Virginia Representative Bobby Scott (who will now chair the House Committee on Education and the Workforce), is called the Aim Higher Act. The bill is almost a point-by-point counter to the GOP bill, increasing federal control and spending in every instance.

Representative Scott sees his bill as advancing the national interest, stating, “Every person deserves the economic mobility and personal growth that comes with higher education and that’s what the Aim Higher Act provides.” Scott clearly buys into the standard liberal belief that nearly everyone benefits from formal postsecondary education and it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that as many Americans as possible attend.

[pfflier]

Their first move in education will be to buy off all higher ed students with student loan amnesty.

[refreshed]

Just wait for the Republicans to reach across the aisle in support of a whole bunch of this junk. It would be racist for the senate to vote no.

[Amendment10]

Beware that so-called “higher ed” now means pro-Democratic indoctrination centers.

Although the Constitution resolves major problem of unconstitutional federal interference with INTRAstate schools, since people are not being taught the fed’s constitutionally limited powers, the problem persists.

More specifically, President Thomas Jefferson had officially indicated in a State of the Union address that the states would first need to amend the Constitution to expressly give Congress the specific power to make policy, regulate, tax and spend for intrastate schools, something that the states have never done.

• On a few articles of more general and necessary use, the suppression in due season will doubtless be right, but the great mass of the articles on which impost is paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers [emphases added].”—Thomas Jefferson : Sixth Annual Message to Congress

• "Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States."—Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

• ”... the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen, under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Federal Constitution, is in the States, and not in the Federal Government [emphases added].” —Rep. John Bingham, Congressional Globe, 1866. (See about middle of 3rd column.)

• ”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

• "The smart crooks long ago figured out that getting themselves elected to federal office to make unconstitutional tax laws to fill their pockets is a much easier way to make a living than robbing banks." —me

• "Federal career lawmakers probably laugh all the way to the bank to deposit bribes for putting loopholes for the rich and corporations in tax appropriations laws, Congress actually not having the express constitutional authority to make most appropriations laws where domestic policy is concerned. Such laws are based on stolen state powers and uniquely associated stolen state revenues." —me

We desperately need to repeal the 16th and ill-conceived 17th Amendments, 17 the "broomstick of the wicked witch (Soros)."

[MrChips]

Will they be able to block Devoss’s reform of Title IX? One of the main things she was implementing was a reform giving the accused (usually male) on college campuses the right to a fair trial in sexual assault cases. They have had none.

[Fido969]

It will turn into an even bigger pile of cr@p.

[pfflier]

Probably. Their mindset is to undo anything the Trump administration has done.