Letter: Higher education must focus

Higher education in Louisiana has two problems: it is underfunded and the accountability system that assures quality educational outcomes is very weak. It is my intention, in cooperation with Rep. Steve Carter, chairman of the House Committee on Education, to bring both of these issues to the forefront in this year’s legislative session. It is our intention to bring both of these issues to the forefront in this year’s legislative session.

Our proposed legislation, which is still under development in consultation with the higher education community, simply directs the Board of Regents and higher education stakeholders to re-examine the way state funds are currently allocated to our institutions, and to consider development of a funding formula that properly considers costs — but emphasizes the outcomes — needed for each student. The Board of Regents, not the Legislature, will develop the new funding formula.

There is no doubt that our institutions of higher education are underfunded, a situation that must be rectified. However, this is not a valid reason to refrain from beginning a discussion of how to best focus available resources to produce the desired results at the campus level.

It is practical, not punitive, to allocate a portion of the state funding for higher education based upon how well institutions meet student and state needs. Currently, our retention and graduation rates fall well below the regional and state averages, and we must significantly strengthen the linkage between training and degree programs and workforce needs.

Our students need a clear, direct and efficient path to degrees that are linked to real, quality jobs, while incurring the least amount of debt possible.

Our economic prosperity dictates that we increase the number of adults with postsecondary certificates and degrees that meet current and projected workforce and economic development needs. It is the combined responsibility of the state and the postsecondary educational system to meet these needs. To do otherwise constitutes a disservice to the students and the state.

Our purpose is to support and promote education and to reform higher education in a manner that allows our students to succeed and create a brighter, sustainable future for our state. We stand ready and willing to work with the higher education community, the business community and other interested parties to achieve this mutually beneficial end.

State Sen. Conrad Appel
chairman, Senate Committee on Education

Metairie

Comments

1) Comment by bourbon-soda - 12/03/2013

Metaphor. Jumping between C.P. Snow's 2 cultures can be slippery.

2) Comment by bourbon-soda - 12/03/2013

Another expert DWEM, Jacques Barzun, wrote about the problem of requiring a PhD to teach, taking off on James's metaphore, as "The PhD Squid" but I can't find the article or book.

3) Comment by InPVille - 12/03/2013

@bourbon-soda: Thanks for the reference link. So True.

4) Comment by bourbon-soda - 11/03/2013

@InPville - adding William James' to Hutchins' "arcane quotes from 'experts', referring to useless links," "The PhD Octopus" - search "the phd octopus william james" and choose << grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/The-Ph-D-Octopus-By- William-James-Classic-Essays.htm >>. What you describe is not a new problem.

5) Comment by InPVille - 11/03/2013

Receiving an education may be the most important thing to those enrolling at a university. However, for the professors the job of teaching can be a secondary pursuit to the job of keeping your position and advancing in the position and to tenure. The task of successfully publishing scholarly papers(that is more than one a year) in peer reviewed journals is crucial. One of professors back in the 60s was forthright enough to flat out inform the class(freshman level) of this. While he did a respectable job, "publish or perish" has since become even more the rule at the university level, though less so or not at all for those at the community college level. But the pay is also less, from several people I know in the business. While it is not impossible to do a respectable job at both, if one has to take the back seat . . .

6) Comment by bourbon-soda - 09/03/2013

Education is one among many human endeavors in Louisiana and everywhere else. The owners, or their representatives, of educational institutions, have a right and obligation to oversee and control those institutions. The directors may be changed by vote of the owners (the people) at designated intervals. Educational institutions are not, or should not be, sacred cows. Employees of educational institutions and systems of institutions are as economically self-interested as anyone else. The claim that educational institutions produce unique economic benefits for the state in general for any particular state, justifying the protection from budgetary exigences, as a rationale for protection of funding for education, carries with it the liability that the performance of the institutions may be examined in economic terms. There is no longer any sharp distinction between a trade and a profession. The blurring of that distinction, still visible in many states' rivalry between a university and a "cow college," is a well documented aspect of American history. What is it about discussions of these matters, that requires personal characterization of anyone on either side of any of the them?

7) Comment by Scrooge - 09/03/2013

If one tries to follow the train of logic of b_s's rationales in a thread, it is often that the train never arrives at the station. Attempts at extended engagement will degenerate into a defense of the absurd supported by a self-righteous absurdity. Nothing like a concrete example as below to justify these claims.

8) Comment by bourbon-soda - 09/03/2013

Still irrelevant.

9) Comment by Bouncer - 09/03/2013

Undisputed because indisputable. I enjoy wasting some time on these forums for entertainment value, but you're taking the word "geek" to a whole new heretofore unexplored level. I'm laughing at you so hard that I actually am beginning to feel a little guilty about it. You just can't help yourself, can you? Poor fellow. Get some help.

10) Comment by bourbon-soda - 09/03/2013

Undisputed because irrelevant. Dispute of the irrelevant is distraction augmenting that of the irrelevance.

11) Comment by Bouncer - 09/03/2013

Thanks for continuing to prove my point about the correlation between inflated self-opinion and verbose claptrap by posting more of the same. Again, not one syllable of the "personal characterization" has been disputed. It is beyond dispute.

12) Comment by bourbon-soda - 09/03/2013

@tradewinns - LSU has a number of departments that could reasonably be viewed as teaching "trades," which I think was something of a departure from European tradition, where the "polytechnics" and the like are still viewed as somewhat déclassé compared to the more elite universities.

13) Comment by bourbon-soda - 09/03/2013

Granting myself an indulgence on the use of personal characterization, this raises the question of whether the cheerleaders for privileged and unexamined funding for higher education have actually absorbed any. Based on the north-south gradient of educational achievement but wanting to stay in the same universe as LSU, I checked another flagship, the University of Missouri's, first year writing page. Mizzou provide a link to Arizona State University, which provides "Methods for Argument.doc": "Name calling: 'She’s always wrong, but what do you expect from a Republican/Democrat?' or 'Of course he’s opposed to the Mexican Wolf reintroduction program—he’s a conservative.\' A political affiliation does not make somebody instantly wrong—and perhaps the conservative has legitimate concerns about reintroducing the Mexican Wolf into the wild." Compare to "They also, like bourbon_soda, do not understand the distinction between the preparation needed for the vocations and that for the professions," "First, he obviously has an axe to grind with higher education, which usually means that the academy neglected to recognize his 'genius.' [error of generalization] Second, he is so busy trying to 'impress"'everyone that he cannot hold a conversation without reliance on arcane quotes from 'experts', referring to useless links, and employing what I suppose in his mind is 'learned' language."

14) Comment by Bouncer - 09/03/2013

Note also that not a syllable of the "personal characterization" is disputed, as simple observation reveals that it is beyond dispute. Go have a drink. Better yet, sober up.

15) Comment by bourbon-soda - 09/03/2013

Note prevalence of personal characterization and from which side.

16) Comment by tradewinns - 08/03/2013

universities do impart knowledge of a different skill set than the "trades". however universities are suppose to instill the desire to "think". to challenge oneself to strive to better yourself and society through independent freedom of thought. even in something as structured as say accounting there is room to create new directions of thoughts. otherwise there would not be LIFO and FIFO accounting systems. be creative in your thinking, that's why you went to the university. and no the university is not underfunded. the schools want to fill every seat and have at least one on standby for when the original drops out because they were not university material (the replacement isn't either). so the truly university material must suffer because of all the others thrown in for the money. once the student body is backed own to just university qualified (and of course the obligatory football players) the school will be overstaffed, overfunded and overbuilt. but LSU and the others will be able to turn out qualified graduates.

17) Comment by Bouncer - 08/03/2013

I agree entirely, SuzanneMS. I don't even try to have a "dialogue" with the likes of ***** First, he obviously has an axe to grind with higher education, which usually means that the academy neglected to recognize his "genius." Second, he is so busy trying to "impress" everyone that he cannot hold a conversation without reliance on arcane quotes from "experts", referring to useless links, and employing what I suppose in his mind is "learned" language. I usually just laugh at him, as he represents the very worst of someone with the graduate student mentality: lots of big words with no real content behind them. Thanks, as always, for your on-target, germane comments, Suzanne.

18) Comment by bourbon-soda - 08/03/2013

Should be "plumbers:pipes::philosophers:theories." I thought the originator was Hutchins rather than Gardner; still looking.

19) Comment by bourbon-soda - 08/03/2013

I was looking for the original quote about plumbers:pipes::philosophy:theory (regarding holding water or not) and ran across this: "I do not need to tell you what the public thinks about universities. You know as well as I, and you know as well as I that the public is wrong. The fact that popular misconceptions of the nature and purpose of universities originate in the fantastic misconduct of the universities themselves is not consoling." - Robert Maynard Hutchins.

20) Comment by bourbon-soda - 08/03/2013

Egalitarian indulgence in elitism, is always enlightening. America has a long history of blurring the distinction between learning for economic productivity and that of the liberal arts, going back at least to the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862. I am not sure of the provenance of the name "Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College," but it probably reflects this American tradition. Besides that, the "Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission a s he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower," - Robert M. Pirsig

21) Comment by SuzanneMS - 08/03/2013

Because, Bouncer, their vision of the world in still being dictated by the plantation mentality of the past. They envision a state in which the vast majority do the labor, while they and their friends enjoy the benefits of that labor. Sadly, far too many in Louisiana share the same vision, even though they are the ones who will be exploited. They also, like bourbon_soda, do not understand the distinction between the preparation needed for the vocations and that for the professions. Nearly all professional degrees are graduate degrees today. They require an undergraduate degree which provides them with critical thinking skills, analytical ability, and a broad, general grounding in the humanities and social sciences. Did he repeat himself word-for-word in the first paragraph by mistake or because he thought no one would understand him the first time? It is ironic to find these kinds of mistakes in a letter criticizing public higher education. The fact that higher education is underfunded is precisely the reason not to be talking about "how to best focus available resources at the campus level to provide desired outcomes." It is impossible to arrive at the desired outcomes without adequate funding. The discussion needs to be first about what the desired outcomes are and then what level and type of resources are necessary to achieve them. As with public education at all levels, the quality of the students is key. High education could increase retention and graduation rates simply by passing everyone, and that, I fear, is what will happen. Students in Louisiana arrive without the necessary background and skills needed to truly succeed in higher education. Higher education can either spend the additional time necessary to bring these students up to where they need to be, but that will mean they take more than 4 years to graduate, or they can just throw in the towel and pass them for showing up to class. This, of course, will set up a death spiral, as the better students apply to and attend elite private institutions which are much more rigorous and demanding -- very much like what is happening at the elementary and secondary levels.

22) Comment by [e-mail] - 08/03/2013

Underfunded? Wake up and smell the coffee; it's under-managed and top heavy with edu-crats.

23) Comment by bourbon-soda - 08/03/2013

Accountants, doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, and so on, are part of the "'the workforce'". When education in general is appealing to the populace for money to enhance the economic position of professors (also part of "'the workforce'"), it characterizes itself as useful in occupational and economic development. When it wishes to to exempt itself from evaluation by the populace, it claims to exist for higher values not subject to the crass judgement of the marketplace. This is known to critical thinkers as having it both ways.

24) Comment by Bouncer - 08/03/2013

Universities such as LSU are NOT, I repeat, are NOT "vocational training and technical schools." Universities train students who aspire to enter professions: business, accounting, medicine, dentistry, law, teaching, and so on. Universities do NOT train students to enter what this idiot and others like him think of as "the workforce": refrigeration and air conditioning, plumbing, factory work, and other such skilled and unskilled occupations. I cannot for the life of me understand why idiots such as the author of this letter have such a difficult time getting that distinction through their thick skulls.