Comments on: Burning Down the House

By: rterrace

rterrace — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:22:21 +0000

Ms Sara is just giving lip service to her ideology which she has been poisoned by. Hopefully as she grows older and wiser she will see the error of her ways before her newly emerging fascism turns against her. As a country we invest in the education of our citizens. It is absolutely stupid to view education otherwise. What she and others like her and Walker desire is education that only the rich can afford. I ask you to look at the child labor law repeal efforts in Maine as an example of this rampant ideology that is out of control. Did Goldman Sachs live within their means? Did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac live within their means? We know the answer to this as no. I have been stung by the newly emerging ideological shift in higher education. I am truly afraid for our children and grandchildren.

By: Britta

Britta — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:51:04 +0000

oh that second sentence should read “her personal benefits”

By: Britta

Britta — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:50:37 +0000

Oh my good god that interview was painful to read. The levels of ignorance and hostility were astounding. I also liked how she is receiving multiple forms of public benefits (Badgercare, VA health care, presumably funding for the GI bill) yet is not able to see the connection between taxes, government services, and benefits. I also liked how she presumed eliminating bargaining rights and cutting teachers’ benefits would produce an increase in the quality of teachers in WI. In addition of course, there was the ubiquitous language of entitlement:

“Why do teachers deserve to get paid better than everyone else? Just because they say so? All because they formed a little elitist club that’s good at bitching. They’re taking paid days off of work and leaving children all over the state with an even worse education.”

The missing piece of information is who the “everyone else” is. If she means white collar professionals with master’s degrees, then teachers are not over-remunerated. If she means Walmart employees, then yes, teachers are paid comparatively better, which actually aligns with a free market idea that expending effort/money for marketable skills leads to greater rewards. The presumption that people should perform skilled work for very little or no more than an unskilled worker is one main criticism leveled at Communist forms of incentivizing. Perhaps WI would prefer to adopt a totally flat pay scale for public employees, structured around minimum wage?

By: sschnei1

sschnei1 — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:41:54 +0000

Disrespect of impartial, deliberative experts, and unreasonable confidence in rash, ignorant talking heads (who may or may not be serving interests besides their own). I know for a fact it’s a problem that’s been around at least since Plato. But is it worse now? Is the issue degenerating, or am I just more easily frustrated by the idea of a mistake being made now than one having been made in the past? Honestly, I can’t tell. But the state of affairs seems bad. And I really do feel like it’s going in the wrong direction, fast.

I’m also puzzled about who’s to blame, or perhaps more productively, what the fix might be. I do think you’re doing your part.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:33:38 +0000

I’m often puzzled about whose fault it is that someone like this knows absolutely nothing about the cost structure of any activity, or the internal labor necessary to provide services. I don’t think it’s entirely a right-wing ignorance: I meet liberal/left students here who are very bright, very knowledgeable and yet have no idea what the price tag is for some of what they want, or have weirdly unrealistic expectations about what structures and systems plausibly can accomplish to secure cherished objectives. I don’t feel it’s entirely a failure to educate, since a lot of the time when you make the effort to explain, it seems to vanish into a void, be ignored, or be dismissed as defensive and obfuscating. But this particular person cited in the Awl is on another level: not only asking for a magic pony, but surly and dismissive in her demand for one.

By: jfruh

jfruh — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:39:38 +0000

Here’s an interivew with a twentysomething who supports Scott Walker in Wisconsin:

http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/one-voter-explains-why-i-support-scott-walker

The quote relevant to this blog post is here:

The Awl: You went to Madison Area Technical College. The budget will cut $71.6 million from the state’s technical college system, about 30% of the system’s funding. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Sarah: I believe that schools should run on the funds they receive from students in the form of tuition. If they believe that it isn’t enough money then they need to restructure the way they do business. They should cut back on unnecessary spending in order to operate within their means.

I found this answer pretty flabbergasting. Let’s ignore the fact that not even private colleges cover their costs via tuition; that’s honestly invisible to most people not in academia. If a public university doesn’t have its tuition subsidized by public revenues so that it can deliver tertiary education to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it, then what exactly is a public university for? Why not just close up shop and put the money in the general fund?