June 20, 2012
Flexible degrees?
Headline in the Wisconsin State Journal: "UW TO OFFER FLEXIBLE DEGREE While the WSJ did not ask the governor if he will apply to become a UW graduate--"just call me Flex-Gov"--one can only speculate that Scott Walker will have his car deliver him to Bascom Hall for classes like Greek & Roman culture, Econ 101, and Polling As An Art Form in Shaping Debates. If the governor comes to Fighting Bob Fest we will ask what he has in mind.
We must ask lots of questions about this so-called flex program. After Walker and Biddy Martin failed to persuade the Board of Regents to privatize the Madison Campus, is the new, newer, newest Walker plan a back-door to privatization? My guess is yes, it is. Or is it a not-so-subtle plan to reduce or eliminate technical colleges?
Why is Flex-Gov so upset that 25.5 percent of Wisconsin's population has a bachelor's degree (two points less than the national average and 7 points less than Minnesota)? It is way way too simplistic to use these percentages without examination of all sorts of other data such as poverty levels, cost, tuition, etc.? And what does this have to do with the skyrocketing cost of tuition?
Our degree-less governor claims--call me Flex!--"This new model will help us close the skills gap at an affordable price." Sounds like a used car salesman to me. Since when do we have a skills gap that is holding back job creation? It won't be long before we home school thousands of kids, and educate them through "virtual schools" paid for with vouchers so they can remain at home getting a college degree! Whoa Nelly!
The campaign is over. I can ask: What in the world was Tom Barrett talking about when he kept looking into the camera and proclaiming that "the civil war must stop"? I get around the state and I never saw or even heard about a civil war, but Barrett seemed to be saying that both sides were engaged in a war. And did Walker "drop the bomb"? Do we need military terms to explain differences?
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Online UW degrees are the kind of scam one can expect from scamster No. 1 Scott Walker. They are basically worthless. I'll be checking when hiring. Anyone with an online degree goes to the bottom of the pile. This is what you would expect from a college dropout like Walker.
It is also an insult to the UW system. It's dragging the system down into mediocrity. I would go so far as to say an online degree has no more value than one of those degrees you can simply buy on the Internet.
-Fritz N. | Watertown, WI | June 20, 2012
With the push toward technology and automation, exactly what jobs will be left for workers at any level? As the population grows thanks to Walker's abstinence only policies, where will everyone find work? What will those jobs, if any, pay?
Life is going to become a drag if we don't have meaningful and satisfying jobs with a reward system that makes us all feel good at the end of the month.
Perhaps we are in training for a life of no work and no benefits and no purpose. Do we need schools for this? Which reminds me, will there truly be a need for schools in the distant future? Give a child a laptop with a fast connection. That's about all one needs now to get smart. Why waste resources on teachers or books or school administrators? Critical thinking is passe. Robots can work cheaper and faster. We certainly don't need people to fix stuff because we'll just buy something new. Voting rights don't matter. Compliance to those pulling the strings is all that does.
-Pietr Haikuu | Hurley, Wis | June 20, 2012
I see this differently. While the University of the State of New York eventually created a private, non-profit institution in 1998 from the entity that pioneered a similar initiative into degree programs of this type in the 1970s, I don't believe that it was done at the expense of other public institutions in the state.
Here's my personal take:
http://jimrosenberg.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/revolutionary-new-uw-degree-program-will-open-doors/
In short, I see this new program as something that is being added as a new aspect to higher education in Wisconsin -- not as a Trojan horse that would be used to take anything away from other pathways toward a UW degree. Again, this is just my personal opinion, but I would encourage you to contact Chancellor Cross before staking out too skeptical of a position about this.
-Jim Rosenberg | Wausau, WI | June 20, 2012
Do you think the right wants us all to become panhandlers so they can legislate us off their streets?
-Daryl | Hazel Green Wis | June 20, 2012
I don't support Scott Walker in the least, but neither do I care for the insulting "I'm better than you because I have a college degree" elitism that pollutes narrative of teachers and public employees. How in the name of all that's good anyone is so convinced that we all need public institutions to run our lives is beyond me, but maybe it takes a college degree to know how much better a college degree makes a person.
What really gets my goat is leftists who pander to back-to-the-land ideals to recruit would-be anarcho-syndicalists into the ranks of socialists. Only thing that bothers me worse in that regard is hanging out at parties where my friends brag about who's the most socialist then watch them in public acting insulted when someone correctly identifies their ideals as socialist.
-HarleyRyder | Milwaukee, WI | June 21, 2012
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