Via WhatMatters List Serve:
Retired military leaders are asking Pennsylvania lawmakers to reject proposed cuts in state aid for early childhood education out of concern that a large group of young Americans are unfit to join the military, according to a report by the Associated Press. The group, called Mission: Readiness, sent letters to elected officials last week as debate over the depth of cuts in state school aid intensifies.
On a positive note, if the student is too ill educated to be cannon fodder, he or she will likely end up in jail and that is good for business, as lobbyists are quick to point out to those who serve them.
If a system of US-type private liberal arts colleges like this one gains ground in Britain, the result will be to relegate an already impoverished state university system to second-class status. So far, British society has held the view that the education of doctors, teachers, social workers and so on is too momentous a matter to be left to the vagaries of the profit motive. This is why though there are already one or two private universities in the country, nobody has a clue where they are. This new college, however, could be the thin end of an ugly wedge. Why should Grayling, Dawkins and their chums care about that, though, when they will be drawing down mega-salaries for what is reported to be an extremely modest amount of lecturing?
In the US, getting yourself a decent education depends in part on the whims of the well-heeled. It is they who decide whether to obtain their tax breaks by donating a new theatre or lab to your college, or whether to find some more devious way of avoiding the inland revenue. This new venture in Bloomsbury is said to be backed by multimillion pound funding from private investors. While the Graylings and Colleys spout on in the classrooms about humane values, they are in the pay of those who would not recognise such things if they were to move into their living rooms.
This piece of the so-called private sector will actually be parasitic on the public one, rather like surgeons who use public facilities for private operations.
Terry Eagleton
Posted by: Tom Matrullo | June 07, 2011 at 09:58 PM
Count on Eagleton to see it and say it.
Posted by: Phil Cubeta | June 07, 2011 at 11:21 PM
He didn't mention though that soldiers need to know how to read and write. That too is a justification for lit majors. We do serve a purpose! We need not simply ghost write the boss's memos, or write his moral autobiography, we can also be of service to the military. Thus, literacy serves Freedom.
Posted by: Phil Cubeta | June 07, 2011 at 11:24 PM