Bailouts - Round 3

[Just_A_Guy]

We've bailed out the banks.

We've bailed out the automakers.

Now, Berkeley's bigwigs think it's time to bail out the nation's "great public universities".

[pam]

I can't even afford to send my daughter off to college and they want to propose helping to bail some of them out?

Can I start the "Send pam's daughter to college bailout program?"

[hordak]

love the comment

Washington might initially choose a representative set of schools, perhaps based on... a student body that is broadly representative of society.

Well, I'd say this rules out Berkley

[Guest]

love the comment

Ayayay... what does that mean "representative of soceity"... why do I have a feeling that race is going to come into play once again...

[Maxel]

"Representative of society" means whatever they want it to mean. It's one of those nice, ambiguous terms that can be skewed to fit whatever definition they want, to suit their current purposes.

I hope the government doesn't seriously consider this...

[Moksha]

Wait a minute, you mean our taxes go to education???!!! When did this start?

[annewandering]

Moksha, I was just wondering what was new about this. If the government didn't subsidize most of them we would have a whole lot fewer universities around.

[Just_A_Guy]

Well, that's kind of the rub, isn't it?

I've seen nothing to suggest a long-range trend towards an actual cut in funding (though I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they're hurting this year, along with everyone else). What has happened is that as the government attempts to do more, education becomes a proportionally smaller part of the budget--causing the academics to think they've been robbed and demand that government stop "neglecting our future".

It's a vicious, never-ending cycle, and it's also part of why some of us are a little leery of those who demand a larger role for government: no matter how much you fund a particular program, it will never be enough.