Are student loans like indentured servitude?

I found this interesting article in Dissent.  Jeffery Williams argues that the nature of student debt binds students for years afterward.    He argues that the debt reinforces class discrimination, and counteracts the notion that the U.S. can be a meritocracy.

Although Dissent is very left-wing venue, I think that Williams raises some very interesting points.

If Rupert is against it, it must be a good idea!

The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the unionization of the faculty here in Wisconsin. Can you guess what they think?

It is a discussion that we should be having on campus, but this is not really the place to start. You can read about how unions have destroyed higher education in the United States--oh wait, that hasn't happened even though a quite substantial percentage of faculty is already unionized!

It is worth a weekend read.

America shouldn't be firing teachers

Paul Krugman writes about the cuts to education that are coming because of the economic decline we currently face. 143,000 teachers have been fired in the last 5 months. He argues that these kinds of cuts foreshadow big trouble in the future, because education is what used to set us apart from the rest of the world.

It is a sad story for Friday afternoon, but worth pondering. . .

New Nutty Northwestern Criticism of Academia

Yesterday, the Northwestern ran an editorial that is a tongue-in-cheek criticism of a UWMadison business professor who bought DVDs to show in his class.

The jocular nature of the commentary--ha-ha Seinfeld would be better--covers another slam of our profession.

They have no idea about what the prof. teaches, but only see fit to cast aspersions. As you can see from the few comments here is that you get outrage that professors waste "our" money like this.

It is a far cry from equating professors to Jeffrey Dahmer, but it continues their theme of anti-intellectualism.

Edit: Link is now fixed! Thanks to the commenter who noticed!