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posted by mrpg on Tuesday July 11 2017, @04:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the Can't-fix-it dept.

In a shift from a mere couple of years ago, when a majority of Republican-Americans thought that higher education was a good thing, the majority of them now believe the opposite.

A Pew Research Center survey published Monday revealed voters have grown apart in their support of secondary education since the 2016 presidential election season, when a majority of Democratic and Republican Americans agreed the nation’s universities serve as a benefit for the U.S. Whereas 54 percent of Republicans said "colleges and universities had a positive impact on the way things were going in the country" in 2015, the majority now believe the opposite, with 58 percent saying such institutions negatively impact the state of the union.

Get the full story here.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Tuesday July 11 2017, @11:24AM (5 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Tuesday July 11 2017, @11:24AM (#537532) Homepage Journal

    "You are just wrong about American Colleges, I know whereof I speak. So stop insulting an entire profession, and I will consider not calling you out for being an ass. That is how it works, among scholars. I still await your apology."

    I provided links for administrative bloat [washingtonmonthly.com] and the abuse of adjunct faculty [huffingtonpost.com], although both problems are well known. I only made three other criticisms, all of which are equally well-known, so you'll have to tell me which of these you have trouble accepting?

    - Was it that lots of students in US colleges wind up in remedial courses [apmreports.org]? Put the blame where you will: students who don't belong in college in the first place, or high schools that fail to educate them. Either way, the criticism of colleges remains valid: they shouldn't admit most of these unqualified students in the first place.

    - Or perhaps you don't believe that students are graduating with massive amounts of debt [marketwatch.com]? Really, there's nothing to discuss here, it's a simple fact, and hardly a compliment to the US educational system. The government program for student loans has had the primary effect of enabling and driving crippling indebtedness for an entire generation.

    - Or perhaps you disagree with the more general idea that many students are simply not suited to college [timesunion.com]? Actually, the stupid thing about the article I just linked to is the word "unfortunately". There's nothing "unfortunate" about being good at a trade. In fact, good tradesmen can be hard to find in countries that have lost the corresponding educational system (like the US and the UK). In countries where we still have these systems in place, a plumber has just as much societal respect as a programmer - it's just a different life path.

    So...rather than me apologizing, perhaps you'd care to explain which of the above points you take such offense at?

    --
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday July 11 2017, @12:28PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 11 2017, @12:28PM (#537555) Journal
    There's no point to arguing with aristarchus. He never supports a thing he says. Argument from authority fallacy ("I know whereof I speak") is the best you'll get from him.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @08:41PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @08:41PM (#537784)

      Lol cause you're a bastion of well sourced citations and proper critical thinking! Pot meet kettle.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:16AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 12 2017, @12:16AM (#537865) Journal
        And once again, someone asserts things without taking the slightest effort to back them up. Even if your post were true, am I not right? Is breezily assuring someone that you know what you're talking about, a signature aristarchus move let us note, in any sense useful?

        If so, then I know what I'm talking about. Roll the credits.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @06:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @06:11PM (#537719)

    It doesn't matter if the students are suited or not, they still have to go. Getting a job without having a college degree gets harder every year. Blame business for the mess, blame high schools for poor life education?, blame parents for not teaching their kids how to survive in the world, blame society for allowing parents to get away with it.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 11 2017, @06:37PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday July 11 2017, @06:37PM (#537728) Journal

    which of the above points you take such offense at?

    You are pulling a khallow. The points you bring up have some truth in them, but they are also irrelevant to the topic at hand. They are not enough to bring higher education as a whole into disrepute, and they are not the reason that Republicans specifically have shifted in their view of higher education. So stop being an ass, stop trying to change the subject.

    (Nice to see that khallow his own self STILL is unable to differentiate knowledge from claims to knowledge, and expertise from authority. )