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Newsweek: Majority of Republicans Say Colleges Are Bad for America

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

aristarchus writes:

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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Original Submission

• The mission of college (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @12:03PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @12:03PM (#537544)

  should be to preserve the collective learnin' of mankind by passing it on to the next generation.
  For example, if we stop training doctors, historians, scientists, or engineers for a couple of generations, where would we be?

  Instead, the effective priority of a college is to preserve the college.
  For example perks for profs and administrators.
  They may offer a great education opportunity to a kid, but the kid has to grab it.
  Otherwise, it's just an expensive party with a big debt hangover.

  Part of the problem is that there is no economic accountability to match cost with output.
  Part of the problem is that few kids have a clue as to why they are there and are just hoping things will work out.
  For us repubs, part of the problem is also the liberal bias prevalent on campus.

  I think there may be a few kids ready to thrive in the colleges we have.
  They are able to self motivate and grow in an environment where the have to.

  For the rest, college needs to be more like a 13th grade to help with the motivate part.
  Throwing one into the deep end only works if the person can swim a bit.
  This is hard work for the faculty and perhaps philosophically repugnant to the idea that college must be more than this, regardless of the customer.
  Never the less, they must do it.