No God Left Behind!!!

Yes! Finally. Although really, this seems more like an Onion article than anything else. Conservatives are really up in arms about this plan to test college students to see if they're learning. It seems to be the culmination of the "Declining by Degrees" phenomenon, which I believe is an attempt to make American think of colleges the way they thought of public schools after 1983's A Nation at Risk. Maybe they don't like liberal professors? They stand to hurt our colleges though, by driving away lucrative foreign students. And don't yell at me about how foreign students should be thought of as more than just money makers. I'm telling you what many college fundraisers are thinking, not what should be.

Liberals, no doubt, will be angry too, but for completely different reasons. I generally think that a "this costs too much money and we don't need it" works better than, "We shouldn't pressure underprepared college students into selecting a career path or major too soon," as one of my colleagues was just arguing. I don't know, I think that liberals overplay the "oh, poor underprivileged, unprepared student" hand. I think we need to give people more credit. This also comes under why I am starting to think more about school choice as an option. But more on that later.

Ok, so to sum up... here's what you should check out.

"No God Left Behind - Why Not?" (Durden, W. Inside Higher Ed. September 21, 2006.)

"Ivory Tower Overhaul: How to Fix American Higher Ed." Policy Forum. (Cato Institute. September 27, 2006.)