Kevin Mahoney on the Rick Smith Show: PASSHE’s Beautiful Buildings, Bond Schemes, and Corporatization of Higher Ed

In case you missed it over on Raging Chicken Press,  I was talking about my recent article, “Wall Street on the Susquehanna: PASSHE Bond Scheme Bleeds Education Budget for Beautiful Buildings,” on the Rick Smith Show this past Tuesday night.

Click on the image below or CLICK HERE to listen to the interview:

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Corbett’s education cuts fight brain drain with lobotomy – Local Columns – GoErie.com/Erie Times-News

Excellent editorial by Edinboro professor, John Bavaro:

For Edinboro, other regional state institutions, such as Penn State Behrend, and for other institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, the task of attracting top talent — administrators, professors and students — requires that we offer a competitive product. But how can we do that if we send the message to potential candidates that they are entering a system that’s been decimated by lack of funding, or whose state government cares more about protecting big-business interests than it does protecting quality for its middle class constituencies?

In addition to the brain drain of educators, administrators and research talent we’re facing, the students are now also facing a potential 33 percent tuition hike, which further lessens incentives for them to choose the PSSHE system.

How does a 33 percent rise in tuition per student not constitute a de facto tax hike for the average middle-class, or lower-middle class families, since this income group constitutes the majority of our demographic? And how does this provide any stimulus for the larger state economy?

If the politicians or residents of Pennsylvania think that prescribed draconian cuts directed against all levels of education from preschool to higher education, amounting to a loss of intellectual capital in our community, don’t have a ripple effect on the long-term economy in our region, then they are mistaken. Surgically targeting education in this way, and without proper justification by Corbett, is a cutting off our nose to spite our face. You can’t fight brain drain by administering a lobotomy on the patient.

I’m sure that “big business” will make the argument that the real culprits are regulation and taxation, which choke off the incentive to work and invest in our state. I think most reasonable people would support that business builds jobs, and jobs build wealth and prosperity. It’s naive to think that’s not the case. But with every pun intended at the oil and gas industry, we’re continually held hostage by the threat of the loss of the “trickle down largesse” of the richest companies and the richest citizens.

The conceit that “they earned their money, so they deserve to keep it” doesn’t seem to address that middle and lower class citizens “earned their money” just as hard. This is a battle of rhetoric we’ve all become accustomed to, and a gun that they’ll never remove from our temple.

Their “victimhood” status has the distinct, salty taste of crocodile tears, though, as I don’t see gas drillers leaving Pennsylvania gas or oil in the ground any time soon due to overregulation or taxation, I do see competent university administrators, professors and students deciding to seek employment and educational opportunities elsewhere because of low standards and compensation.

via Corbett’s education cuts fight brain drain with lobotomy – Local Columns – GoErie.com/Erie Times-News.

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