Innovation U

I think Higher Education is going to be fun- at least for the next ten years or so. Budgets are strained, tuition is far outpacing inflation, more and more people can't afford to go to college and have trouble paying for it if they do- at some point, something's gotta give. At a certain point, higher ed is going to have to take a serious look at how it does things and make changes- otherwise, state budgetary concerns are going to do it for them.

Take Florida for instance- newly minted Republican Governor Rick Scott is on the warpath, gunning for Liberal Arts programs- which has the folks over at Mother Jones a bit peeved. But he's got a point, I'm forced to admit. How does a degree in Women's Studies get anyone a job in this economy? Or a degree in Religious Studies? Or Political Science for that matter? Seems like for a vast majority of Liberal Arts majors, teaching seem to be the only way to go- or taking a random left turn into something completely unrelated to your degree. Like Dispatching.

So what's a Liberal Arts program to do? Well, for a start, I'd say a metaphorical destruction of how they do business is in order. State budgets are going to be more and more strained in the coming years- and things like basketweaving, poetry and art are going to be called into question more and more- especially for Public Universities. Is that right? In a perfect world, no it's not. Politicians- and let's face it, although they make policy, they're crap at it- should not get to decide what gets funded and what doesn't. Personally, I think demand should drive that, plain and simple. If people want to study it and want to pay for it, there it should be.

But hand in hand with that, you've got to make a committment to innovating new, more cost-effective ways to get your 'product' to people. Online education needs to be embraced by higher ed as a whole, so they can really knuckle under and figure out how to make it work! Exhibit B, from the Golden State, surprise surprise, shows exactly what not to do in the changing times we live in.

I'm becoming less and less sympathetic to the idea that people are entitled to jobs if they haven't earned them- doubly so for pensions. While I can appreciate people wanting to hold on to their jobs, you can't escape the writing on the wall at the end of the day. A lot of public sector jobs are going to go the way of the dodo in the coming years. As a public sector employee myself, I'm keenly aware of this and my brain is constantly churning up notions and ideas about what I could possibly do next with my life- so far nothing has stuck, but I want to be on the hunt for those answers now, as a posed to 10 years down the road, when people start peeking in my little window and wondering if I'm really necessary to make the proverbial trains run on time. My answer would be 'of course I am' but then that too is part of the problem: my answer is everybody's answer.

Pensions are where I've got the real axe to grind. While the Boomer Commentariat of the Left and the Right likes to denigrate my generation as a bunch of lazy freeloaders (some of us undoubtedly are, but then, what can I say: we learned by example!) the Boomers are robbing us blind and leaving us with nothing- and why? Because they think they've got a by-God right to retire at the age of 65 with a full pension. And some people undoubtedly do and should get to retire at 65 with a full pension. They've earned it. But Our Glorious Leader in Des Moines is working fulltime yet still drawing a pension from his previous time in Office. That shit ain't right. A story from Illinois caught my eye: 2 Union Leaders have somehow managed to arrange to get 438K and 500K in pensions respectively. One worked in the Water Management Department for 44K a year the other worked for the City for 15K a year and was getting this pension despite not working at his job for 25 years now. That's beyond just plain wrong- it's psychotic.

And it's why a lot of very comfortable people are going to be hurting unless someone puts the house in order. Until higher ed and the public sector learn to do less with more, we're going to stay in trouble. Which means that innovation should be the watchword of any educational institution. We need Innovation U- and we need it now.