Academia -- A hard rain's a'gonna fall....

I have blogged several times in recent months about the irresponsibility of academic institutions and rising levels of customer dissatisfaction in the general public as costs soar and the quality of education declines. Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, links to a WaPo article making essentially the same points.

Hey, Profs, Come Back to Earth
By Steven Roy Goodman
Sunday, April 10, 2005; Page B01

College admissions decisions now arriving across the country by e-mail and snail mail are generating the annual excitement they always do. But that momentary thrill is only masking a new reality about college in America.

With faculty and administrations leading the way, political correctness and posturing -- from both the left and right -- is reaching dizzying heights in the land of the ivory tower. And rising right along with it is the frustration of middle-class parents, who are growing increasingly resentful of paying sky-high tuition for colleges they see offering their kids a menu of questionable courses and politically absurd campus climates that detract from the quality of a university education....

[T]he sheer number of outlandish political controversies at universities across the country, coupled with escalating fees, is alienating parents from the very institutions they have been supporting through tax and tuition dollars.

Read the whole thing here.

Reynolds, who teaches at a State institution, expresses the opinion that the worst problems are occurring at our leading private institutions and hopes that their decline might benefit the State schools. [read him here].

I doubt it.

Having taught at State schools for more than a quarter of a century I can testify that the problems are by no means confined to the elite institutions. Faculty and administrative irresponsibility are rampant at all levels, and though costs are less at State institutions, they are still high enough to be oppressive to middle-class families who aren't eligible for most financial aid. And as for the elite universities declining -- don't count on it. They are selling prestige, not education, and there are always people willing to buy that at any price.

The WaPo article closes with a wise observation:

Maybe we can learn from recent campus incidents. Maybe we can ask ourselves what we would like our universities to actually do. Maybe university communities can engage in real soul-searching to figure out how they can benefit both their students and the country in ways that the broader public can support.

If they don't at least try, the university as an institution may have seen the heyday of its influence.

I have long been telling anyone who will listen that academia, from top to bottom, is in a perilous state. There will be a reckoning, and it will come soon. The current situation cannot last long.

As the Post recognizes, we desperately need a national dialogue on education. Just what as a society do we want from our educational institutions, and what price are we willing to pay to get it? This applies not only to higher, but also to K-12 education.

The Churchill Affair has brought these concerns into the public arena. Now is an excellent opportunity for us to have just such a debate. Let the games begin...