Posted on 08/29/2011 12:54:45 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Texas model is doing to higher education what the Florida model did for K-12, at least according to supporters of the seven-point reform plan.
Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, has been passing the plan around to higher education officials and has tentatively signaled his support in interviews. The reforms are a hallmark of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry’s term as governor.
Critics argue the changes are the first step toward becoming diploma mills, encouraging grade inflation and discouraging research.
But just what do the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” do?
In general, they would ask colleges to quantify their performance by calculating a cost-benefit analysis of instructors, offering bonuses for the best-performing professors and disclosing all of that data for students and the public.
Here’s the plan developed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free market-based think tank:
1. Measure quality — The plan would calculate a cost-benefit analysis for professors. How much are they paid? How many classes do they teach? How many students? How do students rate those professor? The data would then be compiled into rankings, which students could review before choosing their instructors.
2. Recognize and reward teachers — This is merit pay for professors. The plan calls for the top 25 percent of professors to earn a bonus. Top bonuses would be $10,000 per class.
3. Separate budgets for teaching and research — This would allow colleges to better evaluate what kind of bang for its buck professors are providing. Splitting the pots of money would make it clearer how and why professors are paid.
4. Require evidence of skill for tenure — This would set easily-defined goals to earn tenure. For instance, a professor would have to earn a rating of 4.5 on a 5-point scale to be eligible for tenure. Likewise, a professor might have to teach at least three classes a semester, with at least 30 students in each class, for a set number of years before becoming eligible for tenure.
5. Results-based contracts with students — This amounts to a mortgage good faith estimate for students. Students would have to sign a document outlining the school’s class sizes, teacher evaluations, SAT scores of incoming students and other data that would allow them to make a better informed decision.
6. Funding in the hands of students — This proposal would take out the middle man in public funding. Some public money is given to schools as a tuition subsidy for student. The Texas Public Policy Foundation argues students will make the best decision if they get the money directly. Critics contend this creates a voucher system for colleges.
7. Create results-based accrediting alternatives — This proposal would gradually move schools away from traditional accrediting and create a national body similar to the Securities and Exchange Commission to evaluate college claims and actual results. Colleges that can not fulfill their recruiting pitch could be investigated for fraud. Establishing new accreditation would make it possible for more schools to enter the market.
How is this plan working in Texas? And how would it look in Florida? StateImpact Florida will have more on those questions later.
Trial lawyers are gearing up to take down Perry and so are the Unions (public sector teacher unions leading the way). Lawyers and teachers rank as the top 2 money and muscle contributors to the Democratic Party.
Gov. Rick Perry said "no" to competing in "Race to the Top." Texas Knows Best How to Educate Our Students
But Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee and her Democratic Party wanted Perry's signature so the "money would flow to our schools within days."
Gov. Perry sued for Texas' money (without Washington telling us how to spend it) -- And won! Promise Kept.
Mona Charen: NRO Beware those 'radical' ideas -- Good opinion piece on Perry and education – Reagan simplicity that works
Chris Christie article -- Even Democrats are now alarmed about the state of education in this country but its too late because the GOP owns this issue.
Perry Draws Flak for Plan to Run Universities Like Businesses ……..”Perry, who has been governor since 2000, has filled state boards and commissions with those who share his vision and has launched a public attack on college costs.
“A bold, Texas-style solution,” the governor said in an address to the Legislature. “I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000, including textbooks.”
The amount is about a quarter of what students at the University of Texas and Texas A&M pay for tuition and books. An organization formed to fight the changes, Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, counts among its members power Republicans such as TRT Holdings Chief Executive Robert Rowling, who gave $1 million to the conservative “super PAC” American Crossroads. Handling media for the group former George W. Bush adviser Karen Hughes, the Post reported.
Nonetheless, some of Perry’s higher-education ideas could be catching on elsewhere. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he was passing on a list of higher education reform ideas from Texas known as the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” to candidates for the Florida university and college boards of trustees, the Post reported.
Semi Educated more illegals.
Strangely enough, the supporters say exactly the same thing...
You might be interested enough to see what they're looking at.
Will Rick Perry Unravel the Strange Consensus on Public Education?
I think more than “whodat” and “nullandvoid” need to see Post #4.
Yeah. That'll work.
The math department when and where I matriculated had several really bad (really really really bad) professors.
Word got around. Students refused to register for their classes, even when it meant delaying graduation.
The Math department's solution was to list every single class as being taught by "Staff".
These guys were so bad that entire classes would walk into class, see them at the front, and drop the class and shuffle their entire schedules to avoid the bad them.
Then the department took to reshuffling the professors after the last day to drop without penalty (an "F").
Some students still dropped the classes.
As far as I know, none of the professors was ever let go...
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AFL-CIO Announces Commitment to Promote Large-Scale Infrastructure Investments …….AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:
”We at the AFL-CIO believe that together, with our partners in business and government, we can profitably invest at least $10 billion in workers’ capital over the next five years in public infrastructure projects to make America more competitive and energy-efficient.”
AFT [American Federation of Teachers 1.5 million members] President Randi Weingarten and AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades President Mark Ayers will announce the initiative at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting and describe the partnership with investors, the government and businesses.
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Teachers Union Prez Heads to Egypt: Should Obama Be Worried? …. [AFT] American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently led a delegation of union representatives to Cairo, Egypt to meet with “leaders of Egyptian unions that were instrumental in the recent political and governmental changes there,” according to a news release issued by the union.
Whoa. Are public sector unions planning a similar “regime change” here in America?
If not, why would Weingarten be cavorting in the Middle East at a time when American public schools are seeing massive dropout rates, budget reductions and reforms that strike at the base of union power?.....”
And that is wrong and needs to be fixed.
Gov. Rick Perry also wants to drastically drop the costs of getting a college degree.
It’s appalling that graduates leave with such a massive loan debt.
Not really.
The government will forgive the loans for services to The State.
You've got something against indentured servitude?
Yeah, I do.
The socialist smart people at our universities just love, love, love Rick Perry here. /s/
How do you think diversity studies professors, the pediphile/homosexualists and the feminazis would hold up under such a system? I smell trouble justifing themselves without the ability to employ a deck of cards for forcing their useless and nasty selves on students and their real academic pursuits.
Thought you might get a “laugh” out of this.
The current educational model for colleges is already cracking up. You cannot insulate from the free market for very long.
Certifications are one way to go, but better than what you’ve suggested would be no standards at all. Let the market decide what an ‘education’ is. Many businesses already have extensive remediation and training departments. That will become the norm.
We’re lying to our youth, especially our inner-city youth, when we tell them that you can get a decent government education. Home schooled children prove that teacher colleges, certificates, etc. are ridiculous. Our education system is a wreck because of governments supposition that a group of experts can determine what an ‘education’ is. They’ve failed miserably.
Texas would be better off if Perry eliminated all rules governing home schooling. Look to Illinois as a model, accidental, but a model nonetheless.
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