Posted on 12/09/2005 11:19:45 PM PST by SmithL
NASHVILLE - Funding for colleges is threatened by a "growing political one-sidedness" on many campuses, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander told higher education officials Friday.
"How many conservative speakers are invited to deliver commencement addresses? How many colleges require courses in U.S. history? How many even teach Western civilization? ... Those are politically unacceptable topics," the Tennessee Republican testified before the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
The commission - created by U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings this fall - met in Nashville Thursday and Friday and will hold similar meetings across the country during the next several months.
By Aug. 1, the commission must recommend how to make colleges more accessible and affordable for families, accountable to policy-makers and competitive with peers worldwide.
Federal policy-makers are also worried that the nation's colleges are not producing enough qualified workers and researchers, particularly in math, science and engineering. A string of government and independent reports has raised alarm about U.S. competitiveness.
The college review is the most significant higher education initiative by the Bush administration.
The commission is composed of leaders from academia and business, along with officials from the departments of Defense, Energy, Commerce and Labor.
Alexander, who was the former U.S. secretary of education and president of the University of Tennessee, said political bias is the "single biggest criticism" he hears about education.
Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an advocacy group, said what threatens college funding _more is that states are giving less to higher education because they must pay more to help fund Medicaid, the nation's health-care program for the poor.
"It's the biggest single concern we have," Callan said. States currently appropriate about $70 billion to colleges, much of the funding that keeps them running, he said.
He's just figuring this out now ?
I have a question for the Senator: How much more $ are you going to continue pouring in to the [unconstitutional] Dept. of Education?
Quit whining about the liberal/socialist bias of the universities & CUT THEIR FUNDING.
That was my first thought too. Were the heck has he been ?
Western Civilization, US History & Higher Education??? Nahhh, lets just focus on the here and now........
Math, Science and Engineeeering??? Nahhh, the US needs more liberal arts majors and lawyers......
/sarc off
Cut the guy some slack. He's in front of a Commission for crying out loud. One probably filled with libs. You gotta get the ball rolling somehow.
He's only a coupla decades behind the real world
In another 10 years he'll notice that the leftists control k-12 too
Sounds like he issued a not so veiled threat. I personally know of an individual who was rejected for a teaching job because of his religious views. College professors should be held to the same standards as all state employees regaring campaigning in the workplace.
Everyone knows it is a problem but who else is talking about it? Getting the subject into the public square is a start. More power to him.
Hey, did you hear what else? There's this new invention called the Hula Hoop! It looks soooooo awesome! I bet all the kids are going to get one!
I'll cut him some slack when he's proven he's worthy of it. The fact that he is just "discovering" something that was begun by the radical left over EIGHTY years ago in an effort to undermine this country from within and has perverted the minds of millions of youngsters who have carried out its evil and destructive mantra either proves he is incredibly stupid or incredibly blind. He presided over the University of Tennessee after leaving the Governorship and seemed not to "notice" what was already the STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE then and from there, went on to become U.S. Education Secretary from which he equally did absolutely nothing to combat this scourge... Lamar ! never fails to leave me dumbfounded by his... intellectual prowess.
Give him a break!
He was probably college educated in one of the liberal arts.
Lots of money was spent on his "higher education".
What skill can he trade with his neighbors if the power goes down?
He probably can't feed, clothe or shelter himself, but expects to be paid a high salary that will enable him to pay someone else to do those mundane basic tasks for him.
Giggles. Yeah right.
You can't force your views on them, they have a right that is excluded from the rest of us peons: the right to free speech.
Just wait until the Congress gives these people our health care system. Man, I just can't wait! Free health care is going to cost us a FORTUNE. :)
Yeah, much better that he should shut up and let us complain about it to each other here....
While those of us on this forum know all about the leftism in academia, a good chunk of Americans do not.
Alexander is not my favorite as a senaor, but to criticize him for this statement is both unfair and a bit obtuse.
ping
I never suggested he shut up... that is, if he is actually serious about dealing with this situation. I said that his suddenly "figuring this out" is rather akin to living in Detroit all one's life and just realizing there's a wee bit of a crime problem. He was in the position to do something about this 2 decades ago - whether it be speaking out on the subject, combating it, etc., but he was a part of the problem.
I am saying he is awfully late to the party, to put it in the most polite way. While on his watch as Governor, this poster (who was in public school not but a few miles from his office in the State Capitol) got a very "liberal" indoctrination before ever even reaching higher ed (something else he failed to point out -- this indoctrination starts at Kindergarten, if not preschool -- public ed merely serves as the appetizer before the main course). I became a Conservative Republican in SPITE of Lamar ! not because of him.
Figuring it out is one thing - doing something about it is another. You think that he maybe should not have said anything at all? I agree with somebody here who said that at least he got the ball rolling. This problem has been happening for years, but I've only become aware of how BAD it was since I joined FreeRepublic - and I live within five miles of a huge state university! (aka the local "house of liberal brainwashing").
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.