If the common worker is going to lose out to H1B’s, why can’t teachers?
Boston College professor of history: They really are the party of stupid: The real story behind Scott Walker’s war on higher education
"...Walker’s Act 10 for higher education is not just about tenure. Its attack on the university that gave birth to the original Wisconsin Experiment is the logical outcome of eighty years of maligning universities as hotbeds of socialism in an attempt to undercut workers’ influence in government. It is a decisive power play in the struggle over the nature of the American government. Should workers have political power, or should a few rich men alone determine government policies? Walker’s stand is clear. He has long worked in lockstep with ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, through which corporations write legislation that goes to legislatures for approval. He is backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, who have indicated they would like to see him in the White House..."
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AlJazeera ^ | June 5, 2015 | Mark LeVine, professor of history (Middle Eastern Studies) UC Irvine:
".......Think about the stifling of the debate over climate change, with states such as Florida and — surprise! — Wisconsin barring scientists from discussing actual science. Or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, research on the economy, sexual health, drugs and the “war on terrorism.” The relevance of tenure, shared (as opposed to corporate-bought) governance and academic freedom has never been greater.
In particular, shared governance has been a bedrock principle of higher education, through which faculty members have meaningfully participated in the institutional governance of their universities alongside other staffers and senior managers. Together with tenure, shared governance means that faculty members can have a voice beyond the particular departments, disciplines and schools in which they teach.
It is not surprising, then, that conservatives — who have long attacked the notions of tenure, shared governance and academic freedom more broadly — would now set their eyes on Walker’s Wisconsin (it’s worth noting here that Walker did not graduate from college) as the moment to break the institution of tenure, based on the same corporate-dominated neoliberal principles that supported the near fatal weakening of unions a generation ago. In fact, as University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee English professor Richard Grusin wrote on his blog, Ragman’s Circles, the “daisy chain of Republican power” now extends from the governor to the regents he appoints, the system president they appoint and the chancellors he appoints.
There is little doubt that, should Wisconsin succeed, corporatized boards of private universities and state legislatures in the majority of Republican-governed states will jump on the bandwagon and move with lightning speed to remove tenure protections, shared governance and, ultimately, academic freedom protections from their universities. ......." - Killing tenure is academia’s point of no return
Academia has long had “publish or perish” as a requirement prior to getting tenure. After tenure, academics usually do nothing useful and don’t actually teach - often they let/make their aides teach their classes.
I have no problem with eliminating tenure and implementing ‘teaching or termination’ for those that are supposed to teach but can’t (because they suck at it) or don’t (because they are lazy.)
It’s so they can’t ever be fired for being flaming Marxists.
My late, beloved girlfriend was a faculty member for 33 years at a well known Boston area university, and was head of her department for the last eight of those years until her death two years ago.
She didn’t have tenure. She was just fantastic at what she did, and everybody at the university loved her.
A rock-solid conservative friend of mine is supporting Walker over Cruz...if he goes after tenure, and especially if he’s able to break the monopoly on teacher certification for grades 1 to 12 (or 6 to 12, for starters), I might just be there with him. People who have read Thomas Sowell understand just how bad things are with teacher cert today - the system needs to be WIPED OUT.
The question needs to be expanded to include federal employees—Most notably, judges.
Trade skills, blue collar work, all the stuff promoted by Mike Rowe of Dirty jobs fame is absolutely essential to the economy.
Too many people flunk out of a business degree two years in, when they could learn to be a diesel mechanic, HVAC repair person, electrician, plumber, chemistry tech and get a job that can’t be outsourced to India or done by a guy who just came across the border.
bfl
I alway post one simple sentence ...
UW Total Endowment Fund Assets: $2,191,856,879...increased endowment by $600 million since 2009 ...
Never get a response...
When I was in cemetary...ooops I mean seminary, a professor asked the class who they thought controlled the church...students answered the bishop, the church council, pastors, God, etc. All good answers he said, but the answer is tenured seminary professors...so I guess we can say tenured professors control society too.