[Lessismore]

The combined expenditure by parents and government of upwards of $100K on a Bachelor's of Arts degree in literature, history, philosopy, etc, represents an egregious waste of resources.

I'm not denying that there is great benefit in studying them throughout ones life. Perhaps if the subjects were banned they would be better studied.

[Bernard Marx]

A college "education" that costs in the $100,000 range is ridiculous, no matter what the subjects are. But saying literature, philosophy, history should be eliminated as "an egregious waste of resources" is just plain wrong. To use a literary phrase, that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. These subjects are the basis of ALL education. Besides, deciding how others can spend their money is not a conservative position. Your initial statement had nothing to do with resource allotment or cost/benefit, although I'm all in favor of big changes in that area.

It's definitely time to get a shovel and clean out the [higher education] barn. But the costly manure that needs to be shoveled starts with stuff like Queer Studies, Women's Studies [substitute Chicano, Black, Native American, anything but Straight White Male (which won't be found) for "Queer"] etc., and all the partisan quasi-educational crap that has infected liberal arts departments in the past 40 years.

It's time to get rid on all non-essential bells and whistles in higher education, and institute a method of faculty hiring that preserves academic freedom but assures that the conservative point of view will be at least equal to all others. I'd prefer that it be dominant but equal is good. All of this is difficult to do. That's why it probably won't happen until there's a major crisis of some sort. But the gutless acquiescence to the Sixties ideological thugs by college and university administrators was one of the great tragedies of my lifetime.