Rick Santorum, former Senator and current presidential candidate, got into some trouble a few months back when he suggested that John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association made him want to vomit. The speech is a landmark in the history of religion and politics, helping to address concerns that Kennedy, our first…
The Colorado Springs Experiment, Part II
In my last post on the Colorado Springs Experiment I wrote about the liberal/conservative divide over municipal services. Liberals, I suggested, failed to face the real economic costs of equal access to municipal services. Conservatives have rejected equality of services as a priority of municipal government. Here I’d like to approach the issues, especially the…
The Colorado Springs Experiment, Part I
A recent episode of This American Life examined the difficulties and decisions made by the city government of Colorado Springs. Put briefly, the city began to run out of money and had to start shutting down basic services. Then a successful resort owner in town proposed that the city could save money by running more…
Updates on Education and Health Care
Two notes looking backward and forward: Education – I was interested to read today this op-ed in the Washington Post and response by Dean Dad. I found this statement by David C. Levy particularly gauling: “Even in the unlikely event that they devote an equal amount of time to grading and class preparation…” Makes me…
Why I Still Revere an Imperfect Constitution
Recognizing that the U.S. Constitution is imperfect and rejecting Constitutional originalism are not reasons to throw the document out. Let me explain some of the reasons that I think the Constitution does need to be defended as the foundation of our government and how I think we can do so. 1. Its survival. The United States has…
An Imperfect Constitution
For those who imagine the original Constitution was perfect or nearly perfect, two examples to consider: 1. Slavery is the most obvious way in which the Constitution was far from perfect. For a nation predicated on liberty, a founding document that protected hereditary chattel slavery constitutes a huge injustice. To the extent that the preservation…
Constitutional Originalism
Over the last decades, certain conservative political and legal activists have been very effective in selling a vision of the original Constitution as (1) basically perfect and (2) perfectly clear. From this perspective, the only modern approaches to the Constitution are to either (a) maintain it or (b) degrade it. This perspective has been effective in…
Ignore the Rankings
Embracing the teaching-centered faculty model I explained in my last post would require a major shift in perspective for many colleges and universities. One of the things that would have to change is the constant eye toward national rankings. This has become, for private colleges and universities and too many state schools, the post-secondary equivalent…
Prioritize Teaching in Faculty Structure
As promised, here are a few of the ideas which I think should be adopted to raise the level of teaching while cutting costs: Eliminate Tenure I used to be a firm advocate for tenure, arguing that it was a perfectly reasonable compensation structure in an environment that privileged free expression. Dean Dad has long…
The Current Undervaluation of Teaching
The sad (to me) truth is that teaching is at best a secondary priority at many of our public and private universities.* Don’t get me wrong, it is a high priority for many university teachers, particularly those early in their career. It’s what lures many people to graduate school in the first place, especially in…