Liberal Faculty at Universities

LMFAO!

 

By all means sir! Feel free to post anyone elses thoughts you happen to run across on the internet. Who knows, maybe one day when you're all grown up, you may actually have one of your own. Are you even aware of who it is you are quoting half the time?
And what the H*** does the introduction of psychology into the primary educational system have to do with liberal bias in higher education? The only thing you managed to inject into this thread is only vaguely related to the orginal topic. Not that we don't manage to get off topic quite a bit anyway, but you took such a sharp right turn, that half of us got whiplash. Ouch!

 

When you say "half of us" did thst mean you had your hand in your pocket again?
What ever! Now that I have pulled your chain, go ahead and flush!

 

OldDan, that doesn't look like a Norman Rockwell painting to me.

 

The reason that I started this topic was that I have been hearing a lot of complaints lately from the right that they are uncomfortable in higher education because of the strong liberal bias or progressive bias (new term that is about as relevant as compassionate conservative). They say that their more conservative views are not being heard because they feel intimidated by the liberal/progressive environment. People on both sides of the issue agreed that most of the University systems were overwhelmingly liberal. That made me wonder why "liberals" populated the higher learning ranks in such large numbers. When one conservative guest on a program I was listening to was asked why there were so many liberals in higher education, he dismissed it as internal cultural pressure and as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I believe, and this is just my opinion, that the answer is much simpler than that. It is simple economics. How much do you think a starting Assistant Professor makes? Well, unless you're in finance in the business school, or some medical school professor, you are looking at a salary range in the 30's maybe low 40's if you're lucky. Now, that made me ask myself how many conservatives out there are going to spend 20 plus years in school for a starting salary that you can't even make student loan payments on. Not many I'd say.

Why is teaching so undervalued and under funded in this country anyway? Well, for as long as I can remember, democrats have sought to add money to education, while republicans cut funding for education even in boom times. Consequently, the only people willing to take low-paying professor jobs turn out to be idealistic liberals.

So now you have a situation where the children of old school conservatives and the conservative leaning younger generation are complaining that their professors are too liberal for their comfort when it was in many cases their parents generation that built the system by under funding education.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have it both ways? What if we could both under fund education and get conservatives to accept low starting salaries after spending 20 plus years in school getting a PhD? O.K. that's not gonna happen. So instead, they are trying to pass legislation that is non-binding anyway, that supposedly forces teachers to recognize their more conservative views. You know, things like, dinosaurs didn't really exist, God put the archological evidence there for us to find. No kidding, I know someone that believes that. Sweet person too. Gonna have a tough life.

Well, don't despair young republicans. There is a solution. If you want more conservatives in Universities, just lobby your representatives to raise the salaries of higher education teachers. You would make everyone happy. It's a win-win situation. It's a very simple elegant solution that even your parents couldn't figure out. Until this actually happens, you can expect liberal professors to dominate the higher education ranks far into the future. It's tough being a victim of your own success sometimes.

 

I had many conservative professors in my years at the university... of course, my final major was economics, so that is probably bound to have a higher ratio of conservatives.

Before that it was business... before business, I think it was creative writing... before that I had a stint in philosophy... before that I was undeclared with intentions of fine art and political science.

I became my own antithesis somewhere in the middle, there.

 

A typical "knee jerk" action of increasing the funding and things will get better. How many time have the Democrats tried this and failed.

Education has enough money to get the job done, far better than the job they are doing now. The money is there but usually with no strings attached, as the college croud wouldn't think of having it any othe way. They are free to spend it as they see fit, and that includes such things as a new and better residence for the president of the college, football field covering to protect the fans from the elements, more and better buildings and enlargment of existing facilities even if the enrollement is down.
If the instructors need higher wages, let them get out of their ivory towers and fight for it along side of the others who are spending money as if it grew on trees.

If in the end, all else fails, hire some foreign help. The students will then need to take a couple of extra classes to get up to speed on the language.

 

"If in the end, all else fails, hire some foreign help. The students will then need to take a couple of extra classes to get up to speed on the language."

Not if you hire from India, Hindus of course. Very open minded and hard working people.

 

That's what my wife tells me. She has several Indian Grad students working for her and loves their hard work and worldly attitude. She is going to India twice this year-once with students and once with a friend. I think she is hooked on Indian culture too.

 

Higher Education Spending Defies Study Results
Aug 8 2005 - CNSNews.com

Although federal and state governments have increased their education budgets, several studies show higher per-pupil spending doesn’t help to improve student achievement. Education experts argue that spending priorities focus more on the objectives set by teacher unions rather than quality education.

It has been this way ever since the NEA turned from being a professional group to that of a union. I have more respect for the FTA than the NEA, because the Federation of Teachers at least call themselves what they are. They arent' a bunch of phonys

 

That's sort of funny. I thought that your article said "Higher Education Spending", when what it meant to say was "Higher spending on education" at the primary education level. The only reason I suggested raising the salaries of professors was to attract more conservatives to the University ranks. Nothing was said about improving learning outcomes. Having three kids in primary school, I can agree it isn't a lack on money that bothers me. It's the poor quality of the faculty that the low paying field attracts that bothers me. Chicken or the egg?