Via a friend comes a thought-provoking piece on the state of American public higher education.

One thing I do notice: The “elite” institutions aren’t subject to this increasing corporatization and destruction. That’s because the “elite” institutions are where the oligarchs send their offspring.

I have “elite” in quotes because in my experience, they primarily exist to perpetuate themselves rather than to actually provide an education. They do provide one, of course, and they are able to do so because they work for the oligarchs, but I would put a *good* public education – like the one I had at Morehead State University – up against any undergraduate education. The primary difference between what I got at MSU and what you get at an elite institution is the circles in which you get to network.

Back to the larger point – the destruction of American public higher education is not a bug, it’s a feature. There’s a segment of the 1% that won’t rest until anyone who isn’t 1% can only take their job training (not education) at a for-profit degree mill while their own children get the best of the best. After all, if you wanted a real education, you should have had the good sense to be to the manner born.

WF