Friday, November 20, 2020

HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE PANDEMIC

Harry Targ

Paradoxically, we on the left (compared with the 1960s) give inadequate attention to higher education, a source for training workers, transmitting ideology, employing hundreds of thousands of workers both instructional and support, and the generation of profits for corporations as higher education is privatized. Many communities survive because of the colleges and universities in their midst, much like factories and mines kept many communities alive economically in the twentieth century. As with everything else, the pandemic raises fundamental questions about our economy, our institutions and our public policies.  Ht

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The New York Times article, posted on FB.  raises questions about leadership at colleges and universities and the criteria that were used to open campuses and shut them down for Thanksgiving vacations (with students returning to their homes).

Tracking the Coronavirus at U.S. Colleges and Universities - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

PS. To the extent that financial viability has been a driver of the response of higher education to the pandemic, federal financial policies to maintain the viability of such institutions during the crisis, such as continuing to provide salaries, research support, transfer to online programs etc., should have been encouraged. Instead, CEOs of universities and politicians live by an ideology of “balanced budgets,” (except for military spending). Without “looking outside the box,” the fiscal crisis of higher education and the pandemic are insoluble.

 https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-thinking-political-economy-and.html

 

The Bookshelf

CHALLENGING LATE CAPITALISM by Harry R. Targ

Read Challenging Late Capitalism by Harry R. Targ.