,
10 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
There's a quote from the NYTimes write-up of the admissions bribery scandal that is a perfect encapsulation of @tressiemcphd's "LowerEd" thesis that #LowerEd exists in order to make elite higher ed more valuable. nytimes.com/2019/03/12/us/… 
Notice the framing: the bribery cheated other hard-working kids out of a "chance at higher education." This language suggests that the only education worth having is one acquired at an elite institution. Otherwise, you've missed your chance.
We know that the quality of education at these elite institutions is no different than that available at thousands of other places, but because of #LowerEd those slots take on enormous value. The solution to the problem isn't to just raise LowerEd, it's to lower elite higher ed.
We gotta drain the elite higher ed swamp, and as I suggest in my blog post today, one of the ways to do that is to start questioning why those elite private institutions are allowed to capture so many $'s in public subsidy. Maybe they shouldn't. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
Those public $'s that are currently flowing toward elite institutions that perpetuate this system could instead go into public higher ed, providing the kinds of resources which will allow them to fulfill their mission.
I've made this argument dozens of times in my blog space over the years. Competition is bad for public higher education. It's wasteful and inefficient, and the reason these institutions must compete is because elite privates have become the avatar of success.
This does not take a radical shift. It simply means returning to a status quo that existed in my lifetime where state institutions primarily enrolled the citizens of the state and tuition was relatively low and affordable. That was the case when I went to college in 1988.
Unfortunately, I'm just about the last matriculation year that got this deal. Tax the rich, stop subsidizing elite private higher ed, and funnel that money into public institutions that provide access to students (starting with community colleges) to build a sustainable system.
Two other suggests to drain the swamp of elite higher ed from my blog post. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
Since we know the meritocracy is a myth, let's just go ahead and pull down the edifice that allows it to perpetuate. Public higher ed institutions can have a role in this by opting out of the worst, most self-destructive aspects of the competition.
