The Supreme Court shocked a lot of people by ruling that colleges cannot use race in deciding which students to admit. That practice violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Harvard lost in the lawsuit but is already plotting how to continue discriminating against one minority (Asian Americans) and admit less qualified students of another minority (Black). Many brilliant White students are also denied admittance.
If all K-12 students were allowed to attend a high-performing school, no “preference” would be needed. Instead of a university assigning a few admission staff members to give preference to lower-performing minority students, they should work with politicians and local school systems to provide a quality education to ALL students. Allow parents to freely choose their schools, whether public or “private.” And focus on the 3 Rs, not DEI and CRT. (If you have forgotten, the 3 Rs are readin’ ritin’ and ‘rithmetic. More recently, schools have been affected by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Critical Race Theory.)
Instead of emphasizing the 3 Rs, New York City Mayor Adams wants schools to start with a couple of minutes of “breathing exercises.” Maybe those minutes would be better spent the way I remember (yes, many years ago), with a short devotion/inspirational message and the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Supreme Court also overturned Joe Biden’s campaign promise to former college students to forgive $10,000 (or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients) of their outstanding loans.
The students with unpaid college loans were duped into voting for Biden in 2020. He knew that only Congress can approve transferring that debt to every other taxpayer. The plan was pushed as a one-time deal to forgive $400 Billion of debt. But if Democrats had had a big majority in Congress, I bet they would have passed a bill that would have also promised $10,000 or more for every current and future college student. The cost would have quickly gone over a Trillion.
And University administrators are whining. Generous student loans from the federal government, regardless of the probability of a student paying it back, are the source of the problem. Student debt is $1,760,000,000,000, TRIPLED since 2008. It’s time for universities to cut costs to students so they don’t need to borrow so much. And it’s time to eliminate degrees that don’t have a career payoff. (I’ll get in trouble if I don’t make an exception for our under-paid school teachers.)
For any university president who says it’s impossible to cut costs, look at Purdue University in Indiana. Tuition has not changed in 12 years! Room and board have not increased either. Purdue is one of the top ranked universities in the country and enrollment, no surprise, has increased.
Mitch Daniels was the Purdue president who started that goal and stuck with it. Can you imagine if he was President of the US, and had kept the same budget since 2011? (National debt was $15 Trillion in 2011; now $32 Trillion)
By coincidence, the Biden Administration has added regulations that raised household costs about $10,000 so far. President Biden could save us $10,000, including students, by eliminating those expensive regulations. The regulations include ones on fossil fuels, health, labor, telecommunications, and banks.
President Biden is fuming at the Supreme Court. He answered a question with, “It’s not a Normal Court.” My follow up question would be: when was the Supreme Court “normal?” Was it in the early 1940s when all 9 Justices had been appointed by a liberal Democrat, President Roosevelt? Or 1954, when they overturned segregation in schools? Is it only “normal” when it follows political whims and ignores the Constitution?
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“The only salvation I can see for the young is to increase the college term to an additional four years… You’ll say, ‘What could they learn in another four years?’ Well, there must be something about making a living that they haven’t learned yet, and they could kind of work on that for the next four years.” Radio, June 2, 1935
“Borrowing money on ‘easy terms’ is a one-way ticket to the Poor House.” WA #14, March 18, 1923