{"id":1602501,"date":"2022-08-12T07:46:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T11:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1602501"},"modified":"2022-08-12T07:48:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T11:48:16","slug":"dont-reform-higher-education-rebuild-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dont-reform-higher-education-rebuild-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Reform Higher Education. Rebuild It"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdont-reform-higher-education-rebuild-it%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1602501&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Skyrocketing tuition costs. Administrative bloat. Shout-downs on campus.\u00a0Each of these problems represents a unique challenge for college students and their families, as well as for taxpayers and policymakers.\u00a0Taken together, they represent a crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As students go back to school, voters, taxpayers, and policymakers are asking: Can higher education be saved? A better question\u2014and one that heralds a more substantive answer\u2014is being asked by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists: Can higher education be rebuilt?\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>The Rot in Academia<\/h2>\n<p>Most colleges and universities in the U.S. need more than reform. The rot is palpable. Taxpayers should be appalled at proposals for so-called \u201cloan forgiveness\u201d because no one is being forgiven \u2014 costs are merely shifting. President Joe Biden\u2019s administration wants to unload all loan costs on taxpayers. Federal officials have already started the process by carving out certain student groups for forgiveness, such as students at certain for-profit colleges, along with giving a so-called \u201cfresh start\u201d to students who were in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/articles\/2022\/06\/14\/government-hits-reset-on-student-loan-defaults-but-many-could-experience-default-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">default<\/a> before the pandemic. Taxpayers, whether they know it or not, are already covering these expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, universities have suffered from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goacta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/The-Cost-of-Excess-FINAL-Full-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">administrative bloat<\/a> for years. Policymakers should question school budgets and the growth of departments committed to so-called \u201cdiversity.\u201d Non-instructional spending on student services and administration is increasing at higher rates than instructional spending.<\/p>\n<p>Given the spread of \u201cdiversity\u201d offices, why do students still weigh the cost of sharing their opinions out loud for fear that they will be canceled? Ostensibly these offices are created to make more students feel welcome. But campus climate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2022\/06\/02\/survey-college-students-still-dont-feel-free-speak-campus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">surveys<\/a> show students are afraid to speak up inside or outside of class. Headlines continue to report that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2022\/03\/23\/law-student-protests-stifle-speakers-yale-uc-hastings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shout-downs<\/a> and other examples of campus censorship sadly have become routine. Administrative bloat and the diversity craze have not made universities more civil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not new that conservative people have been sending their children to liberal schools,\u201d said education entrepreneur Robert L. Luddy in an interview. \u201cPeople think in the status quo. They send their children there and don\u2019t think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Creating Competetive Alternatives<\/h2>\n<p>Luddy has created private schools in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia that teach curricula based on classic works of literature, science, and history. He is now applying the same technique to higher education. \u201cIn recent years, colleges have become more expensive and egregious in the things they are doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Luddy is part of a select group of business leaders, researchers, and educators around the U.S. who are trying to repair higher education by building new colleges as examples of what higher education should be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He created Thales College to \u201cprovide a high quality, affordable undergraduate option for students.\u201d Tuition stands at $4,000 per term. Students can finish in three years and will complete coursework while also working in apprenticeship programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt takes a range of skills to be very successful,\u201d Luddy said. He wants to offer students an education \u201cthat is leading somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luddy and other founders of new schools stress that they can build new institutions focused on pursuing truth without destroying existing schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t abandon the overwhelming majority of colleges and universities,\u201d Michael Poliakoff, President of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a group that studies higher education, said in an interview. \u201cThere are too many lives at stake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Poliakoff, too, believes in rebuilding. He is a member of the Board of Visitors for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ralston.ac\/about\/our-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ralston<\/a> College in Savannah, Georgia \u2014 another new school for those hoping for reform, as the current trends leave reformers in what he calls \u201ca boat going upstream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Added Poliakoff: \u201cWe need places that have actually thought through \u2018what is it that makes an educated person?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>C. Bradley Thompson, executive director for Clemson University\u2019s Institute for the Study of Capitalism, is also on the board at Ralston. \u201cThe traditional understanding of a university has been entirely lost in today\u2019s world,\u201d Thompson said in an interview. \u201cThere is a market, a huge demand, out there from young people and their parents for a better kind of education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained that Ralston wants to restore the 19th-century ideal of education, which he says is the \u201crelentless pursuit of truth and the wisdom and knowledge that has been passed down generation to generation for almost 2,000 years in Western civilization.\u201d Noted author and free speech advocate Jordan Peterson is the school\u2019s chancellor.<\/p>\n<h2>Cultivating Diversity of Thought<\/h2>\n<p>These ideas about rebuilding and this entrepreneurial spirit are spreading. Other free speech defenders and cultural commentators such as former Wall Street Journal and New York Times writer Bari Weiss and Brown University professor Glenn Loury helped launch the University of Austin in Texas last year. Times columnist Ross Douthat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/10\/opinion\/university-of-austin-colleges.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called<\/a> the school an important experiment and an \u201ceffort to push back against [the] decadence\u201d of higher education.<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Philanthropist and investor Stacy Hock is on the board of advisers at U. Austin. She explained in an interview that \u201cany vibrant industry is benefitted by new entries to the marketplace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea of starting a new institution that can be on par with [established institutions] is daunting,\u201d Hock said. Still, she added, \u201cit\u2019s desperately needed.\u201d When U. Austin launched last year, Hock said thousands of students and tenured professors expressed interest in the new school.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStudents felt self-censored on campus,\u201d Hock continued. \u201cThere was this real desire to engage with intellectuals around ideas in a pretty uncensored but also rigorous way.\u201d The school launched a seminar program for undergraduates this summer, and school leaders expect to offer both master\u2019s and bachelor\u2019s level programs in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>Investors based in Silicon Valley started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minerva.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Minerva University<\/a> a decade ago, offering virtual classes and providing students with opportunities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2020\/jul\/30\/the-future-of-education-or-just-hype-the-rise-of-minerva-the-worlds-most-selective-university\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in cities such as Seoul, Berlin, and Taipei<\/a> for different job training experiences. The school is highly selective and admits just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/minerva-remains-most-selective-university-301057235.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1 percent<\/a> of student applicants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The traditional four-year college experience is not the right choice for every student after high school. But those who want a degree should be able to choose between schools based on academic quality and affordability. They should be able to choose between schools that protect the diversity of ideas. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/college-professors-donate-to-democrats-over-republicans-by-ratio-of-95-to-1-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reams<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2016\/oct\/6\/liberal-professors-outnumber-conservatives-12-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">of<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/2022\/7\/13\/faculty-survey-political-leaning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">research<\/a> find that a strong majority of professors support left-of-center policymakers and causes. Students at this level need to wrestle with ideas, and this process requires instruction from different perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerica\u2019s universities are an anathema to what universities should be about,\u201d Clemson\u2019s Thompson noted. \u201cSoon we are going to see colleges that don\u2019t have DEI offices,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cgoing forward, these are very exciting times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Higher education requires rebuilding instead of simply reforming. For those attending schools that were created to rebuild higher education, it is already an exciting time to go back to campus.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skyrocketing tuition costs. Administrative bloat. Shout-downs on campus.\u00a0Each of these problems represents a unique challenge for college students and their families, as well as for taxpayers and policymakers.\u00a0Taken together, they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1208,"featured_media":1897925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1602501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/12\/dont-reform-higher-education-rebuild-it\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dont-reform-higher-education-rebuild-it","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}