Sep 12, 2007 ·

Learn and Earn:

Editor’s Note: Jane S. Shaw is the executive vice president of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh. Alyn Berry, while an intern with the John Locke Foundation, provided research assistance.

One of the most puzzling education programs I have come across is “Learn and Earn,” which the legislature recently expanded with $6.2 million for the next two fiscal years.

Learn and Earn, initiated by the governor in 2004, is an “early college” program composed of small high schools located mostly on community college campuses. Students can progress through high school and then get an associate’s degree — in only five years of school. Since all of it is free to the student, the successful graduate obtains the equivalent of two years of college virtually without charge.

This program was supposed to reduce the high school dropout rate.

Frankly, this doesn’t make much sense. Potential dropouts – by definition – don’t value the first degree (the high school diploma) very highly. Why would they be willing to work hard for a second one?

Sep 5, 2007 ·

My Introduction to Higher Education

Editor’s note: Alyn Berry, a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, lives in Kernersville, NC.

Like most prospective college students, I expected to “find myself” in college. I didn’t have a clear idea of what that meant at the time, but having been politically active in high school, I wanted college to challenge my principles and make me defend them. I hoped I would take classes with professors who would make me reexamine my perspective on the world.

I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although UNC is highly respected in this state and others, many native North Carolinians jokingly insist that Chapel Hill is not a part of our state. Some call it the “People’s Republic of Chapel Hill,” poking fun at this college town’s liberal reputation. Despite this, I packed my bags and moved my life just an hour down the road — but a world away.

I was able to accept my liberal roommate from San Francisco, the protests in “the Pit,” and the homeless men on Franklin Street. What bothered me was what was happening in the classroom. My ideas were not being “challenged” as I had imagined; instead, they were being attacked head-on.

Aug 29, 2007 · and

A Writing Program that Works

With the writing abilities (or lack thereof) of today’s college students becoming an issue, the authors describe a writing program at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. that offers hope for the future.

Aug 22, 2007 ·

American Higher Education: From Butterfly to Caterpillar to What?

A new paper just issued by the Pope Center, From Christian Gentleman to Bewildered Seeker: The Transformation of American Higher Education by Russell K. Nieli takes a sweeping view of college education in America, from the colonial days up to the present. Nieli shows that the point of going to college used to be the acquisition of a coherent body of knowledge about the world so that the individual might understand its interconnectedness. Today many schools offer the student nothing but a smorgasbord of courses that give little more than a bit of vocational training. Missing entirely is any effort at to achieve what used to be thought a “well-rounded” education.

Nieli’s purpose is to explain how this unhappy metamorphosis came about and he accomplishes that purpose beautifully.

Aug 15, 2007 ·

Socket Wrenches in the Book Bag

Since the 1990s, NASCAR has grown from a sport rooted in the Southeast to an American institution with a fan base second only to the National Football League. Throughout NASCAR’s history, North Carolina has always been among its central locations and the sport has done fine here without government assistance.

Today the sport has its home base in the state, with most of the in its three main divisions (Nextel Cup, Busch Series, Craftsman Truck) setting up shop in the Charlotte region. Industry estimates claim that auto racing contributes $5 billion annually to the state’s economy and creates more than 24,000 jobs, most of them related to engineering, design, and fabrication of the stock cars. Those are jobs that, for the most part, require a higher level of training that that of your typical auto mechanic.

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From Christian Gentleman to Bewildered Seeker

Russell K. Nieli’s new essay tells the story of the increasing loss of purpose and focus suffered by American universities over the ages.

Nieli, a lecturer in Princeton University’s politics department, has authored an important study of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, written numerous articles on public policy topics and edited an anthology of writings on affirmative action. Nieli graduated summa cum laude from Duke University and received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1970. He previously authored a Pope Center research paper in March 2007, “The Decline and Revival of Liberal Learning at Duke: The Focus and Gerst Programs.”

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From Christian Gentleman to Bewildered Seeker

A new essay from the Pope Center fills a critical void in understanding today’s university. “From Christian Gentleman to Bewildered Seeker” reveals how the nation’s universities lost their coherence and purpose and became fragmented and over-specialized.

This beautifully woven history reports on the major transformation that began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and received new momentum during the late 1960s.

Aug 14, 2007 ·

Budget a big victory for Bowles, Easley

When the North Carolina General Assembly approved the final budget for the 2008 fiscal year in July, it was clear that the state’s education sector was a big winner. Lawmakers had approved a state budget that called for $1 billion more education spending than last year.

It’s that kind of spending that makes Gov. Mike Easley and UNC President Erskine Bowles quite happy. Both came away as big beneficiaries, having shepherded their specific spending proposals and persuaded lawmakers to fund their plans. For taxpayers, of course, the spending was more of a mixed bag, and a costly one.

In all, the 2008 budget came in at $20.6 billion. UNC makes up 12 percent of the budget, receiving a $2.6 billion total appropriation. The community college system received just under $1 billion, $938 million. Total education spending, when the K-12 Department of Public Instruction is included, was $11 billion. These figures do not include significant capital expenditures that will be funded by bonds that do not need voter approval.

Aug 10, 2007 ·

Harvard Dean, a Critic of Today’s Higher Education, to Speak at Pope Center Conference

Each fall the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy hosts a conference focusing on issues in higher education. This year’s conference, which will be held on Saturday, October 27, has the theme “Building Excellence in American Higher Education,” and the keynote speaker will be former Harvard dean Harry Lewis.

Harry Lewis is an ideal choice. He has many years of experience as a professor and administrator at Harvard. Last year he published a book entitled Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education. It spells out in detail the reasons why Harvard – and most other colleges and universities – are failing to live up to all their publicity hype.

The most glaring defect Lewis addresses (and which will be the topic of his speech at the conference) is in the curriculum. In years gone by, most colleges and universities required students to devote most of their credits to a core of courses that, by general assent, were crucial to a well-founded education. Some subjects, in other words, were more important than others.

Aug 8, 2007 ·

Lift the Veil Off the Finances of Colleges and Universities

Two leading members of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), are trying to increase transparency in the financial reporting by nonprofit organizations. Many of the reforms the senators propose—outlined in a May 29 letter to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen—would have a profound effect upon the kind of financial information that colleges and universities are required to disclose to the public.

Colleges and universities are required to file Form 990 annually with the IRS (available to the public through GuideStar). Baucus and Grassley propose a major overhaul of Form 990. They contend that the current form does not adequately encompass information regarding large, complex nonprofits such as universities. They call for more detailed reporting tailored to the specifics of these institutions and for making their financial reporting more transparent.