Do Republicans Hate Education?

You want to see why Chambliss & McConnell won their races?

A couple of weeks ago we remarked how even one of the least reactionary of the Republican governors, Charlie Crist of Florida, was raising the cost of a college education so steeply that it would bar many young men and women from working families from the traditional means to climb the socioeconomic ladder. And Crist and Florida are far from the only culprits here.

The economic crisis has hit higher education with a triple whammy. Students and their families will need more help paying for school just as colleges struck by financial crises begin charging higher tuition and have less means to provide financial aid.

Already, 37 lenders have stopped making private loans and 168 have stopped offering federally guaranteed loans.

...Colleges across the board are hurting. At least 20 states have handed down budget cuts or face tuition increases in their higher-education systems. The University of Florida has already eliminated 430 faculty and staff positions and plans to increase in-state tuition by 15 percent. The University of Massachusetts system has cut $24.6 million for the current fiscal year. And with more students likely to apply to lower-cost public universities, admission will grow even more competitive.

You think Obama would be about to move into the White House if he hadn't gone to college? When I was president of Reprise Records I would sometimes speak at schools and students often asked me whether a college education helped me find employment or helped me do my job. The short answer was no. But it's a misleading answer. The music business isn't typical-- and neither am I. When I needed to hire an assistant our personnel department said I was impossible. That's because I didn't tell them how many words per minute I needed in a typist or which computer skills would be required. I wanted someone who could talk about Dostoevski and Matisse and Copeland. I recall when I was first hired-- as one of dozens of lowly VPs-- and went to a vice presidents meeting I was astounded that so many of them either didn't go to college or smoked so much dope while they did that they might as well not have. Other than the ability to read Billboard adequately, many of them were shockingly ignorant. They'd never be visiting our operation in Paris or Mumbai or even imagine where either was. That didn't mean they weren't good record biz mechanics. Traditionally, unless you're entrepreneurial or going into show business or sports, the socialization you get in college is usually essential to move up the ladder in our society.

Today's NY Times warns that college is becoming unaffordable for most Americans, something that may make right-wing political strategists and social philosophers happy, but is ruinous for both a functioning democracy and a prosperous society-- not to mention the increasing number of individuals whose lives are impacted. According to a report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the blunt, unvarnished fact is that one of the byproducts of the Bush Economic Miracle-- and "center-right" policy-- is that the rising cost of college is putting higher education out of reach for most Americans.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

“When we come out of the recession,” Mr. Callan added, “we’re really going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be competitive. Already, we’re one of the few countries where 25- to 34-year-olds are less educated than older workers.”

Look at the map, the lighter the area, the more education. Looks like a fairly strong correlation with a Democratic/Republican voting record as well. The light areas are mostly Democratic states and the dark areas, with the least amount of education, are where Republicans find the most support. An NEA study found that the 10 states with the highest average school teacher's salary (from $58,456 to $53,2587) are all blue states (DC, California, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania) and of the 10 states with the lowest salaries 9 are red and one, Iowa, swings back and forth. The 9 with the lowest salaries (between $34,040 and Iowa's 39,284) are South Dakota, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama, West Virginia, Montana, Louisiana, and Missouri. Expenditure per student also varies widely-- and varies between red states and blue states. The 5 highest and lowest:

DC- $15,073
New Jersey- 13,370
New York- 12,879
Connecticut- 11,874
Massachusetts- 11,681
average USA- 8,661
Oklahoma- 6,614
Mississippi- 6,452
Arkansas- 6,202
Arizona- 5,474
Utah- 5,032

States with the highest percentage of college graduates (DC, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and Vermont) all voted for Obama and states with the lowest percentage of college graduates (West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Nevada all voted for McCain and Bush (except Nevada which voted for Bush and switched to Obama this year).

States with the lowest education level of their workforce are all Republican states. The bottom of the barrel. From bad to worse: South Carolina, Tennessee, Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, Arkansas. They're all states where McCain (and Bush) won by substantial margins and they're all states with the greatest number of functional illiterates. It's not a coincidence. Republicans-- and all political parties of the right everywhere on earth and always (historically)-- hate, oppose and work against public education. Barefoot, ignorant slaves make up the ideal workforce in the right wing mindset.