Setting aside the long marchers who transformed our institutes of higher learning into social justice warrior factories, the question of the day is: Can the damage they wrought be undone by the same administrators and cowardly faculty who let them take over? Or will restoring sanity require intervention by outside forces?
The pugnacious signatories of the Manhattan Statement believe only vigorous government action can make American universities great again. This includes dishing out harsh ultimatums threatening to hold back the $150 billion a year in taxpayers’ money that has been feeding the beast. The pacificators at the Heterodox Academy think change can come from within. You can watch advocates of both sides duke it out at the MIT Free Speech Alliance annual conference next month.
One wag memed that university degrees are the new taxi medallion. Many employers are starting to agree, selecting for demonstrable skills while disregarding the meaningless certificates issued by dying prestige brands. Some judges and law firms won’t hire from egregiously woke law schools. And subpar DEI admits from woke medical schools may soon find out that patients can make identity-based choices too.
Meanwhile Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame has opened up a second front, banging the drum for a massive scale-up of vocational training. Training that will prepare graduates for secure, well-paid jobs in the skilled trades that have gone begging. Jobs that can’t be taken away by robots, AI, or outsourcing to India and China.
Look down your noses while you still can, you deeply indebted, unemployed liberal arts majors. But karma delivers justice in funny ways.
Regardless of when, where, how, or if education reform arrives, the Beaver looks forward to the future as tomorrow’s students vote with their feet.