The Provocative Ideas of "Publius Audax"

robkoons

Pajamas Media have published a series of posts on higher education in Texas, authored by “Publius Audax”, a pseudonym for a professor at an undisclosed state university. Readers of this blog might be interested in what Publius has to say. In “Needed Reforms for Public Higher Education in Texas (and Elsewhere)”, Publius advocates what he calls the “Entrepreneurial Professor” model. In essence, it puts both departments and individual professors in competition with one another for students, tying professors’ pay to numbers of undergraduate students taught, while fighting grade inflation with similar incentives. In addition, Publius recommends taking advantage of Texas’s Tuition Equalization grants, which are in effect vouchers for private colleges. These have existed since the 1980’s but have been perpetually under-funded. By fully funding the TEG’s, Texas could level the playing field. Publius’s other recommendation pushes in a different direction. He proposes a $10K B.A., inspired by Gov. Perry’s State of the State address, exploiting Texas’s economies of scale to create web-based resources for 400 standardized courses. Each state university could offer the courses inexpensively ($250 per course), due to low marginal costs per student. Finally, Publius recommends skepticism about the so-called “accountability” movement within higher education officialdom. The Coordinating Board is pushing a plan designed to reward state universities for higher graduation rates. As Publius points out, this seems to confuse means and ends and threatens to accelerate the current race to the bottom to lower standards.

  • Share

Most Commented

September 6, 2024

1.

Professor Alleges "Widespread" Discriminatory Hiring Coverup at University of Washington

Audio acquired by the National Association of Scholars describes allegations of coverup race-based hiring coverup at the University of Washington...

October 29, 2024

2.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

September 25, 2024

3.

NAS Statement on University of Pennsylvania Sanction of Amy Wax

The National Association of Scholars is outraged—but not surprised—by Penn's decision to penalize Wax for exercising her academic freedom. ...

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

September 21, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What Does YHWH Elohim Mean?

A reader asks, "If Elohim refers to multiple 'gods,' then Yhwh Elohim really means Lord of Gods...the one of many, right?" A Hebrew expert answers....