These are my alternatives to the list created by Melia Robinson and Melissa Stanger for Business Insider. I am excluding works of nonfiction and listing my top three choices for each state. Titles included in the list compiled by Robinson and Stanger are indicated in boldface. New Mexico The Milagro Beanfield War John Nichols The…
When John Kasich was elected governor of Ohio in 2010, one of the centerpieces of his economic plans was to privatize the state’s economic development agency. The reasoning went something like this: the public sector is too bureaucratized to be as responsive to changing economic conditions as the private sector demands, and so a privatized…
The following piece was written by my former student and friend Mike Lamm. Mike is a reporter for the Decatur Daily Democrat. _________________________ A recent poll by NBC news and the Wall Street Journal confirmed what most of us already know; that despite a concerted effort by the GOP to cloud the facts, most Americans…
I have written a number of posts expressing great skepticism about MOOCs, the for-profit online universities, and, more broadly, the view that technology can be used to make education more affordable by simply replacing educators. In several responses to my posts and more often in references to my posts on other sites, I have been…
In honor of Harvard’s 377th anniversary, Pamela Engel has compiled the following list of Harvard’s “25 Most Famous Living Harvard College Alumni” for Business Insider: Jeremy Lin Rivers Cuomo Natalie Portman Mark Zuckerberg Christopher Nowinski Rashida Jones Matt Damon Mira Sorvino Conan O’Brien Nicholas D. Kristof Andy Borowitz Jim Cramer Steve Ballmer John Roberts Yo-Yo…
Our media has conditioned us to focus on the moment, on the immediate situation. It is very seldom that the media encourages us to take a longer perspective. And in those few instances in which a longer view is attempted, very often the immediate situation is simply projected outward–multiplied as if the current conditions will…
These are my alternatives to the list created by Melia Robinson and Melissa Stanger for Business Insider. I am excluding works of nonfiction and listing my top three choices for each state. Titles included in the list compiled by Robinson and Stanger are indicated in boldface. Massachusetts The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne Infinite Jest David…
One of my posts this past week was on John Kasich’s appointment of Gordon Gee to explore ways of increasing affordability at Ohio’s public universities. Given Gee’s continuing status as the highest paid administrator at any public university in the United States, I expressed my skepticism about the appointment, a skepticism based in part on…
The following is excerpted from a Columbus Dispatch article by Charlie Boss and Jennifer Smith Richards. The article is titled “Education Roundup: Retired Gee’s Wit Still Working Overtime,” and it briefly surveys a series of stories from around Ohio. _________________________ E. Gordon Gee might not be in the daily spotlight since retiring as president of…
An “On the Issues” Post from the Campaign for the future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org] _______________ The Oregon legislature recently passed a law requiring the state to study a “Pay It Forward” model for higher education. Under the plan, students could attend college with no upfront costs but with a payback over 24 years amounting…