page not yet complete – but still useful, I hope

In the sixties, we poured money into two things: making a college education accessible to everyone; and, producing engineers and scientists. But we forgot accountability.

In the seventies, colleges were worried that the bubble they were experiencing would soon burst. By the late seventies, astute observers like David Riesman could warn that,

“…advantage can…be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions…those who speak in [their] name are not always [their] friends…” (from On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism, 1980)

By the late nineties, college professors at “elite” schools could get “national need” government grants to produce American math PhD’s., something similar to the 60’s: that is, with no accountability. Some of those professors granted doctorates to students who were so unqualified that they couldn’t even work hard calculus problems. (Don’t stop reading. It’s really true. You will see in the examples.)

Some of these (faux) PhD’s became professors at regional state schools, where they usually joined older unqualified PhD’s from earlier grant booms. These regional schools are where many future high school teachers go for their education – which they have no chance of getting under the “tutelage” of these so-called professors.

NOTE: I’m not claiming that ALL professors, or ALL institutions fit what I have just described, but enough do to deeply damage American education; and, thus, American politics, economics, and society.

Here is accompanying documentation.

Unscrupulous Instructors and Institutions

A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education

Chicago’s President Hugo F. Sonnenschein (in 1998), called “…the commodification and marketing of higher education…” He went on to say “…we can’t jolly dance along and not pay attention to them. One hears constantly from parents and students: ‘We are the consumer. We pay the tuition…” (The complete post is here.)

Faux Professors

Prof. Alfred

Stats Professor Doesn’t Know Basics

Prof. Kevin

Elite Universities Awards PhD

National Need Example

Economists do it, too.