With heavy heart...
Dr. Kapital tweets:
Harvard financial crisis. Endowment in half, still gargantuan.
If I may editorialize on Dr. Kapital's behalf, I share David Brooks' enthusiasm for the President's plan to increase funding to community colleges. These schools work miracles, and they don't need a lot of money (in the greater scheme of things) to do their best work. Perhaps Harvard could donate some of that excess space for community college classes?
posted by The Front at 11:26 PM
1 Comments:
Community Colleges are as a rule are highly efficient institutions that really do give a huge number of people brighter futures. Anecdotally, students who languished at high school can suddenly develop a powerful thirst for knowledge and as young or older adults. The transformation can be breathtaking and hugely beneficial to society.
I'll never forget the classes with two young muslim women, a gaggle of high school kids, a Rosie the Riveter from WWII, and two Dinka tribesman, one 7' 2", from the city and one from rural areas around Darfur. Not only did the art go well, but the socialization of diverse communities was inspirational.
I suspect that it was the extensive post-secondary educational system in the U.S. West- a direct result of WWII and the growth of technical research- that was the foundation of the high-tech economy and American innovation. But the low-tax cult has sliced this system to pieces: community colleges are a critical patch for the way we've let down high schools for decades now.
However, to my personal irritation, Community Colleges, are benefiting from the rapidly shrinking career track opportunities for teachers in four year colleges and universities, and the subsequent flood of adjunct faculty trying to supplement incomes.
Practically, when you sign up at a good city community college with a younger faculty, you've got a fair chance of getting an instructor qualified to teach at Harvard for about $200 a class.
For students who carefully select community college classes, it can be an astonishingly good deal.
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