Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Links for 9/01/09

by Andrew Gillen

"California's universities in trouble"

Mike Goldstein finds some wisdom in The Three Amigos, a truly fantastic movie.

El Guapo: Jefe, you do not understand women. You cannot force open the petals of a flower. When the flower is ready, it opens itself up to you.

Jefe: So when do you think Carmen will open up her flower to you?

El Guapo: Tonight, or I will kill her!

School Turnaround Version

Bushy-Tailed Turnaround Guy: You do not understand teachers. You cannot force them to change. You have to work with them collaboratively, build a sense of trust and mutual respect.

Jefe: So when do you think the teachers will change?

Bushy-Tailed Turnaround Guy: Today, or I will fire them all!

Chad Aldeman finds the car buying experience unpleasant (I do too):
Colleges and universities across the country have been increasingly pursuing a strategy of high-cost, high-financial aid. “Don’t worry about our sticker price!” they argue, “because we’re just extorting the maximum dolllar from families that can pay in order to subsidize families that can’t.” Besides the fact that this is not, in fact, what they’re doing with the additional financial aid expenditures, there’s a real danger in pricing colleges like cars...

this is a lie. We know that colleges are instead spending phantom financial aid dollars to increase so-called merit aid, compete with each other, and bring in the kids they really want.
Brad DeLong on nonfurlough furloughs in California.

make[s] sense if you suppose that University of California President Mark Yudoff was all set to tell the legislature: "If you don't fund the University of California, we won't teach as much, and here this fall is a down payment to show that we are very serious about this--we are taking our 'furloughs' on days when we had previously planned to hold classes."

But then blinked.

Evil thought of the day: Take this, add this.

No comments: