Links for 11/18/09

Edububble

What does boosting tuition 32% in two years get you? A place in the list of best college presidents.

Mark Bauerlein

every tenured and tenure-track faculty member at a research university is paid every month out of regular salary and benefits to do the very research they claim is unsupported

WSJ

The biggest headline in education circles last week was that the Ford Foundation is making a whopping $100 million grant "to transform secondary education in the nation's most disadvantaged schools."…

Ford's formula for reform involves more money, less accountability and a bigger role for the unions…

Ford is supporting the unions—the biggest barrier to school reform in America…

Last Wednesday, by contrast, the Gates Foundation offered $10 million to help the wildly successful KIPP charter schools expand in Houston…

Erin Dillon

The authors were able to come to this conclusion only by constructing a straw man “free market” choice reform to use as a comparison. Never clearly defined, the “free market” reforms the authors discuss alternately take the form of charter schools, vouchers, and unregulated open enrollment programs…the authors argue against a vague “free-market reform” that doesn’t provide a useful basis for discussion.