Links for 12/30/10

Christian Helmers and Mark Rogers

Our main finding is that the quality and quantity of engineering and biological university research is positively associated with small-firm patenting. We do not find any statistically significant correlation between university research and large-firm patenting…

David N. Bass

I made a decision early on that college was about getting a piece of paper, not an education. My goal wasn’t to become a better-rounded individual, or even to gain a greater understanding of my major area of study. Rather, it was to gain the educational credential that employers now use as a screening device for most jobs. And my experience confirmed what I had expected—that post-secondary education today has only a lackluster ability to provide real value aside from that credential…

Overall, I found my on-the-job experience far more valuable in terms of education than my college coursework… Reading about my major area of study was interesting—doing it was far more useful…

Michael Petrilli

Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, and now the New York Times editorial page have all come out in favor of squeezing teacher benefits, slashing regulations (including for special education), and consolidating schools. Keep that in mind this spring when the teachers unions try to paint cost-cutting governors and legislators as right-wing lunatics.

Kevin Carey

the last guy who tried to get paid fair market value for his football services instead of tithing millions of dollars in free labor to the NCAA was OSU running back Maurice Clarett, who was released from the Toledo Correctional Institute earlier this year.

Pryor’s offense was to sell his 2008 Big Ten championship ring and a golden trinket that has been given to OSU football players every year since 1893 to commemorate their annual ritual humiliation of the University of Michigan. The word “his” has a slightly different meaning in NCAA world, translating roughly as “not his.”…