Awww, the International Sociast Organization doesn't think much of Purdue Univeristy's new president. From SOCIALISTWORKER.org:
MITCH DANIELS is not just a local player. He is part of a national project to dismantle the already shrinking public sector and subject the lives of working people to the vagaries of the market. His first legislative initiative after taking office as governor was to strip public sector employees--including teachers--of collective bargaining rights.
As governor, Daniels cut $150 million from higher education, created the largest voucher scheme for public education in the country, and ended his term by forcing through right-to-work legislation. In all of these endeavors, Daniels was a trailblazer for more notorious Republicans like Wisconsin's Scott Walker and proponents of SB5 legislation in Ohio.
It shouldn't surprise us that Daniels--known for his disdain toward public education and teachers--would be appointed the head of a leading public university. As Edward St. John and Douglas Priest argue in their edited book Privatization and Public Universities, there has been a nationwide drive to privatize higher education since the 1980s.
This has been marked by several features: a shift from state tax dollars to tuition and fees to pay for college, increasing support for universities from corporations, and the privatization of university services.
I've never been a fan of ad hominem decisions -- you know, my enemy hates someone or something so naturally I have to be on the otehr side. But I could make an exception for these feverish nutjobs even if I weren't a fan of some of the reform efforts Daniels has been pushing. It's not being "against" public education to push for changes that might improve it, and privatization . . . oh, why bother?
