The Trump Administration may be the pre-eminent example of lunacy in government, but the current super-majority in Indiana’s legislature–aided and abetted by our MAGA Governor and his merry band of White Christian Nationalists–are no less impervious to logic, evidence and sound policy.
A report from Indiana Public Media focuses on one example. It begins:
A measure meant to better align education in Indiana to the state’s workforce needs is headed to the governor’s desk. It received wide support from Senate lawmakers despite lingering concerns about its effect on colleges, universities and employers.
SB 448 requires the Commission for Higher Education to approve all degrees and programs offered by public colleges and universities every 10 years. It also says those schools must assess and consider their staffing needs when reviewing tenured professors.
Sen. Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis) said he is concerned programs could be cut if they aren’t considered valuable to the state’s employment needs. Additionally, he expressed concern that requiring faculty tenure reviews to take specific staffing needs for approved degrees or programs into account could be detrimental to other areas of study.
“It can get really dangerous for us to start providing this type of, I don’t know, nose under the tent ideology,” he said.
Taylor has identified the two major flaws in this state over-reach. I’ve repeatedly posted about the first– lawmakers’ refusal to understand what education is, and why it is not job training. Our public schools and universities have two vitally important tasks: giving the nation’s children and youth the intellectual tools and skills they will need, not just to negotiate the economic world they will inhabit, but the tools to lead richer, more fulfilled and considered lives; and equipping them with what I have termed “civic literacy”–enabling them to discharge the responsibilities of citizenship.
Education includes things like art, music, literature and philosophy. Presumably, those studies are unnecessary “frills” when the job of the schools is simply to produce worker bees.
But SB 448 not only confuses education with job training, it mimics Trump’s efforts to dictate what can and cannot be taught in the nation’s universities, to control and micro-manage institutions of higher education and to “purge” those institutions of ideas with which our overlords disagree.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities has issued a response to these efforts. It began:
As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.
The statement notes that the nation’s colleges and universities are diverse. There are “research universities and community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public institutions and private ones; freestanding and multi-site campuses.” Different schools are designed for different students. In order for these institutions to function properly, they must have the
freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom. Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.
I encourage you to click through and read the entire statement, which was signed by dozens of university presidents. I doubt it will move the culture warriors in Washington or the Indiana Statehouse, who shrink from “open inquiry” and want to turn our educational institutions into factories spitting out those obedient worker bees. These are limited individuals who view genuine intellectual engagement and inquiry with fear and disdain.
During this session, Indiana’s terrible legislature has doubled down on its war on education. It has stolen even more critical funding from our public schools in order to increase a voucher program that all evidence shows does not improve educational outcomes, and is in reality a First Amendment “work-around” allowing public money to flow to religious schools. In a prior session, it passed a highly intrusive bill misleadingly described as an effort to protect “intellectual diversity” on state campuses–in reality, an effort to purge those campuses of perspectives of which our radical legislators disapprove.
Ironically, those Blue states governed by legislators who understand the difference between job training and education–and who support, rather than undermine, their universities’ missions–also have more robust economies.
Too bad Indiana’s “leaders” can’t connect those dots….
Worried for my high school junior grandson.
Very worried.
And don’t forget that Braun signed a last-minute amendment to control all Board of Trustees appointments at Indiana University. There was no discussion or public input; it was placed back on pages 180 of a 500-page budget bill right before the vote. So much for Mr Transparency!
I’m still waiting to hear back from NPR and Indiana Capital Chronicle about who underwrote (financed) Braun’s nonprofit that “developed his policies and proposals. Braun has refused to provide the donors on his IRS Form 990. I’ll wager that all the donors are connected to Koch’s dark network.
Trump and DOGE cut hundreds of millions of dollars from universities nationwide. American Progress posted a detailed list of those cuts based on state and congressional district. In my district, Ball State lost around $400 thousand in liberal arts grants. I didn’t hear any fuss from Victoria Spartz or Todd Young. These highly educated individuals don’t grasp the concept of being “servants to the public.”
This whole country doesn’t understand the concept of being a public servant. It does NOT mean “to rule over.” It’s not a power position—it’s about serving one’s constituents.
The problem is that our servants now serve the oligarchy and rule over us. They are liaisons from the oligarchy to constituents. To be honest, they have more of an employer/employee relationship with the oligarchs.
Todd Young just posted a picture of the Indiana Dunes on Facebook with a message that now is a good time to visit our state parks. Innocent, right?
Well, his post is getting hammered by citizens pissed that Todd sold out our national and state parks to the oil & gas drilling companies which gave Trump over $100 million for his campaign. Trump wanted $500 million, but he accepted what he got. What did my heart good was that most of the posts were done by women. Todd is such a sniveling, spineless turd. He cannot even act like he has a spine.
In a five-minute visit to X.com (I can’t handle more than that), Musk posted the new Trump hat being sold by his media company – a red MAGA hat reading “Trump 2032.” They aren’t even being secretive about their intentions.
Lastly, those who followed Mehdi Hassan from MSNBC know that he now has a media company, mostly on Substack, called Zeteo. Every weekend, he gives a recap of the Trump highlights or lowlights of the week. It really is helpful to see the whole week’s impact versus the day-to-day cringe we get from the media. Powerful perception!
Link:
https://zeteo.com/s/this-week-in-democracy?
They understand what theyre doing but dont care – they simply want to indoctrinate and control. Thinking threatens the power of the American Taliban.
Having a so-called blue government, is not a panacea. One thing our blue leaders like to do is keep their hands in your pockets! They don’t know how to keep their hands out of your pockets. The only pockets they don’t want to put their hands in, are their own!
There’s always some constant budget crisis, because they promised so much to so many, it’s impossible to deliver it all. The only way that they can accomplish that goal, is to raise taxes. And they get very sneaky about it. Allowing school vouchers at a massive scale, still devastates the educational system. The school boards, are constantly fighting with the teachers union. The teachers union threatens to strike if they don’t have control over transportation, nutrition, curriculum, and anything besides teaching!
The teachers unions also drive the surge in property taxes. So they definitely don’t mind the voucher program, that allows them to continue to ask, and I use that term loosely, for more money every single year. Taxes rising by 15 to 20% every year is not sustainable. And yet, they do it anyway. Especially for those who are the least able to keep up with the insane increases. And the schools are not anywhere close to the top of the nation in quality.
They can’t figure out how to help those who are having trouble with their medical care, so people are being chopped out of their medical care because Medicaid and the affordable Care act, are so restrictive and convoluted here. They’ve made it difficult to get EBT, people that have used it for decades, are being carved out. One of the reasons, they have such poor budgeting skills, and they’ve gone to the well so many times with tax increases, people are trying to leave the state in droves.
JB Pritzker is definitely not one You would want as your governor, so be careful what you ask for! There is no panacea here, Just like in New York or California. People are leaving here for Tennessee in a manner that would remind everyone of the wagon trains heading west! Now they’re going back the other way. One of the largest influxes in Tennessee concerning relocation, are from San Francisco, and Chicago, Florida has a huge influx of New Yorkers.
I could go on, but it wouldn’t do much good. Don’t look at those blue states or these blue states and expect something amazing, because you’d be actually looking towards going back the other way.
Yes, Lori, it IS the American Taliban hard at work. Thing is, it’s not just the Christian Nationalists or just Indiana. This ultra-backward thinking is EVERYWHERE to some degree. Gotta shout out to the churches for not fighting abject ignorance nor preventing this plague of stupidity from permeating our society.
Defining Indiana – Dig Hole, Squat over it, Poop, Do not cover the hole
Regarding the “bat-sh*t crazy book-burning son-of-a-bitch” who is our Lt. Gov., there is the video on Xtwitter where he says “The 3/5 Compromise was not a pro-discrimination or a slave-driving compromise,” said Beckwith. He claimed it “was actually just the opposite. Instead, he claimed it ensured “justice was equal for all people.” He goes into a spurious gaslighting argument about how the 3/5 compromise was a good thing for people of all colors.
This is the guy that the IN GOP installed, one heartbeat away from the governor’s desk.
When Maga preached about government overreach, they forgot to include the idea that they wanted to replace liberal democratic responsibilities, the power of the people for the people, by the people, with a different kind of overreach – raw personal power.
Many saw this coming from a mile away, but too many didn’t.
This reminds me too much of John Purdue. When he gave the state the money to start the university, he put a stipulation “no frivolous degrees, such as Liberal Arts”. The university spent over a hundred years trying to change that stipulation. Now the state wants to go back to that?
We need more post high school training programs. We can’t continue to expect every single person to go to college, but we do have to provide a pathway to a good job that they enjoy doing.
Rather than interfering with academic freedom, let’s start testing in middle and high schools to determine what the students are really good at and where their interests lie. Generally, the two things will align, but if they don’t, encourage them to follow their dreams, but if you can, find a way to connect to what they are really good at. The state can use that information to provide the needed training
This attack on academia will impact the children of Indiana and their futures.
Dumbed Down universities is exactly what we don’t need. When I was a kid it was a point of pride that Indiana had more colleges and universities per capita than any other state. It would be easy to use this to tickle the amygdala of the Indiana voters. The dems should be screaming about it. I’d bet what you hear from them is crickets.
Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely!
The MAGAts have the power and they are unabashadly going for the absolute!
It pains me to say that it might take bullets to change this trajectory.
If the vision of state legislature is to confine alignment of curriculum offerings to needs of employers within the state, then Indiana places at risk world class reputations of some schools. Currently, 51% of enrollment at IU Bloomington are from out of state and overseas. Diminishing higher education to conform to the rural urban politic of the state legislature will ensure IU and Purdue to become nothing more than four year community colleges. AND BTW, Indiana community colleges are very progressive and inventive to provide graduates with competitive associate degrees in a variety of vocations. If IU loses out of state revenue due to diminished curriculum and research opportunities, it will cost the state legislature a great deal more to subsidize mediocre offerings in a far less enriched enrollment.
John Sorg, I’m from San Francisco, have lived here since 1982. There are issues, but it’s a great place to live. Also, California has the 4th largest economy in the world. Not bad for a blue state.
The brain drain continues to affect Hoosiers of all stripes doesn’t it? I can’t say I’m surprised. They complain and moan about the property tax rate increases and the roads being full of potholes, but they never ever realize, it’s their votes that made this life for them. They need to audit the churches and find those tax dollars they need to pay for their religion schools themselves. Stop funding private schools. Several of my relatives are teachers and their pay is poverty level. It’s disgusting to see that much education (of the teachers) wasted on this nonsense.
Don’t forget, it’s WE THE PEOPLE!
Not “them” the people.
WE. THE. PEOPLE.
See you on the real Labor Day, May 1st.
Sign in hand.
Viva la WE THE PEOPLE … 🙂
Yes, the phrase “open inquiry” caught my attention, as well. It is feared by the shallow and narrow-minded, as much as their devil.
I thank my lucky stars I was able to attend a liberal arts college in Indiana that allowed me the freedom of intellectual curiosity, creative exploration in the arts, and the introduction to a diverse, equitable and inclusive campus atmosphere. Such exposure allowed me the freedom, flexibility and adaptability to weather several career changes, economic maelstroms, professional revolving doors, and social and technological cliffs. I could reinvent myself time and time again with a strong foundation of interpersonal skills and confidence that formed the basis of my higher education experience.
Job/Task training involves basic rudimentary skills sets every elementary-level pupil learns, and then spends the next ten years or so practicing. Visionary, entrepreneurial, experimental studies, on the other hand, are the tools that help develop inventors, creators, seekers and leaders.
More’s the pity for students at Indiana public universities and colleges today who are in danger of being restricted and censored to close-minded, narrow-focused training instead of open-minded education and enlightenment.
A new Dark Age of Intellectual Inquisition has begun.
A banner on MSNBC this morning stated, “Trump’s first 100 days spark concern for democracy.” What a pitiful commentary to describe the mass destruction at and by the federal level of our government. We can’t expect intelligent bills to be passed, especially in red states, when such ignorance of devastation is rampant at the top three branches of the U.S. government body as a whole.
Miriam, I lived in California the first time, in 1972, My father was military in at Fort ord and Edwards Air Force Base. I went back in 1978. I’m well aware of how wonderful San Francisco is, that’s not what I was driving at. People are leaving! They’re going to Tennessee. They are moving to Nashville by the boatload so to speak. Almost every third person you talk to in Nashville is from California. It’s not a huge freaking secret, it’s talked about quite a bit down there. And they don’t want all of those folks from California in Tennessee. It’s causing all sorts of issues that they weren’t prepared for, but cheaper taxes, cheaper property, better school systems, decent health care, will attract a lot of people. Merrillville Tennessee, is one that’s growing so fast, it’s pushing the locals out. People sell their homes in California and can buy almost anything they want in Tennessee. There is a resentment, and the taxes are starting to move up much faster than they were before. Demands by the new residents are causing a lot of constellation. And personally, I don’t have an issue with anybody in any state. But I don’t like liars! I don’t like promises that are never kept. You can’t say one group does it and not point your finger at the other side also. Because they all do it! If you love San Francisco so much, then stay there! I would venture to say you don’t have children in school there either. What are your taxes every year? In Knoxville Tennessee, which is a university town, folks are paying around $2,000 a year in taxes. No wonder folks want to move to Tennessee. If you are going to take up for the great state of California, then throw it all out there, don’t pick and choose. I stuck up for Illinois here for years, and they lied for years. Prince garcetti was going to do something about people being taxed off of their properties, and then, all you could hear was the wind whistling through the empty skull he carries around on his shoulders. Words are cheap, words are worthless, actions are what everyone needs, people will respond to actions. And actions are something that seems can’t be provided. That’s pathetic.