Another Monday in the Great Sea of Mondays

[logomancer]

Ah, another Monday. I'm typing this with my new keyboard that finally got here. It's an IBM (well, Lexmark, but never mind) Model M -- the one that clicks obsessively. And is one of the most indestructible keyboards on Earth. It's heavy, too. Not so much as to be cumbersome, but it's a comfortable weight on my thighs. Anyway, I just received a letter stating that I am now officially a member of the College of Engineering. Aside from my dean and who I report to, things will change precisely zero.

I kinda feel like this change was not really supposed to happen -- the only reason I can surmise that the CS department moved over to Engineering was to avoid the budget axe about to be swung over at A&S. Of course, it's not just CS that is moving -- as I understand it, the Art department is trying to find shelter in the College of Architecture, and I recall a few other departments who were trying to move from A&S, but I fail to recall at this time which departments were planning such.

What this rant boils down to is this: Why did the government make this necessary in the first place? We make such a fuss about our schools being bad, but then our representatives elect to slash education to fund defense programs, pork-barrel projects, and, of course, tax cuts. Meanwhile, schools such as Tech are forced to do what they need to do to gain funding, whatever the cost. Thus, we get superfluous buildings like the Math Emporium, Stasi-esque squads of underage-drinking police, higher tuition, and, ultimately, a decrease in the quality of our education. Why do the people feel the need to destroy the economic and scientific future of this country by denying their children a decent education? It puzzles me.

Comments

[robertliguori.livejournal.com]

I'd say perhaps half of our government doesn't know that hindering education is a basic harbinger of destruction for society in the long term. The other half noted the bit about 'long term' and checked their average life expectancy.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

Just to hazard a (somebody correct me if I'm wong) guess, I would say it is because fewer and fewer of out elected officials are not, in fact, a product of the public school system. They didn't need it, why should anyone else?

That and Tech is a research institution, not a teaching institution, no matter how much the admistration insists that it is. Tenure-track professors rise and fall by how much money in grants they can bring into the system, not by how effective they are at teaching. Therefore, the departments that survive are the ones that bring in outside money.