Biden and Trump: ‘Higher Education: What’s That?’

Written as the tumultuous and consequential 2020 electoral campaign was winding to a close, I note that almost no discussion of the role of our universities in American life had occurred during the campaign. Trump partisans could have spoken about the lack of ideological diversity in American universities and argued that federal policies largely enacted by Democratic congresses and administrations had caused the tuition explosion that put so many into massive student loan debt.

Biden supporters could have spoken about how higher education holds the key to economic progress, and that offering free college would work to reduce income inequality, especially between races. They could have called for a massive expansion of the Pell Grant program and other ways to expand college access.

Yet very little was said during the campaign about any of these things (or such other issues of policy disagreement as foreign policy). Contrast that to 2016, when, for example, Hillary Clinton would speak about higher education access in many stump speeches. The conventional explanation for the neglect of higher education in 2020 was that Covid-19 crowded out discussion of most issues. It became Joe Biden’s major talking point, to the point that he spoke about virtually nothing else in the latter days of the campaign, if national news accounts accurately reflect his actual campaign utterances. Perhaps something was said by one of the candidates during the two presidential debates, but if so, I do not recall it and it certainly was not consequential.

But part of the reason for the non-emphasis on higher education may be its decline in importance in American life. The proportion of the American population attending college this fall is probably almost 20% smaller than it was a decade ago, partly because of the coronavirus but at least equally because of other factors, including an increasing skepticism that a university degree is a good value proposition.

Particularly relevant are the increasing negative attitudes of Americans towards colleges and universities. Polling data show declining public support. Campus protests and the ascendant Cancel Culture has infuriated conservative Americans and annoyed many moderates, while polling data show somewhat smaller but real erosion in support among liberals. Americans of all stripes have found massive fee increases until recently hard to accept, particularly as they read of conspicuous consumption in some aspects of collegiate life, such high salaries of football coaches and ever more luxurious recreational and housing facilities.

Both Trump and Biden themselves are university graduates (Trump: University of Pennsylvania, Biden: University of Delaware and Syracuse for law school) who sent their adult children to good, expensive private universities (Trump’s: Penn and Georgetown, Biden’s: Georgetown, Yale, Penn, Syracuse and Tulane). Some 20 of the 21 presidents in office since 1900 were college graduates, the sole exception being Harry Truman. In the last one-third of a century, not only did every major candidate for the presidency have a college degree (at a time when a majority of adult Americans still did not), but increasingly they attended elite Ivy League schools like Yale, Columbia, Penn, even England’s Oxford. If elected, Biden would be the first non-Ivy League educated president of the 21st century. America has been becoming a bit like England, where an Oxbridge degree is commonplace amongst Prime Ministers, and personal acquaintance with the academic aristocracy is a near-must.

Wannabe presidents are degree laden as well. I researched the four leaders of each political party in Congress, as well as the governors of the 10 most populous states. All 18 were college graduates, most having a graduate or law degree; two-thirds attended at least one private school (Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf had degrees from three, including a Ph.D. from MIT).

America’s political leaders are highly educated and their public consciousness was largely formulated in their collegiate years, but they face an electorate that, while more educated than ever, is also having more reservations about how higher education works in America. Still, modern American intellectual thought and its increasingly progressive (some would say radical) strains has arisen largely out of the campus environment, so sympathetic politicians will probably see that the universities receive all the public support they need, and perhaps even more than they deserve.

https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13313

Notre Dame Requiring COVID-19 Tests After Students Storm Football Field

Notre Dame is requiring coronavirus tests for its students, even prohibiting their departure from the area pending test results, after thousands of fans stormed the football field Saturday night to celebrate their victory over Clemson.

University President John Jenkins sent out a letter Sunday to students condemning their actions and detailing the testing requirements.

“As exciting as last night’s victory over Clemson was, it was very disappointing to see evidence of widespread disregard of our health protocols at many gatherings over the weekend,” the letter read.

“Because we are now even more concerned about the potential for contagion in your home communities as you prepare to travel home at the end of the semester, the University will place a registration hold on the record of any student who fails to appear for testing when asked to do so,” Jenkins continued.

Students who fail to appear for testing or who leave the South Bend, Indiana, area before getting their test results would have a registration hold put on their account, meaning they could not register for spring semester classes.

“There will be zero tolerance for any gatherings that do not comport with our health and safety guidelines, on or off campus” the letter said. “Those found responsible for hosting such gatherings will face severe sanctions.”

Before the campus-wide letter was sent out, a video showed Jenkins standing on the sidelines wearing a mask and clapping while students rushed the field Saturday night.

Jenkins faced criticism for attending the announcement of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination at the White House Sept. 26, where he was photographed not wearing a mask and shaking hands with multiple people. He tested positive for coronavirus days after attending the event.

Jenkins later issued an apology.

“I regret my error of judgment in not wearing a mask during the ceremony and by shaking hands with a number of people in the Rose Garden,” he wrote. “I failed to lead by example, at a time when I’ve asked everyone else in the Notre Dame community to do so.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/09/us/notre-dame-football-covid-spt-trnd/index.html

Australia: Tutors could become a fixture of NSW schools to close education gap

An ambitious plan to hire thousands of tutors to bring students up to speed after the COVID-19 shutdown could become a fixture of the NSW public school system if it succeeds in narrowing the education gap.

The $337 million, 12-month scheme, which will be funded in next week’s state budget, will equate to an average of $130,000 and 1700 tutoring hours per school.

The Department of Education will consult teachers and use the results of school assessments such as the check-in tests held this year and NAPLAN in 2021 to determine which schools and students need most help.

Retired teachers, casuals and university education students can apply for about 5500 tutoring jobs from this week, and will be paid according to their experience.

Learning gaps were already significant before the pandemic, and have long been one of the biggest challenges facing schools. By year 3, disadvantaged students are 10 months behind those from advantaged backgrounds.

But modelling suggests the gap may have widened by up to five weeks due to seven weeks of remote learning earlier this year.

When asked if the program could continue after its allocated 12 months if it succeeded in reducing the gap, NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said she would be closely monitoring its effectiveness.

“We have record funding going into our schools, there’s opportunity to look at how that money is being spent," she said. “If this is something that is successful that we could look at tailoring with existing funding arrangements then absolutely we’re open to having that discussion.”

After NAPLAN was cancelled this year, three quarters of public schools participated in check-in assessments for years 3, 5 and 9. After positive feedback, the Department of Education will create more assessments for different years.

That data, plus consultation with teachers and principals, would help the department decide how to distribute resources, Ms Mitchell said.

“We’ll look at the size of the school, and we'll also look at the need of the school - what the data shows us in terms of where the gap is in the learning and how much extra support is needed to catch up,” she said.

“We’ll give some flexibility to school communities to how they roll this out. We know small group tutoring is proven to be very effective. It might take place within the classroom setting supporting the teacher, it might take place before or after school.”

The plan - which has also been adopted by Victoria - was first proposed by the Grattan Institute in June, after its modelling showed the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in NSW grew by six per cent due to COVID-19.

Students 'need $1.1 billion to close remote-learning gap'
The institute’s school education fellow, Julie Sonnemann, said research had found that intensive tuition in groups of between two and five, held three to four times a week over 12 weeks, could increase student learning by five months.

She said NSW's tutoring funding should be focused on core learning areas such as literacy and numeracy, and give priority to students who are in transition grades such as kindergarten, year seven, and years 11 and 12 .

Dr Sonnemann also said tutors should be required to use teaching methods with a strong evidence base. “This is a great opportunity to understand what works, to help students experiencing disadvantage catch up, and, longer term, to tackle the much bigger equity issues we’ve struggled with,” she said.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get an understanding of how to close the equity gap.”

The NSW Teachers Federation, which called for extra teacher hours to help the COVID-19 recovery, welcomed the plan. “We will work with the government to ensure the most effective implementation,” said president Angelo Gavrielatos.

Craig Petersen from the Secondary Principals Council said he was yet to see detail, but “in principle, it’s got the potential to be enormously helpful.”

Mr Petersen said the check-in assessment showed literacy and numeracy may require attention, and schools might need to pay particular attention to students beginning year 11 to ensure they have mastered concepts they need for the HSC.

“I think it needs to be as flexible as possible within some guidelines so we can ensure we are getting our best value for money from what is a significant investment,” he said.

Ten per cent of the funding will be directed to non-government schools in greatest need. The head of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, estimated about half of Catholic schools would qualify for funding.

"Its encouraging that there’s policy responses which are going to buffer the effect [of COVID-19] on NSW students," he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tutors-could-become-a-fixture-of-nsw-schools-to-close-education-gap-20201110-p56d9o.html

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