The Unbroken Window

Did you know that the NET price of attending a public community college is lower today than it was in 1991? Well, it is (see Figure 9). You are probably better off sending your kids to the local community college for two years to get their core courses out of the way, and then send them off [...]

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This interesting piece describes how progressives and conservatives seem to be aligning against the Common Core state standards. Without commenting on the Common Core itself this little marriage helps me really understand the challenge I have as an economist and someone who appreciates voluntary association and private property rights. People have no clue what “capitalism” [...]

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I am a Lord Jeff of course: Yet Burgard is not alone in his concerns. Last month, when Amherst College turned down an invitation to join edX, it was by a faculty vote of more than sixty per cent. A lot of teachers, some of whom had been browsing Harvard moocs, worried that they threatened to [...]

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In this week’s episode of the Commons Chronicles, I bring to you … the office copy machine. I don’t make too heavy use of it, but I can assure you that when I do, I make lots of copies – mostly to print exams for my large classes. I typically need 600-1000 sheets of paper to print [...]

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Vassar, Bowdoin, Rochester, … There is no difference. The end of liberal education — Part One, the Vassar experience 100 Power Line / by Paul Mirengoff / 8 hours ago (Paul Mirengoff) Have left-liberals killed liberal education? I’ve come to think so, and recent developments at Vassar and Bowdoin help confirm my fear. The indispensable [...]

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We just learned that our school is increasing its sticker price by “only” 3.9% this year. Now the fully-loaded cost of attendance is a snail’s-breath shy of $60,000 per year. With one caveat let’s proceed. The caveat is that this fully-loaded cost is paid by very few people – most students are receiving some kind [...]

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I’ve got many an acquaintance who are involved in some way in educating young kids (notice I did not say children). One of the fashionable teaching ideologies today is that students should be the teachers of themselves. While there is much to the idea in various contexts, as a driving force for educating kids it [...]

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Uncanny Debts A lecture by Annie McClanahan   Thursday, February 28, 2013, 6:00 p.m. Robbins Library, Rush Rhees Library In her talk, “Uncanny Debts,” McClanahan explores how credit, as an economic form, has long been associated with optimism, certainty, and credibility—and with the kinds of narrative realism that produce those feelings. Understanding debt, however, might [...]

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Is that a pony over there? The problem of America’s undeveloped human potential is real, but Mr. Obama has set up a non-falsifiable evidentiary standard for government. The public schools fail the poor, but reforming them is hard and would upset the unions. So instead liberals propose Head Start to prepare poor kids for kindergarten. [...]

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I spilled my water when I read this. Student GOP Group Lures Big Name to Campus — A smartly dressed and enthusiastic crowd of Amherst students turned out to hear former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) speak at Johnson Chapel on Feb. 12. Brown’s talk was sponsored by the Amherst College Republicans, in an event marking the group’s [...]

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