AKA Review: May 12, 2023

From Inside Higher Education:
Higher Ed in Today’s Political Climate: Key Podcast
By Doug Lederman
In his three decades as chief lobbyist of the American Council on Education, Terry Hartle has seen sixfold growth in federal higher ed spending along with an end to bipartisanship on support for colleges and universities. With these changes have come well-intentioned but clumsy oversight, along with bad faith meddling by legislators who believe higher education serves only one part of the political spectrum. In this interview about his long career, Hartle parses the history of these changes and concludes with an analysis of the hardest part of his job: creating mutual understanding between officials in government and higher education. Listen to this podcast/read the transcript

From Scientific American:
Fascism’s History Offers Lessons about Today’s Attacks on Education
By Eden McLean
The author compares Mussolini’s control of higher education in fascist Italy with the control Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seeks of that state’s universities and schools. Both, he notes, installed "yes men" in leadership positions and censored content under the pretense of returning education to "the facts." While acknowledging that the DeSantis administration is not fascist Italy, the author emphasizes how the Governor’s ongoing efforts to concentrate power and "protect" Floridians from different ways of thinking has the potential to erode the principles of open debate and collective responsibility that underpin democracy. Read this article

From Times Higher Education:
Liberal arts education is not a Western concept
By Kyaw Moe Tun
Examining the history of the liberal arts and their importance to a well-rounded society, the author dispels the popular belief that their origins lie in Western education. Rather, he notes, the concept of an education focusing on a wide variety of values originated in China over three thousand years ago—ironic in that some Asian nations view the spread of modern liberal arts as Western colonialism. Some countries have recognized that it is not only inaccurate, but counterproductive, to see a well-rounded education as a Western imposition. Read this article

From The New York Times:
Why Journalists Have More Freedom Than Professors
By Ross Douthat
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat assesses how academics have fared in comparison to journalists in the climate of heightened ideological policing that has come to be known as "wokeness." He observes that journalists who stray outside contemporary progressive norms tend to fare better, institutionally and financially, than academics who do the same—and suggests that this is related to differences in how institutional opinion is formed and disseminated in university and media environments. Read this article

From The New York Times:
An over-budget, trade-disrupting, huge legislative success
By Paul Krugman
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman suggests that President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will run hundreds of billions over budget as businesses rush to take advantage of its subsidies. Meanwhile, the U.S.’s European allies grumble about the Act’s protectionist aspects. In other words, Krugman states, the Act will be an enormous success! Unlike earlier industrial policies, it is fundamentally about reshaping the economy to limit climate change. Even a subsidy war with Europe, he argues, could be a good thing and other countries should take action on climate change, even if it involves some protectionism. Read this article