The Little Brown Reader

The study, conducted March 8 by the UNLV Chapter of Students for Academic Freedom and the UNLV College Libertarians, involved a systematic search through Clark County Voter Registration rolls. The study involved 125 professors from the Departments of Civil Engineering, Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology.

Findings revealed that of 78 professors registered with any party, 69 were registered Democrats, six were Republicans, two were Green Party members and one was a registered Independent American. This means that 91 percent of UNLV professors studied affiliate themselves with parties on the left of the political spectrum. This percentage is higher than those at traditional activist universities such as Stanford and UC Berkeley, which have faculties that are 89.9 and 89.4 percent liberal, respectively.

No, really. Why'd you come to college?

Because you want to make big money after you graduate? Because a college degree is your ticket to credibility in the business world? Because high school was over and there was nowhere else to party?

When I pictured college as a kid, I thought of rosy-cheeked girls and guys in turtle necks with stylish reading glasses, drinking cappuccinos at 2 a.m. in some Internet cafe, arguing about politics.

Call me crazy, call me dorky, but I also pictured shelving some of my old ideas for better ones and learning a bit about the world beyond Eufaula, beyond Alabama and beyond the South.

That was the plan.

I got to Auburn, made my way down the Concourse to the painted windows of Foy Student Union cafeteria, and started jotting down free-of-charge lectures.

Noted activists, former criminals, sexperts, all showing up for some campus organization or another.

Besides partying, dating and meeting new people, campus is the perfect place to broaden your horizons. Or so I thought.

The first time I went to hear a guest lecturer, I asked the girl beside me why the crowd was so small and mostly silent.

"We're here for extra credit," she whispered.

So that's the trick. It seems the only way to get college students into an auditorium for a philosophy forum, a historical lecture or even a gubernatorial debate is the promise of a few extra test points.

One year after the launch of its pilot program, MIT on Monday quietly published everything from class syllabuses to lecture videos for 500 courses through its OpenCourseWare initiative, an ambitious project it hopes will spark a Web-based revolution in the way universities share information.

"The real hope is that we start seeing many open courseware programs, with the net result of there being a critical mass of knowledge online for people everywhere," said Jon Paul Potts, communications manager for the program. "If that happened, people all over the world would be able to tap into reserves of knowledge from major large institutions around the globe."

Too often parents have believed the official state slogan, "You need to be a certified teacher in order to teach." That is nonsense, and one need only look at the failure of the public school system to see how 'well' those thousands of certified, degreed, experienced administrators and teachers have failed America. ...
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Certainly loving, committed parents can educate their children better than the State is doing. Children being homeschooled by parents who are focused; who willingly sit and learn with their children; who mediate experiences and information; are far better off than the children in most public schools in America. However, children who are being kept home from school by parents who lack plans, goals, and a commitment to truly educate their children, are better off in school where, hopefully, they will have a few good teachers and come away with something.

The most recent figures available from the U.S. Department of Education show that in 2000 the average tuition for private elementary schools nationwide was $3,267. Government figures also indicate that 41 percent of all private elementary and secondary schools -- more than 27,000 nationwide -- charged less than $2,500 for tuition. Less than 21 percent of all private schools charged more than $5,000 per year in tuition. According to these figures, elite and very expensive private schools tend to be the exception in their communities, not the rule.

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Existing school choice programs have already provided evidence of the benefits of school choice both for those students that switch to better schools and for those who stay in public schools. Studies in Florida, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Arizona, and Michigan have all shown that, in areas where school choice is available, public schools, in one way or another, improve in significant ways, including test scores and parental involvement.

There is no law that says that you must send your children to school. Neither do you have to follow the National Curriculum. You don't have to follow a curriculum at all for that matter.

You can put your children into school and then take them out again. You can even put them in during mornings only or on a three-day-a-week basis, should your chosen school agree to a mix and match arrangement.

According to a recent study at Durham University, home educated children fare much better than the average school child in academic terms, and generally socialise well.

The next day, the Academy of the Pacific Rim held its commencement, its first. You've never heard of its speakers. In fact, it's doubtful that you have ever heard of the academy itself, a charter school in Hyde Park. Its signature requirement is that each of its students graduate speaking Mandarin Chinese.

In its way, each of these schools represents a form of school choice. But one of those choices, and you can guess which one, is under siege at the State House.