Flexibility on the Move

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The politics of the recession is like a long, slow pendulum swing, wiping out all sorts of hard-won gains until it reaches a peak and then (hopefully) reverses direction. There’s no guarantee that the return swing is going to restore everything, though. If the last three decades are any indication, we’ll never get back to the original starting point. The losses seem to go on and on.

“Faculty Fears in Washington” offers a catalog of some of the worst of the ongoing destruction attributed to the recession and suggests that the pendulum has yet to reach its full height. In university level education, the main targets of opportunity now seem to be tenure, on the one hand, and full-time faculty on the other. Each, it seems, is much too expensive for current conditions.

These assaults were underwritten by a recent, earlier stage of direct attacks on public unions; one thing leads to the other. Of course, tenure and full-time faculty were seen as equally expensive in the midst of the late 90’s Clinton era boon. Nothing seems to slow the administrative pursuit of flexible labor and greed. It’s grown so bad that even the Establishment is sometimes embarrassed.

Posted in: Professional, Union, Writing

You’ve Been Schooled: Class War, Class Struggle

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A few years ago,  maybe less, the big insult from the right was to call Obama, or anyone they did not like, a socialist. It drove anyone who was literate nuts, simply because the Obama administration was nearly as far from socialist as you could imagine, at least in the traditional sense.  Arguably, something  had to be done less capitalism implode, but would a socialist spend all or most of his time saving the banks?

That doesn’t even take into account the endless wars and illegal assassinations and the cowardly abandonment of single payer health care and the endless compromises. Obama has certainly accomplished some amazing things but he’s not used the crisis to move the country in a decisively new direction. Clinton was Reagan with a (slight) difference and Obama is Clinton’s Reaganomics with a (slight) difference.

The socialist charge hasn’t disappeared but it’s been overshadowed by the latest charge: class warfare.  This too ought to drive anyone in education and anyone who’s educated nuts. It’s not simply that there’s no war, or implied violence. It’s that this idea serves is, in effect, a denial of the reality of capitalism as an ongoing class struggle over resources and power, not necessarily in that order. It’s not war but it is a struggle.

The last thirty years or so have shown that if ordinary people don’t respond to the struggle with their own struggle, resources and wealth tend to concentrate at the top.  It’s incorrect to think of this in terms of individuals, aka the millionaire’s tax. Instead this has to be thought of in terms of how resources and power are distributed and as a result what sort of society you want to create. That’s the real question.

That’s what the Occupy Wall Street reaction– it’s not  yet a movement–is about. Do we want a morally sound society in which everyone has access to food, health care, and education as a human right? If we do, we have to accept limits on the ability to accumulate resources and power.  That’s the discussion the Occupation has begun. I think the proposed limits in Obama’s Jobs Bill is a good start, but only a start.

Posted in: Economics, Professional, Uncategorized

Occupy the Left

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I’ve watched the Occupy Wall Street folks, as well as their education analog, Occupy Colleges, and I have to say that I am a little surprised at the seeming reticence of much of the “usual suspects” left. I think a lot of us feel either confused– we’re taking a wait and see attitude– or simply unwilling to tinker– even only rhetorically–with what might be a genuine and growing popular uprising.

Doug Henwood has a nicely cogent analysis that suggests that an authentic movement should be, in effect, rudderless, at least for a while.Robert Reich has pointed out that it’s going to be difficult for the Obama led Democratic party follow the lead of the protesters, simply because Wall Street has done so much to support the current administration. I think the left, maybe especially the educational left, needs to start talking.

We’ve been thinking about these things for years, and I think we have lots ideas that might be put high on the educational agenda if the movement begins to enter what Henwood calls “another stage of more organization and specificity.”  I know I have more than a few. In the long run, we need to figure out how regulations–tied to federal aid– can address the rise of administrative costs and the loss of full-time tenured positions.

In the short-term, we need a student deb forgiveness plan that has real substance.  I think this could have several possible components. It has to include a switch  to a grant based system that would prevent debt in the first place. Another part might be a drop in interest rates on all current loans to 1% as suggested by the “Reduce the Rate” people. Last we need a 100% forgiveness program for anyone in public service.

Posted in: Economics, Professional, Writing