Bill Lyne of the United Faculty of Washington writes about Governor Gregoire’s proposed budget. he says:
….. Tens of millions of dollars poured into Washington this fall to convince us that it’s better to have tens of thousands of children without health care than it is to pay two cents tax on a can of Coke. Billionaires contributed more than they would have paid in tax to convince regular people that rich people shouldn’t have to pay tax.
But the regular-people-duped-into-voting-against-their-own-interests story will only lead to the inevitable unreconstructed-elitist-lefties-calling-regular-people-dumb accusations, so let’s consider for a moment that it might be the rich people who are voting against their own interests. Maybe it’s the oligarchs who are dumb.
This train is leading toward the “p” word .. privatization.
Before WAstate gets too enthusiastic about making the UW private, lets face facts. A private UW will not be available to Washington students!
The UW is one of about five “public ivies,” state universities with an academic rank competitive with the nation and the world’s best. A privatized UW, assuming it maintained its current quality, would be driven to market itself to affluent, elite students from everywhere.
Of course WA state has bright kids too and some of them even have money. But we are a small state in a world where the best schools will attract the best .. and the best paying .. students.
Would the Washington legislators be happy if Stanford bought the UW and turned it into a Northern branch campus?
Of course Stanford North would keep the Husky brand for its football team!