I think that the greatest change in the University system would be to drop the requirements for general education outside of your major and minor. These requirements just subsidize the classes that no one wants to take from professors who have majored in subjects that are not financially supported by anything other than recursive academic requirements.

If you drop the general ed requirements, and double up on the teachers who are teaching courses important to the degrees that people are actually seeking, students can get through college at a more rapid rate, taking few courses.

This is what should happen to the brick-and-mortar academic institutions at the same time that the MOOC's present a path for education online.

Jan

Don't get me wrong, I like Governor Walker but he is not the best candidate. He could be if he starts to act with courage but since Act 10, which was his first action when he was elected I have been very disappointed in him. He shifted toward the center and has lacked courage and the boldness that it will take to put this country back on the correct course. Don't take my word for it. Look him up and hold his feet to the fire.

Stop hiring "fresh" Ph.D's. Hire only people who have actually had a career doing something useful. At the college/university level there is no need for any full time faculty, though if someone is a retired mathematician (for example, e.g.such as Herman Cain) they could teach a "full load" on a class by class basis. Probably don't need a full time position in any institution of higher learning. Even at the k-12 level hire college educated people who have done something with their lives (e.g. retired military officers (or enlisted if they do have some formal education -- not including having attended a college of teachers). Tenure is a non-issue for people who have already provided for their retirement. First they are less likely to say the absurdly stupid things often said by tenured faculty and if they do and get fired they didn't need the job AND they believed what they said enough to risk their position.

Scott Walker WAS my to go guy until he said "taxpayers should pay for professional teams stadiums in their cities as it brings in many $$$."
Hogwash on him now.

I would consider Scott Walker because of the following:
1. He successfully fought the state employee unions in an effort to fix some serious budget woes. The fact that several Democrat legislators ran and hid, during this period, indicates that what he did must have been worthwhile
2. He comfortably beat a costly recall election.
If not Presidential material, I would gladly have him replace our current Governor in Washington (and I'm a state employee)!

The other candidate I would gladly vote for is Marco Rubio. I was blown away by his speech after Obama was elected, the first time. Maybe he's just a good speaker, but he gained my support from that moment on.

Tenure is teacher's job insurance. After passing varying degrees of esoteric nonsense they are rewarded with the assurance that they can never lose their jobs. In many cases, this creates poor, slovenly and outright useless instruction. It's about time someone stood up to this nepotic process and made teachers base their jobs strictly on performance. And by the way, while we're at it, let's get rid of terms such a professor and doctor. What do professors profess to? What are PhDs doctors of?Get rid also of honorary degrees and titles such as emeritus. Let's not only give up false employment, but false titles.

If the Repubs wouldn't eat their own during the debates and would come together during them highlighting each other's strengths I think that there might be a chance that we could reinvigorate conservatism in this country.

However, I know better how this will go...

AUDACIOUS! I already liked Scott Walker, but I
didn't dream he'd have the guts to try this!--He's
the one I want to vote for. I am afraid that Ted
Cruz and Mark Rubbio are too much in favor of im-
posing religion by law.--Still, I wish that Walker were not so much in favor of limiting legal im-
migration.Illegal is one thing; but legal foreigners
should not be automatically excluded. But still,
I don't think he could get too far with that, any-
way. I have been impressed with him for a long
time; look what he accomplished in Wisconsin;
he showed he had guts and a spine.

You just have to love this guy... BUT how can he succeed without a hidden agenda?????

Ending teacher tenure in elementary and secondary schools is one thing. (Private school teachers do not have tenure as we understand it.) Ending it at the university level is something else. In this case the argument for eliminating it, is that those who have guarded the granting of tenure, have acted in bad faith and used such grants to stifle debate rather than protecting it.

Why are some people so afraid of the Religious
Right?--Because it is very dangerous. Many of them want to have the government acknowledge a
supernatural Being, and to set up faith, rather than
reason, as the method by which government is to operate. I do not believe the government is
properly an arbiter of ideas; ideas can be com-
municated here, on earth, only by some physical
medium (writing, sounds which operate on the
eardrum, sign language, etc.)--and therefore, it
is improper for government to refer to some
realm which contradicts this medium;it is im-
proper for government to be an arbiter of ideas;
and government, as such, should not hold o-
pinions about it, even to the extent of the exis-
tence or nonexistence of such a realm.
I remember well before the Supreme Court's
outlawing of compulsory prayer in school, how I
was treated in second grade in my (public,tax-
supported) school; my second grade's teacher
asking us how many of us had been to church
that Sunday; asking my why I hadn't been; her
threat to me that in the upper grades I would be
graded on whether I went or not (which was de-
nied by another adult, who told me that was only
in Bible class, but still she had no right to threat-
en my that way); don't tell me that the Religious
Right would not like to return us to the status
quo ante.
However, as I believe in freedom of thought,
I do not approve of the leftist indoctrination
taking place now; I simply favor the abolition of
the public schools; as it serves no function of
protecting man against force and violence, and
also teaches through processes, I definitely do
not want the government in charge of that, a
it can, and will, and does, and must, lead to
government thought control.

My thoughts on the greatest changes to Universities would be to pull state funding all together and get them out of the entertainment business (i.e. sports). Push education into the private sector where it has purpose. Most state university boondoggles are nothing more than a good'ole boy network of cronies siphoning money into their own pockets from the taxpayer funded research grants into bogus research projects (not to mention "God Particles"!) If companies had to educate their employees it would be difficult for them to let other companies raid their brain trust and would probably think twice about laying off an investment. As one very susccessful man put it "Take care of your employees, They will take care of your company."

The documentary: "WAITING FOR SUPERMAN" is an excellent film which depicts and explains the woes associated with the teacher's unions.

I highly recommend it.