Her name is Brittany Slaughter. And she more than lived up to that name with her recent coverage of the scandal-scarred University of South Carolina – which continues to totally melt down in the aftermath of its divisive presidential search.
Slaughter picked up on a long-running story about South Carolina refusing to adhere to a state law requiring it to offer courses on the United States Constitution and other documents related to the founding of our once-proud Republic. The law – which the school continues to ignore – also requires that students pass these courses prior to receiving “a certificate of graduation.”
Do we support this law?
No …
As much as we love the Constitution, our views on higher education are clear – and have been clear for years.
“Colleges and universities shouldn’t be required to teach anything they don’t want to,” we wrote several years ago in assessing the legislation. “The only accountability they should be subject to is the accountability of the marketplace.”
Of course it is worth pointing out the “accountability of the marketplace” of which we speak means no government funding … and no taxpayer guarantees of student loans.
Sink or swim, in other words … total privatization.
(Click to view)
(Via: Twitter)
Anyway, in her piece for Campus Reform, Slaughter (above) has niftily juxtaposed South Carolina’s failure to follow this state law with its ongoing support for, um, other “academic” offerings – including “a class on the art of tailgating.”
Wait … what?
“The university claimed that teaching a mandatory course on the Constitution would be too much financially, even as it currently offers a variety of courses one might not expect to find at an institution of higher learning,” Slaughter wrote, referring to the tailgating course.
According to a synopsis of the Tailgating 101 course, it offers students “hands-on training in the basic foundations of classic tailgating dishes, including grilling, frying, and braising, basic food safety, and new techniques to create personalized dishes.”
Really?
Never mind that for $90.00 you can buy a Weber Kettle grill and download pretty much the entire “curriculum” described above via its online app.
Are parents seriously shelling out tens of thousands of dollars a year for this nonsense? Or worse … are we as a society further inflating a massive debt bomb for this?
Yes … and yes.
(Click to view)
(Via: Travis Bell Photography)
Even more depressing? The last time we checked (here, here and here) this is not how tailgating is done at South Carolina. Like, at all.
If we have said it once, we have said it a million times: It is past time America’s colleges and universities were set free to pursue their destinies in the private sector. Meaning it is past time they were held truly accountable to a competitive marketplace.
And nowhere is this more true than in the results-challenged Palmetto State …
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The University of South Carolina should ...
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