Roy Sekoff on Education Protests: What Are Our Priorities?

HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Thursday evening to weigh in on today's college protests against funding cuts.

Sekoff argued that the protests "shine a spotlight" on the question of our nation's priorities. "Are we going to have a generation that's about creativity, about innovation? Or are we going to spend our money just bailing out Wall Street and fighting two unnecessary wars?"

WATCH:

 

Comments

[tiacat]

02:22 PM on 03/05/2010

obama should dump health care ,and put all the money in to education at least that will bring results and new jobs. These kids are the future of this nation.

[purplet]

08:23 AM on 03/06/2010

HCR will help many college students- They will be able to stay on parents policies until 27- HCR will help college students get a job- HCR has to be done for the students

[joanrimart]

07:09 AM on 03/05/2010

Education has been assaulted by private greed. Many science and tech departments in public universities, following the trend learned at MIT or Chicago, have graduated physicists, engineers and mathematicians who instead of contributing to our survival as a technologically advanced society, have used their considerable talents to make billions of dollars in the big casino of Wall St, and then lose them all, while bringing the entire economy of the country, and the world, to its knees. What a service to humanity! Instead of building new engines of progress these 'quants' have engineered the latest weaponry to pursue the transfer of huge amounts of money to the super rich; money that belongs to everyone else. Talk about the crime of the century! Even education is no longer serving the country, it is just abusing it, because 'greed is good' is now taught in almost every class and public universities are rapidly becoming private corporations. What the students are protesting is the fact that they can clearly see the tip of that huge iceberg.

[SojournerForTruth]

07:07 AM on 03/05/2010

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of his country! Who and what do we want to be? Hurray for these students. This is what community organizing looks like. The media will ignore them for now but when this movement crosses state lines and forms into a united front from our youth, then maybe the media will start doing their jobs. America has to become tired and say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Use non-violent protests to take a stand! God bless our children and their futures!

[purplet]

08:30 AM on 03/06/2010

Can't agree more- There is another group working on a March on DC- including many young people-

http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage

Sad that many of the news channels didnt report this- If they did it would drown out the lies of FOX news and others-

[hootie1fan]

06:50 AM on 03/05/2010

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

And I served in the military.

[hootie1fan]

06:48 AM on 03/05/2010

College students don't have big $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ lobbyists in DC writing and influencing legislation and funding political campaigns . Big $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ military industrial complex corporation such as Haliburton, Blackwater/Xe, GD, etc do

[gtposse]

06:24 AM on 03/05/2010

I've spent the past 10 years working with colleges and universities and my observation over these past years are coming to light. There has been a diminishing return on investments by students and their parents in a college education.

Five years ago I had a meeting with a professor at one of Connecticut State University campus and he told me that the students were so strapped financially that many of them were working 30 to 40 hours each week and were sleeping in his class. He was a Literature professor and could in good consciousness assign the same level of required reading that he did 10 years ago.

The last hope for this country was a college education and now these institutions have fallen into the hands of the greedy corporate hustlers.

[huntsy]

05:44 AM on 03/05/2010

I remember going from Johns Hopkins to the University of Wisconsin. The tuition was lower. Before I enrolled in their doctoral program I met with their department chair. I told him I didn't have the loans to do more than one semester and would have to take my second semester off and get funding for my next semester. ( I was washing dishes in the basement of the Memorial Union to cover costs.) "No problem". After my first semester, having submitted a written request for a leave of absence....it was denied. Then...a year later....I was admitted. The graduate dean called me and apologized and wrote me a long letter. I have a 72,000 student loan debt from this school. John Moulton is dead and Michael Byrd is retired. Who are they? Professors.....I guess. But these two clowns cost me 72,000 dollars because they could not read their own policies.

[AverageCanadianGuy]

05:38 AM on 03/05/2010

In Canada the government covers 75% of the cost of College .......

It insures a good cross section of Canadian society are educated

[notb observer]

04:36 AM on 03/05/2010

The people who live inside the DC bubble are woefully unaware of the enormity of the resentment, discontent and anger that has been slowly brewing across our vast country, and is now starting to boil over in more and more places. Although the Progressives and Liberals have yet to demonstrate and protest in a meaningful and visible manner, my instinct is that there will come a time in the not too distant future where the pot will boil over all at once, and when it happens, it will be a challenge even for Fox to find a way to ignore it...

[ltf]

08:45 AM on 03/05/2010

Well said, good friend. Fanned again, but this time under my new name - ltf.

-learntofly

[Mr G]

03:15 AM on 03/05/2010

This writer hit the nail on the head. It was the Geithner/Obama solution to save banks that were unregulated, and then continue paying them exorbitant bonuses.

And, let's not forget the greedy trust managers at some of our highest schools of learning that invested right along with the investment bankers. Unfortunately, the govt. and obama didn't bail them out.

Oh, and let's not forget all of the govt. workers that are getting paid twice as much as people in the private sector for the same job, and having guaranteed retirement programs in the millions.
Ooops, and let's not forget all of the mundane tenured professors that are earning $150K-$200K that are teaching politics and re-writing history in their geology classes.

And, finally, let's not forget Mr. Obama again, who just demanded a military budget to fight his wars that is the largest since World War Two.

You know, liberals dumped money on their teachers, their benefits, and their administrative monoliths,
Taxes are down, state income is down, and now the poop is hitting the fan.

What you have really forgotten is who created all of the poop -- Socialist liberals that continue to expand govt. and then wonder why there isn't enough money left over for the important things.

Keep paying those state university janitors $70k/yr. They deserve it more than your kids deserve an education.

[voting4BO]

06:50 AM on 03/05/2010

Some of your points are well taken, but you cannot blame it on liberals. I do think our priorities in this country are out of line especially since those bailed out banks are failing to lend money to college students.
You can't blame the military budget on Obama... of course its the most sinces WWII, costs have increased since then. What about the Bush military budgets????
And where is there a state university janitor making 70k/yr?? I'd like his/her job.

[leifcatt]

07:19 AM on 03/05/2010

Bush 2 expanded gov't like no other in years, Reagan started the republican greed machine with deregulation that America did not need and the Bush 2 years topped it all off by slamming the country into a fiscal nightmare topped off with economic failure thanks to the greedy elite. You seem to forget that out of the last 30 years we have had a republican president for 20 of them and I never heard a peep about responsible governance or responsibility to future generations that was more than just lip service.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that the democrats have had their part in the downfall of this once great country but the republicans are the the most blatant elitist group in Washington.
Obama let down a lot of people with his schmoozing the banker crowd but the republicans started the bailouts and Obama continued the bailouts without salary regulation.
However if there was not a bailout of the economy we would be in a depression and not a recession and all the world including the U.S. would be in a serious state of trouble.
Also if socialism is such a horrible thing to you then you should not go to the library, call the police or fire department, collect social security, use medicare or medicaid, use the VA hospitals, apply for gov't grants or student aid and on and on and on . . .

[textynn]

01:48 AM on 03/05/2010

The community college that I worked for laid off every teacher in the program I was in and hired people with no experience and no degrees at all in many instances. They have been switching heavily to using low paid , marginally educated "teachers" and supplying them with curriculum that uses dvd programing to teach the class. The "teacher" works from a script whenever she speaks. Many times the teachers just have the tvs set up and ask student to direct their questions to their emails.

Can you imagine, you and your student pay all this money for an education and this is what you get. These kids take out loans, work to pay for these classes, then drive across town to be in a chair on time to watch a DAMN DVD. This quality of education can be had for $29.99 at Barnes and Nobles. It's a complete and utter disgrace and it is beyond any kind of comprehension of what teachers do in a real educational experience.

[sizgorich]

02:35 AM on 03/05/2010

It's called the "corporate model," and college and university administrators adopt it because in the "corporate model" what happens? Just like in real corporations, the upper management gets paid obscene amounts of money, and they take their profits out of their workers' hides, and in the case of schools, out of the students' futures. it will make the US a third world nation.

[masher]

04:21 AM on 03/05/2010

But with work visas like H-1B we can save tons of money. If we can just import educated labor then why bother improving US schools? And why bother paying taxes for those schools?

Its a win win. And now you don't really even need to bother sending your kids to college because the value of education isn't worth it. Just let the kids from India and China run everything here in the US. It will be great. We don't need Americans.

[textynn]

12:14 PM on 03/05/2010

Oh we need Americans, we just need them to flip burgers and then tell them that they don't deserve health care because their menial work does not make them "deserving". Why put out money to educate our kids when we can get professionals from other countries where education is affordable and usually socialized. Those in power view the people of this country as nothing more than cogs for their wealth amassing machines.

[up2uamerica]

01:24 AM on 03/05/2010

It's good to see the next generation get active. That's where change really comes from! I feel bad that they wil have to clean up my generations mess.

[MiHi]

01:24 AM on 03/05/2010

Creativity?

Innovation?

In our campuses?

[sizgorich]

02:36 AM on 03/05/2010

Well, *on* our campuses, but yes. Where else?

[dougaus1]

01:18 AM on 03/05/2010

I find it EXTREMELY hypocritical of any lobbyist or Congressmen or Congresswomen who lets these types of education funding cuts or tuition increases take place. All of these lobbyists and lawmakers have college degrees, and most of them have postgraduate degrees. Did we send these hypocrites to school to destroy our country? I think not. This should be the number one political issue, even more than healthcare.

Hopefully Obama and his Administration are paying attention. College students and many recent young college graduates carried him to victory in 2008. Now, he must return the favor.

[karen1p]

01:56 AM on 03/05/2010

Hello? Obama a man brought up by a single mother? You can't tell me he had a golden parachute going to Harvard. He had loans and scholarships.....and that is the ONLY way a son of a single mother did anything. Where is he now? Sitting with the "fat cats."

[sizgorich]

02:37 AM on 03/05/2010

you said it.

[ilse]

12:54 AM on 03/05/2010

"Are we going to have a generation that's about creativity, about innovation? Or are we going to spend our money just bailing out Wall Street and fighting two unnecessary wars?"

Couldn't agree more!

[sizgorich]

02:38 AM on 03/05/2010

Whatever is good for M&M Enterprises is good for America.