What an absolute ass….
My experience has been that the best leaders and managers have liberal arts educations. It teaches you to think broadly, critically and to problem solve. A Liberal Arts Education has longterm benefits besides making life much more interesting and enjoyable.
Vocational education teaches specific skills that can easily become redundant as the marketplace, automation and industry moves to different phases. It’s a short term solution to immediate corporate hiring needs.
This fool may lead to my return to blogging on this site on a more regular basis….
From the News and Observer:
Gov. Pat McCrory said he would propose legislation to overhaul the way higher education is funded in North Carolina, putting the emphasis on job creation not liberal arts and taking specific aim at the state’s flagship university.
“I think some of the educational elite have taken over our education where we are offering courses that have no chance of getting people jobs,” McCrory told conservative talk show host Bill Bennett, the former education secretary for President Ronald Reagan, during an interview Tuesday morning.
McCrory echoed a crack the radio show host made at gender studies courses at UNC-Chapel Hill, a top tier public university. “That’s a subsidized course,” McCrory said, picking up the argument. “If you want to take gender studies that’s fine, go to a private school and take it. But I don’t want to subsidize that if that’s not going to get someone a job.”
The Republican governor said he instructed his staff Monday to draft legislation that would change how much state money universities and community colleges receive “not based on how many butts in seats but how many of those butts can get jobs.”
McCrory wants to revamp higher ed funding — takes aim at UNC-Chapel Hill | newsobserver.com projects.
Lost in the 21st Century 
I am furious about this. His assertion is that if you want to take a class in gender studies, that’s fine, pay for a private college and take it there, but the state should not be funding any education that does not lead to jobs. This is not only anti-intellectual (which many right-wingers tend to be, because, hey, if you actually learned something, actually knew something, you might not support their knee-jerk agenda) but short-sighted, as in jobs for corporate America that might disappear at the least change in the economy, jobs in teaching (that have changing requirements), jobs in nursing (that have changing requirements), jobs that no one dreams will last an entire career. Forget about the arts on his agenda. When I went left what was then called junior high school more years ago than most people can count, I had my choice between two high schools: Hammond Tech (the vocational high school, which all the kids who had no intention of going to college chose) and Hammond High. I went to Hammond High. My younger brother, who learned drafting there, chose Hammond Tech. He knew what he didn’t want to do; I didn’t know yet what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something that would take me beyond the limited world where I lived. That last seems to me a totally reasonable ambition, one that can be built on. Even the short-sighted governor lauds his liberal arts education from Catawba College, but he seems to be saying what everyone said back when I was choosing my high school: class rules. Choose a liberal arts education if you’re rich. If you’re not, go to a state school, get vocational training, and don’t think about aiming higher.
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Lee, I agree with you 100% and I’m also furious about this…..
I also keep thinking, if the NC Democrats knew how to run a campaign, we wouldn’t be saddled with him. Or RIchard Burr. I can’t believe how bad the Dems are at running campaigns in this state. I never heard a word from them during the last election and I’m their “Base”. They can’t seem to get their message out or call out the GOP candidates on what their real agenda is….
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