[submitted to the Globe and Mail, but not published]
While Tom Flanagan is right that American Universities are in crisis, his thinly veiled racism is uncalled for. First of all he claims that marks have been inflated, with university being dumbed down from the good old days when he (and I) studied. But then he criticizes affirmative action claiming that the students who benefit from this (obviously people of colour) struggle to succeed. Joining the dots he is saying that black students simply aren’t even up to the dumbed down standards of today and shouldn’t get all uppity and try to go to colleges where smart white people go.
Flanagan is correct when he describes a US education bubble, both based on increased enrollment and unsustainable student loans. But I assume that his right-wing politics are what don’t allow him to point out that it is greedy for-profit lenders and the greedy for-profit colleges that have created this problem (and of course a US government that is for-the-profit and not for-the-people). Although Canada could certainly do better (low-cost or free university education would be a start) I don’t know of any signs that Canada is being parasitized by colleges whose main aim is to get students to take out loans for an education that will not meet the promises in the advertising materials.
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