A System In Need of (Smart) Leadership

Fellow former UNC Tar Heel footballer Bob Lee Swagger has unloaded his latest screed at the North Carolina Legislature and has managed to wing folks from Manteo to Murphy in the process. Good Work BLS! He touches on the current "crisis" in higher education in the Old North State, which seems to demand larger and larger collagen injections of cold hard cash with regularity.

A few weeks ago, I had a discussion in a related vein with George Leef, a regular contributor to The John Locke Foundation's blog, "The Locker Room" (Note link to the right). My concern was that one of the big questions surrounding the departure of UNC System President Molly Broad was how much they needed to up the President's pay for the next (sight-unseen) one. I think this e-mail swap is still right on the money (so to speak!):

MY E-MAIL TO GEORGE:

"One thing you can 'bank' on these days is that educrats will presume that 'more money' is the solution to everything. Just think about it... need higher test scores? 'more money'... need better teachers? 'more money'... need more bricks and mortar? 'more money'... after all, it's just tax dollars. Not anyone's personal money. BUT just don't cut the fat and bureaucracy out of the education system... no, can't do that!

"If $300k+ was good enough for Molly Broad, then why is it not good enough for the next prez? Or is the presumption that Molly wasn't that good of a UNC president and now we get the chance to get a better one?

"Sheesh!

"The educrats will bankrupt us all."

TO WHICH HE REPLIED:

"The education industry has figured out that by wrapping all demands in the soft blanket of 'it's for the children' it's able to squeeze enormous amounts of money out of the taxpayers in return for less and less value."

Amen and Amen!

Let's hope sanity and reason will eventually win out. Not holding my breath, though.