Preposterously Expensive, No Quality Control

Stefan Beck of The New Criterion, who have been all over the Ward Churchill story, writes:

I’ve always said that when universities hire left-wing profs exclusively, they hurt their avowedly liberal students most. The right-wingers, we may safely assume, have been exposed to right-wing ideas, but the left-wing ones are receiving half an education, unless they go out of their way to supplement what they’re taught. I tried not to complain about my professors’ uniformly leftist bent–one way or another, I was getting both sides of the debate.

Nevertheless, if Ward Churchill had taught at my college, I’d certainly have complained. Why? Simple: a college education costs a lot. It’s the one commodity that, despite being preposterously expensive, is subject to virtually no quality controls.

Maybe that’s why President Bush is recommending that his friends read I Am Charlotte Simmons, even though the International Herald Tribune writes with mock-innocence, “It is unclear exactly what Bush liked so much about the book”.

Update: Of course, if the whole collegiate gig falls apart for Churchill, there’s always television to fall back on…