The government of California is getting into the business of determining curriculum with the introduction of new legislation:
“California Bill Seeks Campus Credit for Online Study.” Tamar Lewin. The New York Times (12 March 2013):
“This would be a big change, acknowledging that colleges aren’t the only ones who can offer college courses,” said Burck Smith, the founder of Straighterline. “It means rethinking what a college is.”
Why he sounds positively giddy. But wait:
“What’s really going on is that after the budget cuts have sucked public higher education dry of resources,” [Lillian Taiz, the president of the California Faculty Association] continued, “the Legislature’s saying we should give away the job of educating our students.”
So, to recap: the California state government is defunding post-secondary institutions to the extent that those institutions cannot adequately serve their students, and then they are using that failure — that they themselves directly caused — as the rationale for undercutting the bedrock principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
Yes, I really think it must be one of the Seven Seals.
A very presidential blog 