Moe Lane: It’s Bad Policy To Have a Professors’ Union.

Exhibit A:

Professors Union: It’s Bad Policy To Measure Whether Colleges Help Students

One of the largest college teacher unions in the country has taken a rather odd education policy stance: opposition to measuring whether colleges are helping their graduates. In response to President Obama’s push to tie federal college aid to labor-market outcomes, the American Association of University Professors has issued a stern warning against the seemingly uncontentious idea of evaluating colleges before giving them money. “In reality measuring the output of our colleges and universities in a meaningful way is simply not possible,” writes President Rudy Fichtenbaum.

Mind you, if you read Fichtenbaum’s argument you will see that he has a point on the role that administrative bloat and bell-and-whistles amenities have in pushing up the cost of an education. But here’s a fun truth: society has more or less come to the conclusion that we have all the [Identity Politics Sub-Demographic] Studies majors that we currently need; and society has also noticed that we seem to be graduating a lot of people who can’t write, won’t read, and don’t think too deeply about things.  I understand that a union boss needs to put a good spin on things, but seriously? Did he really think that people were just going to shrug off poor educational results?

Also: why the heck do a bunch of people who have an average salary of almost eighty grand a year need a union, again?  More accurately: why does Western Civilization need a union for people who have an average salary of almost eighty grand a year?  Spoiler warning: we don’t.

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane