Sep 27, 2023·edited Sep 27, 2023Liked by Franklin Einspruch
When eccentric, fiercely independent Marlboro College, my alma mater, was finally shuttered four years ago after being beaten to a pulp with wokeism for the preceding decade, many of us hoped it or at least its campus, Potash Hill, an historic farm on a mountain in Southern Vermont, would re-emerge as a sort of Black Mountain College, complete with turnip farming. The arts and crafts programs are quietly coming to life. No hints of return to farming yet -- although were I eighteen again, I wouldn't turnip my nose at an intensive summer program called Eat and Dye where one grows food and vegetable dyestuffs and alternates between time in the kitchen, the kitchen garden, and the fibre studio . . . check it out, perhaps you'll have ideas. Not too far from where you're based. https://www.potashhill.org/programs/
But Franklin, one way or another, the taxpayers are there to be exploited and abused, meaning their money is there to be misused or wasted at will, so what difference does it make how that's done? It's going to happen anyway. Anything primarily run by politicians and bureaucrats just works that way.
Wow, that alumna essay is blistering, all right. I didn't get adequate ROI on a degree from SFAI in the early nineties, but I paid off the debt in a decade.
Charging students $43K PER YEAR to attend an institution that 'educates' feral dumpster-divers with no marketable skills is sociopathic.
Universities have become a metastatic administrative/managerial real estate development complex, wherein education becomes exponentially more expensive while professors are the new underclass. It's the same MBA alchemy by which childcare and home healthcare are unaffordable, while the actual workers earn starvation wages.
Maybe we should make all student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, EXCEPT those for MBAs.
Preach brother! I live this burden. I remember being pulled out of class because my “account ran out of money” I had to sign for more loans to get back in. There was a cute girl in class I was getting to know. So I signed! Not the greatest decision making in that time of a young man’s life. Talk about exploitation! Nearly 20 years later I’ve done fine w my art but still can’t qualify for a decent mortgage. I’ll add the story of how the two gorgeous admissions women flirted and massaged my arms to convince me to enroll! They promised quite a lot. Oh Miami! (to be fair it was IFAC at the time) I should sign “Dumb Jock” or “Sucker” !!!
This is predatory capitalism based on exploiting people and the government. This is a symptom of dysfunction within our capitalist system. Our lobbying system in Washington helps keep this afloat. It has little to do with art. It is the blueprint for most non-degree schools such as technical schools, photography schools, graphic design, heating and plumbing, truck driving, etc. they all operate on the same model.
It is allowed, it is enabled, and all the outrage in the world will not stop it from happening.
We need more regulations like we need a hole in the head, but this behavior is predatory and should be legislated out of business.
When eccentric, fiercely independent Marlboro College, my alma mater, was finally shuttered four years ago after being beaten to a pulp with wokeism for the preceding decade, many of us hoped it or at least its campus, Potash Hill, an historic farm on a mountain in Southern Vermont, would re-emerge as a sort of Black Mountain College, complete with turnip farming. The arts and crafts programs are quietly coming to life. No hints of return to farming yet -- although were I eighteen again, I wouldn't turnip my nose at an intensive summer program called Eat and Dye where one grows food and vegetable dyestuffs and alternates between time in the kitchen, the kitchen garden, and the fibre studio . . . check it out, perhaps you'll have ideas. Not too far from where you're based. https://www.potashhill.org/programs/
But Franklin, one way or another, the taxpayers are there to be exploited and abused, meaning their money is there to be misused or wasted at will, so what difference does it make how that's done? It's going to happen anyway. Anything primarily run by politicians and bureaucrats just works that way.
Wow, that alumna essay is blistering, all right. I didn't get adequate ROI on a degree from SFAI in the early nineties, but I paid off the debt in a decade.
Charging students $43K PER YEAR to attend an institution that 'educates' feral dumpster-divers with no marketable skills is sociopathic.
Universities have become a metastatic administrative/managerial real estate development complex, wherein education becomes exponentially more expensive while professors are the new underclass. It's the same MBA alchemy by which childcare and home healthcare are unaffordable, while the actual workers earn starvation wages.
Maybe we should make all student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, EXCEPT those for MBAs.
Preach brother! I live this burden. I remember being pulled out of class because my “account ran out of money” I had to sign for more loans to get back in. There was a cute girl in class I was getting to know. So I signed! Not the greatest decision making in that time of a young man’s life. Talk about exploitation! Nearly 20 years later I’ve done fine w my art but still can’t qualify for a decent mortgage. I’ll add the story of how the two gorgeous admissions women flirted and massaged my arms to convince me to enroll! They promised quite a lot. Oh Miami! (to be fair it was IFAC at the time) I should sign “Dumb Jock” or “Sucker” !!!
This is predatory capitalism based on exploiting people and the government. This is a symptom of dysfunction within our capitalist system. Our lobbying system in Washington helps keep this afloat. It has little to do with art. It is the blueprint for most non-degree schools such as technical schools, photography schools, graphic design, heating and plumbing, truck driving, etc. they all operate on the same model.
It is allowed, it is enabled, and all the outrage in the world will not stop it from happening.
We need more regulations like we need a hole in the head, but this behavior is predatory and should be legislated out of business.