Interesting, but over simplified

The web site is interesting. I agree with the post that says we should start with the unbalanced budget so we could work from there. The solution to the problem is not to cut 5%, 10% or 25% from program X and then raise a particular tax by 5%, 10% or 25%. It is to fundamentally reform a program so that it costs less and serves the public better. I think back to my days in college. There were many classes (English Lit comes to mind) that I truly hated and did not believe at the time would be helpful to me in life. And, in fact, they were not helpful. Because I changed colleges and because of the complexity of that change, I had to take what was essentially the same English Lit class twice. In both, we reviewed the story and analyzed the symbolism of "Young Goodman Brown." Even at 18-21 years old, I could see that this was a complete waste of time and money. However, I went through it, because I wanted a degree. Since that time, I have not had to analyze any books in this way. Some might argue that doing the papers associated with this project made me a better writer. It is true that writing has become a bigger part of my professional life than I thought it would be when I was in college. However, classes taught in the business school (my major was business) about professional report writing would have served me better than classes from the English department. A four year college degree could be reduced to 2 1/2 or 3 years if we would eliminate these type of "fluff" courses. We then significantly reduce the departments where we have made college students take classes that they really don't want to take. That is one example of how to significantly reduce the cost of higher education, for both the student and for the state. If you are not forcing students to take classes that they don't want to take, classes that are not specifically related to their major and not taught by the school that is their major (e.g. business school for business students), we could cut funding to higher education and actually improve the education we give students. Perhaps you allow for, and even require a certain number of elective classes. But, let those classes be from any subject, not subjects set by the University. It certainly would have been better for me to take some more computer programming classes. Even at 18-21, I knew that computer programming classes would benefit me a lot more than those English Lit classes. And, I would have enjoyed them a lot more too!