Tim Kalich (“Shad White has gotten too snarky,” Sept. 30) recently raised some important questions about my proposal to be smarter about how we spend money on higher education. In a nutshell, my team has suggested the state’s taxpayers — who shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to public universities — prioritize that money on degrees that fit our economy. For example, we know we need nurses, but we do not need experts in “sexuality, the body, and hip-hop,” which is an actual topic of study for gender studies majors.
Kalich suggested I would like to “dictate” majors and am “autocratic.” Under my proposal, though, students would still be free to choose whatever major they want. They can spend their tuition dollars however they like. And public universities, which raise substantial funds from private donors, can spend that money on the majors they like. I’m simply arguing that the portion of university budgets that come from taxpayers should actually benefit taxpayers.
For example, we know over 60% of anthropology majors leave Mississippi after they graduate. The taxpayers help pay for the degree and then get nothing in return. Don’t believe me? Listen to sophomore anthropology major Mary McLemore at Mississippi State: “I am planning on leaving. So, the statistic is, I guess, correct. But that’s how anthropology works. It’s not specific to Mississippi; it’s not specific to this college,” McLemore said to the student newspaper last week.
Kalich asked who would decide how we should prioritize taxpayer money when it comes to degrees. I’ve proposed a task force of workforce experts and economists to identify what majors best fit our economy. I’m sure they would look at how much money certain majors make in Mississippi to see how desperate employers are for young people with those skills. But they would also likely look at how many job openings are available in the state. For instance, police officers are not paid as well as they should be, but we are in need of them. Perhaps we should take the taxpayer money we spend on anthropology majors and spend it on criminal justice majors.
Kalich suggested I “undervalue[s] the benefits of a broad, liberal arts education to develop critical thinking and communication skills.” This is not true. Plenty of good old-fashioned degrees that teach students how to think — for example, history or journalism degrees — do reasonably well in the job market afterward. We should absolutely fund them. But plenty of degrees don’t teach kids how to think; they teach young people what to think. These degree programs seem obsessed with convincing students there are 58 genders, and the students — unsurprisingly — can’t get good jobs afterward.
For the areas of academic study that are not as useful for getting a job but are interesting for students, they should be encouraged to pursue those on the side or as a minor. German literature is great. But there aren’t a lot of German literature jobs available. A student with a passion for German literature might want to major in something more practical and minor in German literature. Or read it in his spare time.
In short, the student should be careful before taking on debt to pay for a German literature degree. Student debt in the U.S. has doubled in the last 20 years, and bad degree choices that don’t lead to jobs are one reason why. Likewise, the taxpayers should think twice before they help pay for this degree.
Finally, Kalich says taxpayers should just back away and let the universities decide which degrees to fund with their money. This would be fine, except the academics at universities these days seem intent on pouring money into degree programs that are nearly worthless. Or, worse, they seem solely focused on indoctrinating their students with strange ideas about human sexuality and racism. The taxpayers are footing the bill. It’s time for the taxpayers to have a larger voice in how their money is spent at our colleges.
Shad White is the state auditor of Mississippi.
