I haven’s seen the documentary yet, but this review was published today on ‘Inside Higher Ed’. Has anyone viewed it yet? After SXSW it’s being released at select campuses around the country, those featured in the documentary.
The link includes a trailer …
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/22/starving-beast-examines-ideological-shifts-funding-higher-education
Run public universities like a business? Proponents of both sides of the debate are interviewed in 'Starving the Beast".
Can’t wait to get an opportunity to watch it - worry that might be difficult from abroad. Does anyone know if/where I can buy a copy.
Any discussion???
Haven’t seen the film, any discussion or opinions I may have would just be me projecting my own biases onto the film. 
Interesting trailer and reminded me of an article I read yesterday. Finding outside money to subsidize a public college in Idaho did not work as planned. IMO though tension can lead to growth so actually what is colored as negative in the article may be the best thing to happen to homogeneous Pocatello. Clear cut answers can be hard to come by.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/us/a-middle-eastern-tension-point-pocatello-idaho.html?_r=0
@palm715
I agree, the answers are not clear cut. That’s why I think it’s worth examining the issue closely from a range of perspectives. It’s also the case that a reasonable funding solution can suffer from poor implementation, lack of sufficient forethought in preparing for the bumpy road to change.
In the media these debates are portrayed for entertainment purposes as a struggle between polarized opposing forces. The reality is much more complex and requires in depth study.
I am a fan of a reasonably priced broad liberal arts education for anyone that seeks it.
There is also ample historical evidence of the corrupting power of money. Wealth, not always, but often leads the powerful to believe that they know what is best for the masses and they often have the leverage to manipulate change. Trade unions were formed in part to get children out of sweat shops. Children still work in them around the world even though owners have more than enough funds to hire adults to do the work. The only reason, the only reason, that this doesn’t happen extensively in the US is because we have laws that prevent it, which are enforced. It is not because Americans are more moral.
Why bring up that fact within this context? People don’t change. They are the same around the world as they have been throughout history. Many of those with money and power think they know what is best for all and have the leverage to manipulate systems for profit. Many of them don’t think that ‘the people’ need a broad liberal arts education. Thus, this includes profiting from higher education’s financial crisis. A crisis that was engineered.
There are also many many reasonable and ethical administrators searching for solutions to balance budgets…
The only defense to manipulation by corrupted wealth is an educated population, one familiar with a breath of ideas and with honed critical thinking skills. For the past few decades opportunities for that type of education have been eroding.
Before watching the trailer, I thought it might be a documentary about how college tuition has risen at rates twice that of inflation for over a generation, making college un-affordable to most. Instead, it seems like a hit piece on people trying to corral the continuing spiral in the cost of college education.