UCLA students occupy the hallway outside the university chancellor's office to protest funding cuts and rising tuition in March 2010. (David McNew/Getty Images)
WEB ONLY// VIEWS » APRIL 4, 2012
The Assault on Public Education
One of America’s greatest achievements is being defunded and degraded by the dictates of the marketplace.
Mass public education is one of the great achievements of American society.
Public education is under attack around the world, and in response, student protests have recently been held in Britain, Canada, Chile, Taiwan and elsewhere.
California is also a battleground. The Los Angeles Timesreports on another chapter in the campaign to destroy what had been the greatest public higher education system in the world: “California State University officials announced plans to freeze enrollment next spring at most campuses and to wait-list all applicants the following fall pending the outcome of a proposed tax initiative on the November ballot.”
Similar defunding is under way nationwide. “In most states,” The New York Times reports, “it is
