It sometimes seems that my dislike of Fox News has prompted me to see flaws in it that don't exist. Whenever I watch it , I usually can pick out some underlying message that supports some conservative agenda. I wonder if this is actually the case or if I am just imagining things. Last night, for example, Fox ran a groundbreaking story on the subject "college is expensive." Now, I do forgive Fox for being unoriginal, because I'm sure just about every news network has run something similar, especially in the slow months of summer. But in the story, I thought I saw the faintest whisper of something I despise.
Let me set the scene:
Fox is following a family whose daughter has been accepted to several mid level schools like the University of Massachusetts and SUNY Binghampton (sp?). The daughter was a straight A student who was involved in several clubs at her high school. The parents though were afraid of how much it would cost to send their daughter to college, despite the fact that they had a combined income of $132,000 a year. The Father even suggested her going to community college at one point, but the Mother objected saying that her daughter would never go to a community college when she got straight A's. A Fox voiceover then chimes in "but many experts say (the Mother's name) is wrong about community college."
In my mind there are so many problems with this:
Problem #1: Really this family is being a little pathetic...they make a combined income of $132K a year, their daughter went to PUBLIC schools, and now they are bitching about a University that will cost them a relatively inexpensive $17K a year (SUNY Binghamton). Somewhere their priorities aren't straight. Even if the parents wanted to pay the bill on thier own, up front, they would still have over 50,000 in after tax disposable income (probably more since they get tax breaks for mortgage and having a dependent and everything else), AND they wouldnt' have to support their daughter at home. But, there are even easier financing options with loans (student and otherwise) where they would easily be able to cover this sum. There are millions of people who have to get by on much tighter budgets. Suck it up and don't buy the flat screen TV until 2010.
Problem #2: This kind of goes along with #1, but how is the problem with the system with the people who can't pay all of their tuition bills in four years? This story pushes this myth that the problem of higher education is one of woe-begotten upper middle class people who might have to take out a home equity loan to invest in their children's education. This is not that big of a deal, and they can even have their child go into a little debt if needed. The real problem with our higher education system is with people who can't get access to the credit or the money to go to college, not the people for whom it's a sacrifice.
Problem #3: Fox also seems to push the mistaken notion that community college and universities are basically the same thing, except one has less liberal indoctrination. This is just false. The benefit of a good University is that your mind can expand in ways in never could if you stayed near your hometown and went to school with local kids.
This is my biggest problem with the report, and I think Fox presented it in this way because they don't believe the university experience is a valuable one. To SOME parts of the conservative movement, a university is a dangerous place because a good one will teach the young mind that the world is a complicated place filled with people, and not stereotypes. A large part of the sucess of the conservative political movement in recent years has been the creation of stereotypes, and the simplification of the world. It makes sense to not want the government to help the poor when they are a lazy, stupid mass of people. It seems obvious that you should act with the utmost ferocity and unrestrained violence against those in the Middle East who hate you if you don't think of them as people, but rather as mindless zombies obeying their corrupt leaders.
But when you see both Muslims who hate America and the poor not as stereotypes, but as people who are in a certain position and who believe a certain thing for a reason, misguided or not, you realize that the world is a more complicated place which may require more complicated solutions than the anti-intellectual brand of conservatism would support. A good university will give you that experience by exposing you to people in situations in which you would never find yourself, and by exposing you to professors who are professionally obligated to speak responsibly about people as people and not as caricatures.
2 comments:
Hey Dennis, I agree with you that the news story is unoriginal and that a more compelling story is one about those with no access to the resources to send their kid to college (on a side note, why does nobody talk about the ROTC option? in other countries, military service is required but in America, should you choose to serve your country, you can get free or greatly discounted tuition no matter who you are (unless you're gay))
But to defend Fox (and dont get me wrong, Im not a huge Fox fan and I share many of your general observations, it's not uncommon for a news source to write for their audience. The Chicago Tribune writes for a Chicago Audience, High Times write for recreational marijuana enthusiasts, Jet writes for African Americans, and Mother Jones writes for the liberal bourgeoise (i can never spell that word right). Fox's audience is the middle class who struggles to pay for college, and that is a story, so whats the harm in focusing on whats important for the likely viewer?
As for conservatives trying to steer kids away from college lest their nicely ignorant brains get corrupted by mind expanding professors revealing humanity over stereotypes, I think that Fox is right one one count and that you're off a touch on the other.
I think Fox is right that, for the money, CC is as good a value if not moreso than college. You can always transfer from CC to college (my jr roommate did) and if youre taking big survey courses or science, it's just as good. You dont need a nobel laureate to teach you Intro to Orgo. There's value in meeting other kids from other parts of the country/world, but is it worth an extra $10k a year to eat at the same dining hall from a dude from another state? File this under cost benefit analysis.
Where I disagree with your take is that, in my opinion, universities rely on stereotypes just as much as Fox News does and that the vague notion of mind expansion you praise can be achieved far less costlessly by reading and travel (im pretty sure travel is less expensive than a college education)
Professors live cloistered lives and live in an academic bubble and, while they use different stereotpes than fox does, rely on the image of the poor innocent defenseless hardworking arab woman and the dumb brutish white redneck american soldier and the soulful intelligent but unlucky black man and the lazy mean incompetent white member of the criminal justice system. i'm not saying these people dont exist, but im saying that college produces just as many facile solutions to complicated problems as fox news does, each of them also misguided.
college at its worst results in praising what i call "west wing conduct" which is talking about a problem and in the end doing nothing. college professors love ending discussions with "this is a complicated problem and no good solution yet exists". in real life, however, that is not an answer. college may expose young minds to what michael showalter called "bullshitty answers" but fox news isnt entirely crazy for suggesting that imperfect decisions can be of value if the alternative is exploring feelings and humanity and notions of victimization and what foucault would have to say about iraq to the point where youve done nothing and now are $100k in debt.
then again, everyone i know thought college was more valuable than i did, so im probably jaded. but i do know that college is very expensive and when i hear people defend whats so great about their school, its always in nebulous terms (e.g., enriching) that penn and teller, i think aptly, argued are "bullshit"
Hey Dennis,
Whatever happened to updating?
Shanti
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