Full Description
Public higher education in the postwar era was a key economic and social driver in American life, making college available to millions of working men and women. Since the 1980s, however, government austerity policies and politics have severely reduced public investment in higher education, exacerbating inequality among poor and working-class students of color, as well as part-time faculty. In Austerity Blues, Michael Fabricant and Stephen Brier examine these devastating fiscal retrenchments nationally, focusing closely on New York and California, both of which were leaders in the historic expansion of public higher education in the postwar years and now are at the forefront of austerity measures. Fabricant and Brier describe the extraordinary growth of public higher education after 1945, thanks largely to state investment, the alternative intellectual and political traditions that defined the 1960s, and the social and economic forces that produced austerity policies and inequality beginning in the late 1970s and 1980s.
A provocative indictment of the negative impact neoliberal policies have visited on the public university, especially the growth of class, racial, and gender inequalities, Austerity Blues also analyzes the many changes currently sweeping public higher education, including the growing use of educational technology, online learning, and privatization, while exploring how these developments hurt students and teachers. In its final section, the book offers examples of oppositional and emancipatory struggles and practices that can help reimagine public higher education in the future. The ways in which factors as diverse as online learning, privatization, and disinvestment cohere into a single powerful force driving deepening inequality is the central theme of the book. Incorporating the differing perspectives of students, faculty members, and administrators, the book reveals how public education has been redefined as a private benefit, often outsourced to for-profit vendors who "sell" education back to indebted undergraduates. Over the past twenty years, tuition and related student debt have climbed precipitously and degree completion rates have dropped.
Not only has this new austerity threatened public universities' ability to educate students, Fabricant and Brier argue, but it also threatens to undermine the very meaning and purpose of public higher education in offering poor and working-class students access to a quality education in a democracy. Synthesizing historical sources, social science research, and contemporary reportage, Austerity Blues will be of interest to readers concerned about rising inequality and the decline of public higher education.
Contents
Introduction Part I: The Political-Economic Context of Public Higher EducationChapter 1: Public Assets in an Era of Austerity Deregulation, Disinvestment, and Degradation Six Propositions for Understanding the Restructuring of Public Higher EducationEconomic Crisis and the Capitalization of Public GoodsThe Radical Restructuring of Public Higher Education Chapter 2: The State Expansion of Public Higher Education The G.I. Bill The Presidential Panel on Higher EducationPublic Higher Education in California, New York, and BeyondThe Founding and Expansion of SUNY and the Status of New York City's Municipal Colleges The California Master Plan for Higher Education Chapter 3: Students and Faculty Take Command New York State, CUNY and the Struggle for Open Admissions-The Multiversity and the Student MovementThe Fate of Open Admissions Part II: The State of AusterityChapter 4: The Making of the Neoliberal Public University Neoliberal Reform I: Corporatizing University CultureNeoliberal Reform II: The Perfect Storm of Online Technology and the Commodification of Knowledge Elite Politics and EconomicsThe Curricula of Austerity Technology as the Tool of Austerity ManagersCollege Readiness, Low Graduation Rates, and Fiscal Starvation Resetting Course: Investing in Disposable Citizens Chapter 5: The Public University as an Engine of Inequality Unequal Investments in Public Higher EducationCheapening Public Higher EducationQualitative Shifts in the Experience of Public Higher Education The Ascent of For-Profit Colleges Accountability in an Era of Austerity Cheap Part-time Labor as an Austerity FixManaging Public Universities in a Time of Inverted Priorities Chapter 6: Technology as a "Magic Bullet" in an Era of AusterityExpanding Beyond Classroom InstructionThe Emergence of Digital Technology The Rise of DigitalU The Open Educational Resources MovementThe Khan AcademyMOOCs and the Reshaping of Public Higher EducationNeoliberal Reformer: Michael Crow and the "New American University" Part III: Resistance Efforts and the Fight for Emancipatory EducationChapter 7: Fighting for the Soul of Public Higher Education Restructuring, Abandonment, and Dissolution The Struggle Over Purposes and Practices Achieving Emancipatory EducationWhat Types of Strategic Investments Are Needed?Building a Better Knowledge Production WorkforceWhere Should Public Higher Education Be Situated?Deploying Technology to Improve Teaching and LearningPolitical Choice and StruggleFault Lines in Current Struggles Grassroots Struggles and Educational Policy Reforms: Student Debt and the Choice to StrikeFree Tuition and Community CollegesIncreasing Wages and Job Protections for Part-Time Faculty Cross-Sector Campaigns and Increased Investment Sustaining and Expanding Universal Access Resisting Curricular DilutionScaling Up and Drilling Down EpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex
