PORK BARRELING? A letter drafted by the Carnegie Corporation on behalf of presidents and other high officials in public higher education makes a cliched pitch for a place at the infrastructure trough. The dean at Anonymous Community suggests that succor from current budget difficulties that manifest themselves in layoffs and hiring freezes would be an economic stimulus with a higher impact multiplier. A Wall Street Journal editorial questions the utility of such expenditures. George Leef of Phi Beta Cons extends.

Due to the erosion of academic standards throughout much of our K-12 system, hordes of students enter college with weak academic preparation. Because most colleges are frantic about student retention, they have allowed their own standards to slide badly. Consequently, students can spend their four or five or more years, accumulate enough credits to graduate, and yet learn little or nothing of value.

What awaits those people in the job market? Often they end up in mundane jobs that call for no academic preparation.

He's writing for the current believers, yet I'm hard pressed to dissent.