February 26^th

Governor Scott Walker, a Republican and as yet an undeclared, but hopeful, candidate for his party’s nomination, finds himself in a kerfuffle with the higher education people in his state. The Governor, who prides himself on being elected to his office three times in four years, has instituted draconian cuts in the Wisconsin’s higher education budget. He has cut it by 13 percent.  He has also prohibited state schools from raising tuition. The deficit, Walker claims, can be addressed if the faculty just teaches one additional course each semester. It’s possible that members of the Medical School faculty and other professional school faculties will vote on this proposal with their feet!

Walker has proposed a higher education program called Flex Option. This program has been adopted by the University of Wisconsin. The basis of the program, which Walker believes is a new and different approach to higher education, is that through various “assessments” the student can be awarded credit for “life experiences.” Additional credits can be obtained for taking on line classes at the student’s convenience.

There are problems: Walker apparently believes his program is a breakthrough in higher education. It isn’t. Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, has been offering credits based on life experience since the 1970s. How are these life experiences graded?  His program talks about “assessments”; they don’t discus tests but employers want to know a graduate’s GPA. Did he just skim by or did he graduate with honors? How would you graduate with honors in such a program? Employers don’t treat all degree holders alike.

Then there is the transfer problem:  It doesn’t matter how highly rated your school is, if you transfer  to another college the college to which you transfer must have courses equivalent to those you’re transferring  for you to receive credit…and they’ll want to know your grades. Most colleges require at least a “C” in course if you expect them to transfer.

The notion of getting college credit for what you know has already been addressed by the College Level Examination Program, CLEP for short. This program, monitored by the College Board people who also run the Advanced Placement (AP) program, offers a series of examinations in a wide variety of subjects, from College Algebra to Macro Economics.  No college courses are required to take these tests but over two thousand colleges offer credits if you take them and get good scores. (This is perfect for home schooled kids.) Practice tests for CLEP disciplines can be bought on line through Amazon or in most any big box store that carries books. You can simply buy a couple of used college textbooks on the subject that interests you, study them, pass the appropriate CLEP test and you’ve acquired three thousand dollars-worth of college credits in exchange for your time and less than a hundred dollars!

Scott Walker has a long and difficult road ahead if he expects to get his party’s nomination and an even more difficult road if he expects to get elected President. His tendency to charge into areas he knows little about, as he has done with his Flex Option in higher education, may find him to be just another conservative with foot-in-mouth disease, Koch brothers generous contributions notwithstanding.