More Money Than Brains (28 page)

15
.
PISA
data for 2000, 2003, and 2006 are available online at
http://www.pisa.oecd.org/pages/0,2987,en_32252351_32235731_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
.

16
. The National Center for Education Statistics analysis of the
PIRLS
for 2001 and 2006 is available at their website,
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008017
. For more information on the
PIRLS
, see its website at
http://timss.bc.edu/
.

17
. James J. Heckman and Paul A. Lafontaine, “The Declining American High School Graduation Rate: Evidence, Sources, and Consequences,” National Bureau of Economic Research. Available online at
http://www.nber.org/reporter/2008number1/heckman.html
.

18
. Mitchell Landsberg and Howard Blume, “1 in 4 California High School Students Drop Out, State Says,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 17, 2008, p. A2.

19
. Young’s essay is available online at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/jun/29/comment
.

20
. You can access the latest stats on economic mobility at
www.economicmobility.org
, which is a collaborative research project involving the Pew Charitable Trusts and some opposing think tanks – the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation, and the Urban Institute.

21
. One chart, for the
GRE
, is available at
http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm
. Philosophy departments have many of these charts, since philosophy majors usually score well on exit tests. There’s another one at
http://philosophy.acadiau.ca/why_phil/scores.htm
, drawn from Clifford Adelman’s study of standardized test scores of college students from the 1960s to the ‘80s. For more recent numbers, see Michael Nieswiadomy, “
LSAT
Scores of Economics Majors: The 2003–2004 Class Update,” available at
http://economics.gcsu.edu/students/lsat.pdf
.

22
. You can still find
A Nation at Risk
online at
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html
.

23
. Greg Toppo, “‘Nation at Risk’: The Best Thing or the Worst Thing for Education?”
USA Today
, May 22, 2008. Available online at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-22-nation-at-risk_N.htm
.

24
. For more of her criticisms of textbooks, see Ravitch’s
The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn
(New York: Vintage Books, 2004). She has also written a history of U.S. school reforms that looks at the oscillation between vocational, progressive, and traditional notions of
education,
Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001).

25
. For more on the Texas textbook controversy, see “History’s First Draft: Newt Gingrich But No Liberals,”
Houston Chronicle
, August 20, 2009. Available online at
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6581189.html
. Also, “State Education Board Shouldn’t Rewrite History,”
Dallas Morning News
, July 18, 2009. Available online at
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-olivera_18met.ART.State.Edition1.4bb2401.html
.

26
. Michael F. Shaughnessy, “An Interview with Diane Ravitch,”
EducationNews.org
, March 2008. Available online at
http://ednews.org/articles/24020/1/An-Interview-with-Diane-Ravitch-On-Some-Current-Events/Page1.html
.

CHAPTER FOUR: SCREW U OR HATE MY PROFESSORS

1
. U.S. Department of Education,
Digest of Education Statistics
, 2008.

2
. Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada,
Trends in Higher Education: Volume One – Enrolment
, 2007.

3
. College Board,
Trends in College Pricing 2007
.

4
. Figure from Statistics Canada’s
Survey of Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs for Full-time Students at Canadian Degree-Granting Institutions
, October 18, 2007.

5
. National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise,
College Learning in the New Global Century
, January 10, 2007.

6
. Jill Casner-Lotto and Linda Barrington,
Are They Really Ready to Work?
, released by the Conference Board in October 2006.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Spellings Commission,
A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education
, September 2006.

9
. American College Testing Program,
National Collegiate Retention and Persistence to Degree Rates, Trends 1983–2008
. More stats are available at the act educational website,
www.act.org
.

10
. Danielle Shaienks and Tomasz Gluszynski,
Participation in Postsecondary Education: Graduates, Continuers and Drop-outs: Results from YITS Cycle 4
, Statistics Canada, November 2007.

11
. Barbara Kay, “Liberate the Campus,”
National Post
, October 24, 2007. Available online at
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2007/10/24/barbara-kay-liberate-the-campus.aspx
.

12
. Matthew Woessner and April Kelly-Woessner, “Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates,” paper presented at the American Enterprise Institute conference “Reforming the Politically Correct University,” November 2007.

13
. The press release announcing the Argus Project is available online at
http://www.nas.org/polPressReleases.cfm?Doc_Id=278
.

14
. David Horowitz,
The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America
(Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006).

15
. Russell Jacoby, “Gone and Being Forgotten,”
Chronicle of Higher Education
, July 25, 2008, p. B5.

16
. Spellings Commission,
A Test of Leadership
.

17
. “Why Universities Should be Graded, Too,”
Maclean’s
, September 4, 2006. Available online at
http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20060904_132707_132707&source=srch
.

18
. Alan Finder, “Decline of the Tenure Track Raises Concerns,”
New York Times
, November 20, 2007, p. A16.

19
. Lindsay Waters, “Bonfire of the Humanities,”
Village Voice
, August 24, 2004, p. 46.

CHAPTER FIVE: BULLY VS. NERD

1
. H. L. Mencken,
A Book of Burlesques
(1916, reprinted by BiblioBazaar, 2007).

2
. Chuck Todd, First Read blog, July 23, 2009. Available online at
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com
.

3
. Michael Hirsh, “Brains Are Back,”
Newsweek
, November 7, 2008. Available online at
http://www.newsweek.com/id/168032
.

4
. From a town hall meeting in Sun City, Arizona, August 25, 2009.

5
. Greer issued his press release on September 1, 2009. The full text is available online at
http://www.rpof.org/article.php?id=754
.

6
. Actor Craig T. Nelson, appearing on Glenn Beck’s show, Fox News, May 28, 2009.

7
. This gem was uttered by a protestor at a town hall meeting in Simpsonville, South Carolina, with Representative Robert Inglis and quoted by Phillip Rucker in “S.C. Senator Is a Voice of Reform Opposition,”
Washington Post
, July 28, 2009.

8
. Karl Marx,
The Communist Manifesto
(New York: International Publishers, 2001).

9
. Robert Barnes, “Straight Talk Express’s Limited Engagement,” posted on The Trail, the
Washington Post
‘s online campaign diary, August 14, 2008. Available online at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/08/straight-talk-expresss-limited.html
.

10
. Richard Hofstader,
Anti-intellectualism in American Life
(New York: Knopf, 1963).

11
. “Agnew Unleashed,”
Time
, October 31, 1969. Available online at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839090-1,00.html
.

12
. Kenneth J. Hughes, Jr., “Nixon vs. the Imaginary ‘Jewish Cabal,’” History News Network, September 24, 2007. Available online at
http://hnn.us/articles/42970.html
.

13
. See Lou Cannon,
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
(Jackson, TN: Public Affairs, 2000).

14
. Reagan’s 1985 address to the cpac, “Creators of the Future,” is available on the organization’s website at
http://www.conservative.org/pressroom/reagan/reagan1985.asp
.

15
. Evan Thomas, “The Left Starts to Rethink Reagan,”
Newsweek
, May 3, 2008, p. 38.

16
. See “The Mendacity Index,”
Washington Monthly
, May 2003. Available online at
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.mendacity-index.html
.

17
. See Jonathan Chait,
The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

18
. George W. Bush, commencement address, Yale University, May 21, 2001.

19
. George W. Bush, press conference, September 10, 2007. Transcript available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/09/20070920-2.html
.

20
. “Live Desk with Martha McCallum,” Fox News, June 9, 2008. Transcript available online at Media
Matters.org
,
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806100003
.

21
. See the transcript for Limbaugh’s August 29, 2008, broadcast online at
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_082908/content/01125111.guest.html
.

22
. Tom Kizzia, “‘Fresh Face’ Launched, Carries Palin’s Career,”
Anchorage Daily News
, October 23, 2006. The paper posted this and other old Palin stories online during the 2008 campaign. Available at
http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/background/story/510447.html
.

23
. Chris Clizza, “McCain Manager: This Election Is Not about Issues,” posted on The Fix, a
Washington Post
political blog, September 2, 2008. Available online at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2008/mccain-manager-this-election-i.html
.

24
. Jeffrey Lord, “Batman and Rush: Why McCain Will Win,”
American Spectator
, August 19, 2008. Available online at
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13726
.

25
. Jonathan Dignan, “(Less) Male, (Even Less) Educated, (Even Less) Experienced & (Even More) White
,”
released by the Public Policy Forum in May 2009. Available online at
http://www.ppforum.ca/publications/lessmale-even-less-educated-even-less-experienced-%0Beven-more-white
.

26
. See Calvin Trillin’s “Paper Baron,” a profi le of Lord Black, on p. 62 of the December 17, 2001, issue of the
New Yorker
for more on Canada’s “tall poppy” syndrome.

27
. See Joe Klein,
Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You’re Stupid
(New York: Doubleday, 2006).

28
. The Rasmussen poll is available online at
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2009/59_still_believe_government_is_the_problem
.
The Gallup version is also online, at
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123101/Americans-Likely-Say-Government-Doing-Too-Much.aspx
.