Big Week for Education

So there are two education related things that are bouncing around in my head that I do need to write about, but haven't found time for yet.

1) The education sections of President Obama's speech on Tuesday.

2) The report released by EPI Canada this week.

I will have to come back to each, but suffice it to say I have opinions. Opinions, dammit!

The Good Kind of Journalists

There are days when journalists drive me crazy with lazy analysis, even lazier reading, dumb, hackneyed commentaries and an inexplicable hatred of all things modern and bloggy (bitter old sports journalists populate this category almost exclusively). So I have a lot of time for writers like Wells and Coyne, who even when I don't agree with them at least are able to string together a coherent reading (wait...are at least able to demonstrate comprehension of things they've read) of the situations, events, phenomena and people they're writing about and, miracles, even things that are not directly connected, but play on the things they write about.

But, I also have time for journalists like Aaron Wherry (it only seems like I'm pimping all staff writers of MacLean's, I swear...I really do think that their education section sucks *sigh*) who doesn't tend toward the high level, meta-analysis, big picture stuff. You know why I like journalists like him? Because he just hands over the rope and let's people go to town.

By 2020?!

Jaime Merisotas must have just done a back flip.

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Gov't Calls Bulls*#t on Unis and Colleges, Then Gives In

It's not often that you see a government minister tell the truth quite as obviously as Jason Kenney did yesterday. Kenney, the Immigration Minister, said that Canada's post-secondary institutions count on international students as a "source of revenue." Yes, yes they do. International students are typically charged twice the level of tuition of a Canadian student (loosely, Canadian born or Canadian citizen). Over the last number of years Canadian institutions have started recruiting heavily overseas, even going so far as opening sattelite campuses on foreign shores. The AUCC as recently as its 2008 federal budget consultation submission ranked federally-funded scholarships for international students ahead of dealing with the impending end of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation's need-based bursaries for Canadian students (although they claim their numbered list of recommendations wasn't ranked, in so far as numbered lists cannot be ranked). So, that someone called them on their motivations for admitting more international students was ramarkable.

Of course, Kenney was announcing that the Conservative government was prepared to "substantially increase" the number of visas they issue to international students who want to study here. So, take it for what it's worth.

At the risk of coming across all xenophobic, let me say this: I believe that international students breathe life into a campus. Having gone to a small university where a small number of international students were an increasingly large part of the campus community I believe I was enriched by my exchanges with people from around the globe (especially studying international relations). But let's not be blind on this question. And let's certainly insist that as more international students are brought to Canadian campuses the support they need to succeed, and perhaps become a lasting part of the Canadian social fabric, are in place at the schools they attend. This, at least, should be a part of the bargain for charging them so much more than anyone else from home and native land.

Lastly, let's not forget that increasing international student enrollments should not and cannot be a solution to problems we have getting our own young people the education they need. You're still about twice as likely to go to university if you come from a family in the top two fifths of income than in the bottom fifth in Canada (slightly less than twice as likely for college). You're much much more likely to go to university (maybe only much more likely for college) if you're white than if you're from a First Nation band, if you're Inuit or Metis. These things can't be ignored while we recruit students from among the wealthiest of other nations around the globe.

*End of rant*

(H/T the indispensable Dale Kirby)

"SlumCanine" Thousandaire

Having just returned from three weeks in India I should write a real post about my adventures while there, and I will, but two nights ago I saw Slumdog Millionaire and I want to make some comments about that.

1. I loved it as a film. Great story, incredibly filmed, well paced, well acted - it would be great if most of the movies we are exposed to were this good. Sadly all I can say is that I paid money to see both Street Fighter and Cuthroat Island in theater. Those were kind of my own fault.

2. Some of the troubling aspects are certainly visible in any Indian city. Still, Danny Boyle's assertion that "slumdog" is an allusion to "underdog" rings pretty hollow upon viewing. Perhaps he didn't want to court controversy by pointing out that many Indians say worse about the poor over there (in fairness, most are entirely compassionate, if helpless).

3. Having downloaded the soundtrack immediately after the movie ended (praise be to Jobs) I predict a Slumdog Millionaire musical on stage in London or New York within two years.

4. Strictly speaking Jamal won about $500K (CDN). I realize that it was $20m rupeeees, but I still say he was screwed.

5. The actor who played adult Salim looks remarkably like Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. It was bothering me throughout the movie, but that was my conclusion upon seeing some of the Celts-Mavs game last night.

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Indeed

Admittedly, I'm not providing much new material, but "c'est la vie," as they say, at the moment.

On the other hand, with far smarter people than me populating the blogosphere with smartness, why should I worry? The latest thing I like...

"In other words, the dichotomy I am interested in is less who is to blame for where we are but rather, when faced with intelligent versus mindless policies in Canada, why we continue to pick the path less thoughtful."

- R. Silver
Globe and Mail
December 15, 2008

Did Liberals make the right choice?

On Bob Rae...

"He sort of practices media metarelations - he doesn't just dodge trap questions, he points them out, and disarms them."

- Kady O'Malley, Macleans

On Michael Ignatieff...

"He has the capacity to be seen to rise about the fray..."

- Adam Radwanski, The Globe and Mail

Sometimes There's A Man...

Today, Dani Rodrik is a man.

Brilliant.

It's Over...For Now

Crisis over. This is when Bartlett would say, "what's next?"

With the GG allowing Prime Minister Harper prorogue the House we're all safe from political disaster until late January. Now economic disaster is a different story.

So what are we to make of all of this?

Well, I think a few things should be clear. Among them:

• Poor Stephane Dion, if he ever was, is not up to this job. Yesterday's disaster with the video seals that deal.
• The Liberals need to sort themselves very quickly. They did not come out of this looking good and I think that Coyne is right, they will bail on this and fast.
• Which presents a pretty serious problem for the NDP, who I'm sure are ready to fight for The Coalition. It would be great for Jack Layton to sit in a Minister's office for a few months and they must be furiously pushing Dion to hold his nerve.
• Gilles Duceppe manages to yet again seem like the most sensible federal leader, you know, aside from the separatism thing.

Maybe most importantly I think we have learned more about Stephen Harper than anyone else in this crisis and the only thing I can conclude than he's an asshole. He had a moment there, after the election, before the Economic and Fiscal Statement, to show the country that he was ready to lead in a difficult time. He could have been conciliatory, but strong. He could have focused on the economy. But he couldn't. Instead, he chose to stick in the eye of his opponents. He decided to go after public financing, pay equity and the right to strike. The Globe's Rick Salutin echoes a conversation that I had with my boss the other day in his latest column. Basically, we three agree that Harper can't help himself. When someone (purportedly Guy Giorno) presented Harper with the chance to wreak a little havoc with his enemies, he couldn't help, but say yes. My boss, who has met more politicians in his life than I ever will, thinks that it's in Harper's nature to destroy those who oppose him. I think that maybe he's just a jerk, although the two aren't mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, it's difficult to ignore that part of his personality.

My boss and I concluded our conversation by developing the following thesis:

• everyone has flaws
• politics dramatically enhances those flaws by providing power and opportunity
• the success of a politician is measured by his or her level of self-discipline, and his or her ability to master their flaws (Politicians and the flaws that undid them: Martin=indecisiveness, Chretien=assholism, Mulroney=scruples, Trudeau=arrogance, Clark=naivete, Me=not born before Clark)
  
• every politician is ultimately undone by their flaws

We'll see if the Prime Minister has been ultimately undone thanks to this crisis he manufactured, but regardless at some point soon he will be.

He can't help himself.

Door Watch 2008

Yesterday it was the door to her plane. Today the door to her house. The GG's doorways are going to be famous after this week.

In other news...

"This did not go as planned."