Investments in education outweigh the costs of ignorance ...
When I retired, many years ago, I did so largely because the ‘single bottom line’ had infected the management ethos at my public university where dollars earned in competitive, mostly short-term, research grants meant much more than teaching excellence or a commitment to scholarship. Today, my radar tells me that this continues to be the case in public universities across Australia.
The appointment of high profile 'show pony' professors, the endless boasting of university rankings, the scandals in university governance, the fact that university leaders are now called CEOs and are paid more than the nation’s Prime Minister, the dependence on international fee-paying students, the fees burdening our young; all this, in my humble opinion, is a national disgrace.
In another part of the world, the USA, where I have lived and worked, the situation is even worse. To see the attacks on research funding, the elimination of the US Department of Education and the ideological influencing of curricula threatens the very fabric of any society that needs to be well-equipped to face the challenges of the future.
Today, working for the 'public good' is valued far less than accumulating monetary wealth.
Money and economies are human constructs that have evolved to help us communicate the values of products and services. But they are hopeless tools when it comes to valuing the natural world which sustains life on our little pale blue dot, Earth.
Education is such a fundamental necessity if human societies and the planet are to survive. Without it, we will drown in ignorance. Now, the richest men on the planet are plundering our accumulated knowledge, developing so-called artificial intelligence when, in fact, these systems are leading the next generations to believe that they no longer need to learn anything deeply.
From our very first breaths, to pre-school, primary school, secondary school, technical college, university, and through lifelong learning, becoming better educated is an investment in our future survival - not a cost. And that is why, in my view, publicly funded education for all, at all levels, without distortions from vested interests, is the best investment we can make to ensure our planet's survival.